Smeltington

Woww I'll be looking forward to that!

It's certainly going to throw off my Geisha playlist. OST -> Original suite with Yo-Yo Ma -> Williams and Ma duets -> One updated track from the suite, decades later

Innnteresting, we just had Sayuri's Theme at the John Williams Playlist concert too. I wouldn't trust myself to know if it was a new version or not, but it wasn't mentioned as such.

That's ok, you don't need it.

Now, here we have a Smeltington-approved use of colored vinyl.

Ohh shit we need a watch party!

It's gonna be good! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts afterward.

But careful, the names from this thread will end up on a list...

Absolutely this, it's the same thing I've had to consider with my own work. Do I adapt to the new reality, and stay relevant? Or get left behind? Wanting everything hand crafted by real people seems ideal, but isn't always the reality of the business world. So you can get why this composer might want to be an early adopter, and maybe even become a go-to guy as AI becomes more ingrained in the industry. Think about Andy Serkis and motion capture, for example... he made a big impression early on, and got hired umpteen times because of it. Maybe most of us don't like the idea of AI composers, but one day we'll be watching something, hear some great music, seek it out, and find out it was AI generated. Maybe the first time this happens, we'll listen to it grudgingly, as a guilty pleasure. But I have no doubt AI will one day create music exciting enough to get the attention of everyone here.

Soon we can just tell the AI what type of score we want to hear, instead of waiting for somebody to write, record and release one. And we can instantly expand it as much as we want.

Was going to, but something came up. Hopefully there'll be another chance... it's good to see Ax is going to be playing this quite a bit. A concert for Williams true believers!

I saw the Saturday night concert, it was great to hear some live Williams again. I sat at one of the cabaret-style tables they use for Pops concerts, something I had never tried before, and it took an iron will to avoid getting distracted lol. People chatting and ordering/receiving food and drinks the whole time - except during soloist performances, when they suspended these services. But I did get some insight into the "normie" response to some of the music due to being seated at the same table with a family of randos. The Hook opening is pretty standard by now, it always works great, although with the number of Hook concert versions, I kinda hope this gets swapped out sooner or later. Out to Sea/Shark Cage Fugue was rad, but the people at my table were confused by the lack of the standard Jaws theme. Lockhart explained that the soloist, Ani Aznavoorian, was Armenian and they decided to tie in a Pops tradition of featuring shoutouts to Armenian culture with this concert. I guess they had to fit it in somewhere and this was the best way? Anyway I enjoyed the Tibet and Geisha pieces, including the fun parts for the percussionists. This is definitely some of the more enjoyable Williams music that strays outside of his typical idiom. After that venture into unfamiliar territory, the crowd was pleased with the ET flying theme. It was nice having the whole first half without any video content, but that changed almost completely in the second half. Superman came with the video montage of Williams that's already been screened quite a bit, although I still love it, it's timed well to the music and it's always appropriate to acknowledge that Williams IS Superman. The generational divide in the other guests at my table was apparent... the kids didn't know about the original Superman films, but the parents were excited. Scherzo was fun as always. And I'm glad they threw in Helena's Theme among the old warhorses. The principal violinist got a nice spotlight here... but how did she defy the Mutter Clause? Raiders March had a general montage of Indy punching people out, etc spanning all 5 movies. I'm sure it's been seen before. Dear Basketball came with the video and the recorded voiceover. It was great to hear this one live, and a nice change of pace. I realized this is actually a perfect programming choice, because it's the right length to just go ahead and screen the film during a concert, with no prior knowledge needed. And it gets away from the usual selections in a way that can be appreciated by casual fans, because it's a self-contained, sentimental piece, and has the hook of being by/about Kobe. I could tell people around me were getting emotional. It was a cool communal experience to have - I'm sure I had only ever watched this on YouTube before - not exactly the way it's meant to be seen! Adventures of Han still feels fresh and was super fun to hear. I heard this one at Symphony Hall with Williams the day before the film came out, so it was nice to relive the memories! Especially now that I've gotten to know and love the piece so much better than I did then, on first hearing it. Now that there's a video montage to go with this piece (shots of Han from the trilogy, TFA, and Solo) maybe they're planning to play it more often? Leia's Theme never gets old, somehow it's not my favorite Williams tune, yet it got bestowed with one of his most gorgeous concert arrangements of all time. And it always sounds so great live, with the various instrumental features. Magic! Throne Room and Finale is de rigueur as a Williams concert closer, but who can argue with it. And I still like hearing the Force theme statement in the middle, since I don't really listen to recordings of this track much. And the encore naturally was The Imperial March, with Lockhart pushing the orchestra through a brisk, driving rendition that had some urgency to it. Like Leia's theme, hearing this one live somehow never gets old. There's a thrill to hearing the players sync up as they nail the rhythms and the various instrumental features in the middle. It's a workout, and it feels like everybody's on their toes. The room crackles with energy. One thing that struck me as odd was how so many Williams standards get packed into a show like this - three Indys, three Star Warses, Jaws, Superman, and ET - but no Harry Potter. I'm guessing they felt we weren't far enough out yet from their awesome "A Grand Suite from Harry Potter" concert last fall, which is fair enough. Wonderful show, and a varied program with something for everyone, now bring on Film Night!

Going to try and attend this, I'm very excited for the Geisha suite!

It doesn't look like it holds enough popcorn, I need at least a gallon. Unless it can incubate more throughout the movie?

And it only takes ONE to upload them to the internet! So where are they??