Will

It's official -- JW will conduct the second half!
 
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2024/02/22/An-Evening-with-John-Williams-and-Yo-Yo-Ma-0700PM
 
 

Official photos from The Philadelphia Inquirer:
 

 

 

 

 
https://www.inquirer.com/arts/john-williams-philadelphia-orchestra-yo-yo-ma-20240221.html
 
https://bnnbreaking.com/world/us/at-92-john-williams-captivates-philadelphia-with-a-lifetime-of-music-a-night-with-yo-yo-ma
 
The Imperial March
 

The bottom of the main program page with the listed of pieces states:
 
“Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday: afternoons at 1 PM and are repeated on Monday evenings at 7 PM on WRTI HD 2.
Visit www.wrti.org to listen live or for more details.”
 
I can’t find anything on their site specifying what concert would be broadcast this coming Sunday and Monday, but maybe it’s a proper recording of this performance?

It's official -- JW will conduct the second half!
 
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2024/02/22/An-Evening-with-John-Williams-and-Yo-Yo-Ma-0700PM
 
 

It's official -- JW will conduct the second half!
 
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2024/02/22/An-Evening-with-John-Williams-and-Yo-Yo-Ma-0700PM
 
 

So if this rush wasn't for something performed in concert last night in Philadelphia, it was probably for something recorded yesterday in LA.
 
It could just be like, another arrangement of Galaxy's Edge for a theme park or something.

I agree with all that has been said. Lovely concert, wonderful orchestra, great atmosphere, and “Just Down West St” was a treat🤗

As does the Philadelphia website…

But it does seem odd that JW didn't conduct the cello concerto and Schindler's himself, following that Sony release and interview between Yo-Yo and JW. Perhaps Yo-Yo was afraid that JW would repeat the "all-dead" joke and he would burst out in laughter.
 
 
 Carnegie still has it the other way round:

I've been summoned!
 
Exact definitions differ between theorists of course, but there is a pretty stable consensus concerning what's genuinely fugal, what's canonical or imitative, and what's just polyphonically busy. For a fugue, it's all about that incremental feeling. One voice introduces the fugue's main idea ("subject") in full, then another comes in repeating it while the first offers a countermelody ("answer"), and so on. Traditionally, these need to be at quite specific tonal levels -- the second either in ("real") or on ("tonal") the key of the dominant.  And back and forth it goes until all seperate contrapuntal strands are introduced, usually 3-4 voices in total. I'm simplifying a lot, though it's worth pointing out that Williams almost never writes fugues by completely by the "book." The key thing is that feeling of accretion, of rising intricacy, of one melodic subject chasing another, 
 
 
As breathtaking as it is, I'm afraid there's nothing fugal in the Asteroid Field. March of the Resistance's middle section includes definite but quite unconventional fugal exposition that modulates up by fifth three times, from F to D, and doesn't have a consistent countersubject. 
 
A few years ago I gave a talk on all things neo-Baroque in Williams, which included transcribing all of his fugues, fugatos, and canonic passages. It's a marvelous thing to behold. In any case, my vote is for Black Sunday. 
 

Yeah that is surprising and a bit disappointing -- but still outweighed in my view by the fact that we will (I hope) get to hear JW talk between pieces, etc. I was worried we wouldn't hear him speak much (if at all) if he only did the first half!

If you never saw it, Finale did a very cool interview with him in 2017 about their process lately with Williams 

Thank 
thank you for all this! What an amazing experience. Going to be there on Thursday. It’s just so odd that Ma and Williams don’t share the stage at all. 

WOW, really hoping he does the second half in New York too!!

A magical evening with the Maestro! I’m sooooo glad he did the second half of the concert instead - hearing him introduce his own iconic pieces and conduct them himself just can’t be beat! Williams was in great form, telling the usual funny stories with even greater humor and joy than usual (and noting that Empire is when he “put clothes on Darth Vader and Yoda” when telling the Luke-Leia-love-them story before Leia’s Theme). He also seemed more spry than the last time I saw him, walking much more quickly and easily and even bending down multiple times to pick up his massive score books. At one point, his baton even fell to the ground and he was about to pick it up himself before a cellist did for him.
 
Needless to say, Yo-Yo Ma was brilliant during the Concerto and Schindler’s List Theme in the first half, but the second half with Williams himself stole the show, and the energy of the audience alone demonstrated that. The second half encores were Helena’s Theme, Star Wars Main Title Suite, and Imperial March. So, no surprises this time, but still a wonderful concert full of classics and amazing energy from both Williams and his audience.
 
My only “critiques” would be that beyond Williams coming out before and after Schindler’s to bow with Yo-Yo Ma, there was no other interaction between them, and you’d have expected Williams to conduct Yo-Yo at some point given their double headline spots in the concert. And additionally, Williams’ security needs to chill a bit. A kid who couldn’t have been older than 14 walked up to the stage with a CD and sharpie in hand towards the end of the concert when Williams was exiting, and a security guard standing stage right began motioning to the kid to leave and ultimately came down to tell him to go away. Let’s not forget Williams used to come out the stage door after Boston shows and greet everyone. I know eBay scalpers ruined that, and now Williams is up in age, but for security to get on a kid’s ass just because he was holding a CD was sad. Not necessarily Williams’ fault, of course, and also not surprising since Williams hasn’t signed for people in years, but it definitely showed how times have changed.
 
Anyway, looking forward to experiencing this wonderful program again at the legendary Carnegie Hall in a couple days! Hopefully Williams does the second half there, too. It really enhanced the entire evening. Tonight was my 30th time seeing him conduct live, and I certainly hope there will be many more ahead!
 
My pics from the evening:
 

 



 

 
 

Intermission! Schindler’s was indeed the first half encore. Williams came out before and after the piece to wave to the audience and take a bow.
 

Massive, hope it’s the same for NY also

Relatively major plot twist! Interesting that Williams and Yo-Yo wouldn’t share the stage together, but Williams conducting the second half’s contents sounds way more fun, so no complaints from me!
 
EDIT: Seems two others already reported the news, haha, but here’s a pic of the insert!
 

I thought the concert would be broadcast on WQXR and then available for streaming, but it doesn't seem to be on the list of upcoming shows...

So awesome to hear Williams around 18:30 to praising Thomas Newman for his combination of orchestra with electronics and other elements when discussing the future of the orchestra in film music.
 
And my goodness, is Johnny still so sharp. And hearing all those musical excerpts throughout the interview got me hyped to listen to the score again. It's just such great music.

Composer John Williams earned his 54th Oscar nomination for his score to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which allowed him to revisit the music he'd written for four earlier films, going back to Raiders of the Lost Ark, 42 years ago. As the years have passed and new characters have been introduced, there are new themes to explore, but also a memorable canon, filled with nostalgic, swashbuckling melodies. John Williams tells Brian Lauritzen he didn't start out thinking he'd write a full score for the film, but after writing a handful of themes, he found himself drawn into the project, and not wanting to let anyone else take it over.
 
https://www.kusc.org/articles/at-the-movies-john-williams

Since Williams isn't in LA at the moment - he's in Philadelphia for a concert tonight - surely the only reason Graham would have to "rush" anything from Williams would be because it's being performed tonight in Philadelphia (and probably again Thursday at Carnegie Hall)

He owns JoAnn Kane Music Service, arguably the biggest name in music preparation for films. (Music prep is the process of rapidly creating the finished sheet music based on what the composer, arranger, or orchestrator provides. In the olden days, that meant handwriting the conductor's score and every player's part. Now it's accomplished with software like Finale or Sibelius.)

Something for tomorrow's concert?  Revised part of concerto?  Or is that too rushed?