seannyd

What a fantastic concert. I've only seen Williams' music played once before, also at the DSO, but this time was even better. I felt like I was listening to original recordings of most of the pieces that were played. It was magnificent. A few thoughts: One of the most awesome things to see was despite the fact that Williams is a man in his 80s who needs to support himself a little bit when he gets on and off the podium, once he starts conducting, you'd never know it. It's absolutely brilliant. He has total control of the orchestra and seems to move so fluidly. Spielberg was much stronger when he was just talking off the cuff. When he was trying to read notes, it just came across a little forced. I would have loved to just hear him tell stories about their time together over the course of 41 years. But after he came out, it was such a surreal moment watching Williams conduct the orchestra while Spielberg watched clips of Close Encounters being played. It's a sight I never expected to be able to glimpse in my lifetime, that's for sure. I was really hoping for Jurassic Park since I've yet to hear it live, especially because it definitely could have fit in the program, which ended up feeling a little repetitious with the orchestra playing Marion's Theme and then having an encore of the Raider's March which has a significant portion of Marion's Theme in it. Although I will say that showing clips of classic film beauties during "Marion's", and the sword fighting montage during "The Duel" were really fun ways to mix it up. All in all, I still don't know if it's really hit me what I saw. I have been a huge fan of both of these men for as long back as I can remember and having this opportunity was definitely a once in a lifetime experience. BIZARRE SIDE NOTE: Kid Rock was there and when they finished playing "E.T." he yelled out "E.T!", looked at a guy sitting next to him, shrugged his shoulders, and then left, not even staying for the encores.

So I just signed up for this forum to share my excitement about going to this upcoming concert. The fact that they're going to have Williams and Spielberg in the same building is going to be nothing short of breathtaking. Unfortunately not many people I know care that much about symphonic music so while they express curiosity at how cool it will be to see Steven Spielberg, they're less inclined to indulge in conversation about my passion for Williams movie scores. And it's not going to be cheap either. I honestly didn't think I was going to get tickets at all for a moment because from the moment they went on sale, the website went down and the phone lines were impossible to get through. Fortunately, at the last minute I realized that the mobile app might have less traffic on it and was completely correct. Unfortunately, the only tickets left were dress circle and while I wasn't initially prepared to spend $500 total on two tickets for my girlfriend and I, I quickly changed my mind when I realized that this is probably literally a once in a lifetime opportunity. As active as Williams is, he's still a man in his 80's and the thought of missing the opportunity to see him conduct some of his greatest pieces of music (completely irrespective of the fact that the man who was the impetus for so many of these cues is going to be there!) would have been crushing. So as it stands, I'm anxiously counting down the days (24!) to see what could be one of the greatest experiences of my life. If anyone is interested, I'll post my reactions after the show. If not, at least thanks for providing this forum as an opportunity to share thoughts that aren't as well received with my circle of friends.