mahler3

Here’s the event running order which hopefully paints a picture. We aren’t going to mention the clips from Mike publicly, but I’m sure those who were there can private message each other. We never said to not talk about the event after the fact. “The first rule of TLOJW is to talk about TLOJW” 😁
 
- CLIP: Video Introduction - 6 min
- Greetings and presentation of guests
- JW in London: an historical overview
- Remembering the Star Wars 1977 sessions with Eric and Hugh
- CLIP: 
- Working with JW as orchestra musicians (Eric and Hugh)
- CLIP: 
- Commentary
- CLIP: The Fury "A-B Comparison"
- JW on the scoring stage: how he works with the orchestra 
- CLIP:
- Commentary / Audience Q&A
 
INTERMISSION (10 min)
 
- Dracula: an overview (Emilio) 
- CLIP: Dracula's Death film clip - 6 min
- Commentary
- Techniques of film score recording
- CLIP: 
- Commentary
- CLIP: 
- Commentary
- CLIP: 
- Commentary / Audience Q&A
- Final greetings and prize draw raffle sorting 
 
The prize draw contents (10 Universal Studios branded goody bags - thank you Dave Norris!) consisted of:

JW scored 4K discs from UHE
La La Land Records & Intrada JW albums
Japanese imports of various JW albums 
DG Store exclusives of Blu-rays & Vinyls 
TLOJW T-shirts
Elmer Bernstein Commemorative Programme with a personal note from JW

The 2 star prize premium goody bags consisted of the above plus Taschen books, extra DG Store exclusives, the John T. Williams Jazz Beginnings album and a JW signed photo.
 
IMG_5281.heic
 
Seeing the new remaster of Jaws in Dolby Atmos with the proper 3D glasses was very memorable and a perfect end to the event. Both Eric & Hugh were particularly impressed! They hadn’t seen it since 1976!
 
We had a diverse audience and some composers and conductors were in attendance. Plus our poster artist Paul Shipper (who kindly signed many of the deluxe prints everyone received), voice actor Marc Silk and producers from LA & London. Thank you once again for attending. It was so great to meet many new and old friends.
 
The dinner afterwards was a cluster f@#k but it was a last minute change so couldn’t be helped. Food and service was good (Zizzi).
 
It was a joy to host this with Maurizio and we hope to do more in the future.
 

 


I love how people laughed at this, it actually was Jaws in 3D, not Jaws 3D!!!!! :-)

Now THAT is funny! 

Do you live in Japan?  

The real question is, are you Big in Japan?
 

 

Maurizio has made a Halloween playlist of JW scores, available on Spotify or Youtube
 
JOHN WILLIAMS HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR!

Ready for some musical Trick-Or-Treat? Celebrate Halloween with this special playlist curated by The Legacy of John Williams featuring scary, spooky and shiver-inducing selections from some of the Maestro's iconic film scores, including DRACULA, THE FURY, THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK, JAWS, JURASSIC PARK, HARRY POTTER. Prepare to be scared and thrilled by a selection of Maestro Williams' most frightening cues.

LISTEN on Spotify or YouTube and have a great (and safe) Halloween!

SPOTIFY: spoti.fi/2ZJB9JK
YOUTUBE: bit.ly/3Bq38Li
 
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=900698898433206&set=a.200527905116979

I think for me, one of the best things about this was hearing the 2 LSO musicians so genuinely excited, honoured, and proud to have worked with Williams. Also to see in person from their camaraderie with each other, and even their body language, how much it meant to them. And these are guys who have worked with EVERYONE from the film and classical world. 
Also the audio and video clips that Mike treated us to (which we’re not allowed to talk about) were just incredible. 
And I got to meet some lovely people. 
And I won a really decent haul of goodies in the raffle. 

I would LOVE hear Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas live, that's my favorite Home Alone song.

I’d love to see Home Alone live! But alas, there’s not a whole lot of LTP concerts near me to begin with😢

Home Alone with choir is fantastic.  It's one of my favorite LTP shows.  They place the intermission before any choir is needed, so they are not on stage for the first half.  The second half of the film has lots of choir, including the entire church sequence, and it really makes it a fun show.  Plus its just a fun movie to see with a live audience, so much comedic moments to enjoy together

I’m taking my wife to see Home Alone in concert this December can’t wait!

Again, I agree with @Martinland’s assessment of the evening. Really tight and balanced performance on a whole. The Map Room is my favourite cue, and the absence of a live choir didn’t affect my enjoyment of the sequence in the slightest. I did pick up on the synth choir and thought it blended quite well, and didn’t stick out in an irritating manner. 
I see a choir will be used for the Home Alone concerts in Dublin in December - very excited to see how that’s handled. The last LTP concerts I saw with choir were all the LoTR. A high standard was set!!

Very nice! Who recorded those?
 
That's amazing - it blended in wonderfully and didn't draw attention to itself, if this was the case ... listen to it again in those FSM recordings ... I will not be able to, probably.
 
Used to buy FSM on paper, even in London soundtrack shops now long gone...
 
Ciao! 

Subscribers of FSM Online will be able to experience some of the key moments from this concert as exclusive videos. The new issue will be out in a few days.
 
Re choir, it’s a specific synth patch.

Yeah, I remember the Raiders concert at Royal Albert Hall very fondly. I believe it was my first John Williams live to projection. Good times, they should do more Indy.
 
Karol

Aloha NOF!
 
It happened in wonderful Dublin.
 
I am curious about ConorPower's assessment of this, since I thought in advance about that sequence and there being no choir - but during the performance not only did I not miss the choir, I heard no obvious distracting synthesizer (quite sensitive to that, being a musician myself) - and I paid more attention to the orchestra, conductor, and overall sound/orchestration details than to the screen. It just worked/blended wonderfully well - all in an acoustic setting (as opposed to e.g. the amplified Final Fantasy 14 concert at the Hammersmith Apollo in London four days earlier - still an amazing experience with more than 3500 excited people in the audience) and with punches and streamers only.
 
For FF they (Alexandra Cravero and members of the orchestra) had a click ... only Anthony Gabriele managed to conduct Superman w/o any visual aids other than the movie itself in June; simply amazing. (he comes from ballet, I had a fascinating post-concert talk with him)
 
Having said that, Caleb Young's conducting was precise and a joy to experience, the sync was spookily close to the picture (e.g. cymbal crash with the wave leaping up the submarine, punches and cuts during flying wing sequence, et cetera) and he really shone after the intermission with a free and fast-paced interpretation of Mutt's theme and especially during the end credits, during which he emphasized the romantic passages in a quasi-rubato style only to finish the Raiders March in a *very* brisk and *exciting* manner - something I would not have thought possible after having heard/seen it so many times. Simply great. Let's not talk about the furious and demanding desert chase, the enhanced dynamics and more...
 
I was swept away by the whole performance ... there were details, for example in the piano sections, that I haven't registered before.
 
There was maybe one phrase and one not very prominent note flubbed in the French horns and brass respectively ... but we're talking about playing the whole score live to picture! We know the LSO recording(s) well enough to realise that this surpasses them almost, if you do not take into account the latter sight-reading during a film recording instead of rehearsing for a concert performance.
 
Sorry for  the baroque answer.
 
No real choir, indeed, but you were not there? I am pretty sure Caleb Young worked on the balance of anything intruding the purely acoustic sound of the orchestra. The balance between the movie sound effects and dialogue was really perfect as well, despite the former having had quite a bit of a presence in the low frequencies; even more so than in June w/ Superman. I should have asked who ultimately balances this ... the sound engineer or the conductor; most probably both, during rehearsals, I presume.
 
Haha, au contraire - see above...

@Martinland Agreed! A great show altogether. 

Yesterday, w/ whole family, all the three of us... ...it was outstanding really, topped the LSO and film experience, in my humble opinion... <3
 
 

This is really appreciated, D - thank you for the kind words and feedback. A true Labour of love and having this brief classic Star Wars blast of perfection played for our audience was a thrill:
IMG_5702.mov
I wish! The mics help amplify the vast RAH and its acoustic uniqueness.

This is really appreciated, D - thank you for the kind words and feedback. A true Labour of love and having this brief classic Star Wars blast of perfection played for our audience was a thrill:
IMG_5702.mov
I wish! The mics help amplify the vast RAH and its acoustic uniqueness.

This is really appreciated, D - thank you for the kind words and feedback. A true Labour of love and having this brief classic Star Wars blast of perfection played for our audience was a thrill:
IMG_5702.mov
I wish! The mics help amplify the vast RAH and its acoustic uniqueness.

This is really appreciated, D - thank you for the kind words and feedback. A true Labour of love and having this brief classic Star Wars blast of perfection played for our audience was a thrill:
IMG_5702.mov
I wish! The mics help amplify the vast RAH and its acoustic uniqueness.

The giant disembodied head of Mike Matessino revealed the momentous news of Wompi to a stunned audience over Microsoft Teams.  The sense of shock and disbelief in the room were palpable as we tried in vain to come to terms with the bombshell and to make some sense of it all.  The humanity!

They told us to take no pictures, no video or audio recordings, and to not post about the event on social media.
 
Without going into the actual content, I can say that the LSO musicians and Mike were amazing to listen to. You can really feel the love they have for John Williams as a composer, conductor and musician.
 
I remember @bigjimwilson asked about the elitism/snobism that is prevalent within some Classical music academic circles and orchestras, such as the Berliner Philharmoniker. Well, there was none of that LSO!
 
I can also mention that my brother was lucky enough to win one of the smaller prizes. He didn't have enough space to take everything aboard the plane, so we split the loot! It was several CDs, Blu-rays, booklets, artwork, a Legacy of John Williams t-shirt and a box with E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial merchandise.
 

This really is a magnificent piece of music--the perfect encapsulation of Williams's "bittersweet send-off" mode of the last decade.