Stempel

Ludwig van Beethoven
Ouvertüre zu „Fidelio“ op. 72

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Konzert für Klavier und Orchester c-Moll KV. 491

Ludwig van Beethoven
Ouvertüre „Leonore III“ op. 72b

John Williams
Markings für Violine, Streicher und Harfe (DEA)

Ludwig van Beethoven
Romanze für Violine und Orchester F-Dur op. 50

John Williams
Across the Stars (Love Theme) from “Star Wars”
 
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/085874-000-A/anne-sophie-mutter-und-lang-lang-in-der-philharmonie-berlin/
"Markings" starts at 1:40:00

Ludwig van Beethoven
Ouvertüre zu „Fidelio“ op. 72

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Konzert für Klavier und Orchester c-Moll KV. 491

Ludwig van Beethoven
Ouvertüre „Leonore III“ op. 72b

John Williams
Markings für Violine, Streicher und Harfe (DEA)

Ludwig van Beethoven
Romanze für Violine und Orchester F-Dur op. 50

John Williams
Across the Stars (Love Theme) from “Star Wars”
 
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/085874-000-A/anne-sophie-mutter-und-lang-lang-in-der-philharmonie-berlin/
"Markings" starts at 1:40:00

Ludwig van Beethoven
Ouvertüre zu „Fidelio“ op. 72

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Konzert für Klavier und Orchester c-Moll KV. 491

Ludwig van Beethoven
Ouvertüre „Leonore III“ op. 72b

John Williams
Markings für Violine, Streicher und Harfe (DEA)

Ludwig van Beethoven
Romanze für Violine und Orchester F-Dur op. 50

John Williams
Across the Stars (Love Theme) from “Star Wars”
 
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/085874-000-A/anne-sophie-mutter-und-lang-lang-in-der-philharmonie-berlin/
"Markings" starts at 1:40:00

Ludwig van Beethoven
Ouvertüre zu „Fidelio“ op. 72

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Konzert für Klavier und Orchester c-Moll KV. 491

Ludwig van Beethoven
Ouvertüre „Leonore III“ op. 72b

John Williams
Markings für Violine, Streicher und Harfe (DEA)

Ludwig van Beethoven
Romanze für Violine und Orchester F-Dur op. 50

John Williams
Across the Stars (Love Theme) from “Star Wars”
 
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/085874-000-A/anne-sophie-mutter-und-lang-lang-in-der-philharmonie-berlin/
"Markings" starts at 1:40:00

Ludwig van Beethoven
Ouvertüre zu „Fidelio“ op. 72

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Konzert für Klavier und Orchester c-Moll KV. 491

Ludwig van Beethoven
Ouvertüre „Leonore III“ op. 72b

John Williams
Markings für Violine, Streicher und Harfe (DEA)

Ludwig van Beethoven
Romanze für Violine und Orchester F-Dur op. 50

John Williams
Across the Stars (Love Theme) from “Star Wars”
 
https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/085874-000-A/anne-sophie-mutter-und-lang-lang-in-der-philharmonie-berlin/
"Markings" starts at 1:40:00

While I'm still imbibed by the experience, I want to share a few thoughts about this great opportunity of real life social gathering. It may sound obvious and perhaps sentimental, but I speak really from the heart:
 
We're living an era where most, if not all, social experiences are filtered through some technological tool, where we are constantly fed to "share" our own lives, but mostly remaining isolated into our own wallgardens that keep us feeling safe and comfortable. We perhaps accept the company only of one or two very close people, leaving most of the others behind our own experience.
 
In the end, the JWFan community was born thanks to technology and we're now approaching our 20th year here together. But we're here because of a shared enthusiasm and, dare I say, a sincere love for a man and his music, not because we're loners, or a strange kind of hikikomori. We feel close to each other because of something special and beautiful. So, succeeding in breaking the wall and then gather together in the same physical place to finally look and talk to each other is a resounding success. This might sound puzzling to people past a certain age because this was the normal thing to do until 15-20 years ago. But for our community I think it's a great stepping stone that, I hope, will encourage us to try to do this more often. Several of us already had met in real life in smaller groups and surely social media helped to get to know each other a tad better and perhaps more intimately, but still it's not the same as having an experience like we had last Friday. I only wish we could have had more time to properly talk with each other. Years of online interactions surely helped us to have a good hunch of personal attitudes and demeanors (as I wrote in a previous post, I was sincerely touched by @Romão's words when he said I was looking exactly how he imagined), but online life also prevents so many nuances and details of human behaviour, sometimes to the detriment of a more objective view on a person. I must say that meeting in real life, albeit briefly, surely gives me a much better (and funnier!) view of all of you.
 
All of us brought home our own personal memory of the experience and we'll keep it with ourselves for a long time. I just hope this will be the first of many to come.
 
Yes, guys, we're looking good together!

Yeah, I did that one too. That's when Richard Kraft suddenly wandered into our Italian restaurant before the concert. Great moment.
 
I need to get all of my thoughts together as a personal reference. You don’t have to read all the following if you don’t want to. Sorry for the longwindedness in advance.
 
Two very busy weeks now finished. First 4 days at the ISFMF in Pula, Croatia, then one day off and directly to London after that.
 
On Thursday, it was a rush for time. Landed, took the quickest route to the hotel (a crappy hole in the basement of the Paddington hotel – I felt like Harry Potter living under the stairs), and then directly to the Brian Tyler concert at Royal Festival Hall (got a free ticket from a fellow Norwegian film music fan). A concert as expected – loud superhero stuff galore, and Tyler showing off his rock-like demeanour in all its glory. In the last number he even ran from the drum kit to the piano and back to the podium for conducting. Fun, but not really my cup of tea. I prefer Tyler in STANDING UP mode.
 
Then there was a Tyler afterparty two floors up. Tyler eventually came, and was constantly surrounded by fans and entourage. Steven Price (GRAVITY) was also there, and Robert Townson (we had hung out in Croatia  a few days before). Free bar, which is always dangerous for me. Took the last tube home.
 
Friday was jampacked with events. Got up, hung over, headed over to Tottenham Court Road for a  tea (proper British!) before meeting Jay, Stefan, Mikko at the Forbidden Planet store. Lunch at the NBC building before meeting everyone else in the lobby. Such mayhem with all the familiar faces I’ve either met at festivals and concerts previously, or met for the first time.
 
Into the Matessino event. Tim Burden is an excellent moderator, allowing the guests room to talk and elaborate (as a moderator myself, I like that approach). Mike seems to be a treasure trove of stories, and I have a feeling we only glimpsed the surface. Fascinating insight into the documents he uncovers while researching new projects. Loved the bit with the guy who had worked on MONSIGNOR and JEDI (name escapes me at the moment….Maurice something?). More easygoing, broke off the ‘drier’ atmosphere somewhat. Great questions by the crowd afterwards, not many “stupid” questions which you often get in events like this that have a less knowledgeable crowd. More comments about this in the “Matessino event” thread. Perhaps 2+ hours was a bit long in one sitting (a short midway break would have been nice), but logistically difficult, I guess.
 
Then off to the JWFAN dinner, now properly covered in the relevant thread. I came early, more people came eventually. In fact, at some point so many arrived that we far superseded the original order number of 26. Must have been 50 people in total. Two of my Norwegian friends (who arrived 30 minutes late because they had misunderstood the time) had to go to an Indian place next door. Very chaotic, which I kinda expected. But some great chats to be had. I hope your wife got all the payment she needed, Quintus, since there was no way to break up the bill individually! I’m often critical of the ‘discussion atmosphere’ on the forum, but I absolutely LOVE the IRL conversations. Not a bad apple in the bunch, if you ask me.
 
Then I ran off to the RAH and the concert. I’ll be writing a special concert report about this on my site soon. But probably the best orchestral performance I’ve ever seen live (and I’ve seen a few) – even if Williams himself wasn’t there.
 
After the concert, we all headed over to the Hotel Gore (I think it was Tim’s suggestion; or his hotel), surprising the bewildered bartenders with this sudden explosion of people. A decent place for mingling, but very crowded – and as Quint says, the drinks were expensive. Almost Norwegian prices. I was tempted to leave, but knew that finding another place that was open at the time would be difficult so I stayed put for a while untill I took a cab home. I think I got to speak to most people, but some for far too short.
 
On Saturday, I got up, hung over again, and just rummaged through the London streets for hours. First at Baker street (I have no idea why I went there; a touristy area without any real charm), then almost immediately a tube to Covent Garden and subsequently SoHo where I hung out for the rest of the day. Meeting a few Norwegians, then eventually going for dinner with fellow FSMers Tall Guy and DavidinBerkeley. After-dinner drinks at an Italian place nearby (Maintitles ‘boss’ Bregt also showed up with his girlfriend and brother), drank far too much, took a cab back to Paddington for a night cap with Bregt at the Hilton hotel bar – the only place open in the vicinity. Completely sloshed by the end.
 
Despite the 100th hangover in a row, spent Sunday visiting some record stores (FOPP, Reckless Records), then flying back in the evening with RyanAir from Stansted – absolutely horrible, and will never do again, btw.
 
All in all, an extremely events-filled (and beer-heavy) long weekend with all of you and others; as well as some great cultural happenings. I hope we can do something similar again, hopefully a little less chaotic and more room for mingling properly. There are so many of you, I didn’t get to speak enough with.
 
Phew….that was it, I think. Hopefully, I can do an abbreviated and re-arranged post of this at some point.

Part of the German Group. 
After the concert at the door from the Hotel Bar. 

Part of the German Group. 
After the concert at the door from the Hotel Bar. 

Part of the German Group. 
After the concert at the door from the Hotel Bar. 

Surprising!
 
Nice pic btw, would look great in black white, framed on a wall

Part of the German Group. 
After the concert at the door from the Hotel Bar. 

Part of the German Group. 
After the concert at the door from the Hotel Bar. 

Well I suppose I should say something about the concert since I was there.
 
We had nice seats on the floor, which would have been great to watch Williams from, but instead was amusing to watch Dirk Brosse wiggle around. Being on the floor meant I couldn't see some if the musicians at all, which was a bummer.
 
The music was played impecably, I mean the LSO really played the hell out of everything with no mistakes and any tricky parts fully sorted. The brass section was ESPECIALLY on point, everything they played was better than any brass section I've ever heard play live.
 
I loved hearing Dracula and The BFG, those were the clear highlights. Dracula was so alluring and gothic, and The BFG covers so many ideas in such a well organized way, and is just so playful and fun.
 
The bummer - for me - was the rest of the of program. Every other piece I had heard so, so, so, so, so many times before. I had heard them all live multiple times, many multiple times by Williams himself, and of course they are all pieces we've heard a million times on CD too. Their original OSTs, re-recordings, complications, etc. It was frankly a bit boring to me to hear some of these pieces live again for the 5th or 6th time, as wonderful compositions as they might be.
 
I completely understand why this program was chosen, and I mean - bloody hell, if you don't get to go to film music concerts that often, it would truly be an amazing and unforgettable concert no matter who was conducting. I certainly remember the goosebumps I got the first time I heard each of these famous pieces from my childhood live. But that feeling fades with future concerts, especially when it's a conductor I am unfamiliar with.
 
The whole night truly would have been different if Williams was conducting. There may have been minor differences in how it sounded, it might have sounded the same - I don't know. But I would have been endlessly entertained just by watching Williams conduct them, and especially by watching him going through all the various emotions he goes through as he reacts to what the crowd is giving him in between cues. And boy, would this crowd have brought the thunderous applause and love down on him like never before. It would have been truly and utterly unforgettable.
 
Instead, as it is, for me personally, it was "just" a really good concert of film music played really well in a spectacular venue. But it wasn't magical.
 
The more magical part of the day was meeting so many film score gane I've known online for years or almost 2 decades for the first time. I'll never forget that.

About 15 Germans are standing in the back of the Room. 
I am the guy behind Jason. 

About 15 Germans are standing in the back of the Room. 
I am the guy behind Jason. 

I think this is the biggest gathering of JWFan ever!
 
 

Great news!!!

I own all of these Scores. 
My Favorite is "Towering Inferno". 

1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. Superman The Movie
3. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
4. Star Wars
5. Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom
6. Jaws
7. Return of the Jedi
8. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
9. Home Alone 2 Lost in New York
10. Hook
 

I used the colors @crumbs suggested:
 

This new arrangement debuted Wednesday, January 31st in San Diego, conducted by Williams himself, as an encore.  You can read @KingPin's description of it, here.
 
 
The new arrangment was just played again, last night in Glasgow, Scotland, and that performance is on Youtube!
 
 
 
 
What do you think?

I am a JW completist.
Vinyls and CDs.