Biodome

Perhaps SpaceX could arrange something

Wasn't it confirmed that his illness wasn't related to the flight?

Didn't even see the whole thing until now. Was pretty nice to read all of it. So did John receive it? He's flying out tomorrow, isn't he?

I don't have too much experience with film music concerts (been in two or three concerts showcasing Williams' music, as well as a few live-to-projection stuff) or even classical music concerts in general, so every time I go to a new show, there are always so many new experiences for me, and I'm at that stage where everything sounds special, even if played by a mediocre orchestra. So this evening at the Royal Albert Hall was something that I couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams. I have never been to a majestic venue like that. I have never heard a world class orchestra like the LSO. And I have never seen such a renowned conductor with my own eyes. True, John Williams' illness was saddening, and it could have been so much better, but it was still the best concert experience I have ever had in my entire life. I don't even care that the programme was Star Wars-heavy, or that there weren't more obscure examples from Williams' work. I was just so immersed by how well everything was performed. Most of the pieces felt just like the CD recording versions, and I could never say the same of the previous concerts by other orchestras that I have attended. LSO seemed to have perfect control of the sound, each section powerful and distinct, yet unprecedentedly balanced, and that sound reverberated through the whole venue, and it felt like the venue was built for the orchestra. It was all so harmonious. I was on the verge of tears all the time - there was nothing else so beautiful that I could even think of comparing this event to. I must stress that the reason I got the chance to attend this amazing concert is the JWFan community, and, specifically, @PHOENIX who was nice enough not only to get me a ticket for the event, but also got me an even better seat in the front row of one of the central boxes, just minutes before the start of the show! And to think that months before this I was so pessimistic about getting to attend the concert in the first place, seeing as I had heard of the announcement too late, and everything was sold out, except for some speculative, ridiculously priced tickets from reseller sites. I'm eternally grateful to all you guys for giving me a reason to be in London that evening! Here's the view from the Rausing Circle, by the way. I was so amazed when I went through the doorway and saw this: Couldn't fit all of the hall in one shot, so had to do a panorama. Also, since everyone is sharing recordings, I thought I'd give you mine as well, which is of the Theme from Jurassic Park. I must warn you that it's not of a good quality - I think I covered one or both mics at some points, so it's really more of a memorabilia for myself:

I really support the signed JWFan card idea, if it's possible to get a contact to deliver it to John. He must be feeling bad about having to cancel three concerts, and so any warm wishes will cheer him up for sure, and, likely, aid in the recovery! I'll still attend the concert, and hope to see some of you in the meetup.

Damn it. Booked flights, hotels, everything. I can only hope he'll recover for Vienna.

I'll be attending the concert as well, so looking forward to seeing you all at the meetup (hopefully there are still spaces left?)

The Golden Hall at Musikverein is often cited as the best concert hall in the world. It's the acoustic qualities that make it attractive, whereas circular/oval shapes aren't perfect for sound, but they can hold many times more spectators. So yeah, I guess RAH is more fun (plus the LSO adds quite a bit of nostalgia), but I can see arguments for both

I'd be truly surprised if the tickets on StubHub and Viagogo would actually be sold at their currently listed prices. They're not worth 10x their face value, especially as people who missed out on RAH probably got tickets for the Vienna concerts. I think it's a bubble, and, closer to the concert date, I guess the sellers will be forced to reduce the prices significantly to get rid of those tickets.

Not a film score, but John Williams was one of the composers for Gloria Cheng's album. There were some atonal piano pieces there, although I don't know if they used the 12-tone technique.

Has anyone got a spare ticket for this concert? I'm happy to buy it from someone. Still no luck with getting a seat

The original buyer could potentially sell their ticket more than once. E.g. they could put one .pdf copy up on Stubhub, and the other on Viagogo. Also, the people who buy those tickets from those third-party sites, can also put them up for sale in the same way. Usually, these kinds of websites have safeguards against this (i.e. Stubhub, as far as I know, doesn't send the seller their money until two weeks after the actual event, which gives time for any buyer to claim for refund if the ticket was invalid), but it doesn't always work out well.

Third-party sellers can only obtain the tickets through the original buyer. Original buyers are the people who put those tickets up for sale on sites like Stubhub or Viagogo. You cannot produce a false ticket, because only RAH knows the process of generating barcodes, which should be secret.

The only way to obtain a legitimate ticket is by buying it from RAH. If more than one person has the same ticket, it means that the original buyer shared the ticket with someone else. Since that goes against RAH terms, it may invalidate both tickets, and the seat could remain empty.

The Czech National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Shih-Hung Young, is currently on tour in Scandinavia this month, performing live to projection concerts of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Besides Oslo, where I attended the concert today, their website lists Aalborg, Karlstad, Stockholm, København, and Aarhus as other cities where they will perform. I am not exactly sure of the concert dates and ticket availability for those, however. This was, in fact, my first ever live to projection concert, and so I'll simply write a few brief thoughts on it, which will not be based on any sort of experience, standards or comparisons with these sorts of events, so do take what I say with a grain of salt. I cannot complain about the technique of the orchestra - it was top-notch. They did really well on the complex action sequences, such as the spider chase and the Quidditch scenes, which where powerful and well-synchronized, no doubt a result of the conductor who was meticulously following the score and the guidance screen in front of him, and lead the orchestra without any noticeable issues. He seems to have lots of experience with live to projection conducting, and those skills were evident. I also loved The Flying Car, and was amazed at how much sound the orchestra produced while playing the Voldemort/Chamber Opening motif - it actually drowned everything else that was going on in the film sound-wise, and I was in nothing but complete awe My criticisms would come from the fact that the audience was explicitly encouraged to cheer, applaud and boo for various characters and events in the film. I realized that half of the seats were filled with small children and young teenagers, who were probably the target audience, and so the whole concert became too casual for my tastes. While I have nothing against applauding the orchestra where applause is due, I do have problems with applause while the orchestra is actually playing. Some character appearances and their actions resulted in moments of complete noise, which made listening to the orchestra practically impossible at times. Also, it seems that the orchestra decided not to play through the whole of the end credits, so there was no reprise of the Fawkes' theme, for instance, which was a minor disappointment - I really liked that rendition on the OST and was hoping to hear it separately from the action/dialogue in the film. On the non-musical side of things, there was a lot of merchandise to buy at the venue. Scarfs, pins, robes from all of the four Hogwarts houses, etc. I got the Programme notes, which were printed on such a massively-sized booklet that I initially thought they were selling vinyls . The notes include lots of pictures and quotes from the film, as well as detailed analysis on the score itself and notable pieces. They were also selling the CD album, which is the 5 Collectible covers version. All of it was definitely overpriced, but, I guess, that's what you'd expect when buying from a temporary stall at a concert venue.

Congrats to Desplat. It was a very nice score.

That hook looks like it's trying to fertilize the Earth.

Christopher Tin, an American composer, who gained fame through his choral piece Baba Yetu for the video game Civilization IV, is now launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund his upcoming album, To Shiver the Sky. It will feature a song cycle based on his most recent piece, Sogno di Volare, written for Civilization VI. The campaign features some pretty nice rewards, ranging from basic things, like downloads of his albums, to signed copies of CDs, a signed study score for the new album, a hand-written page of the orchestral arrangement of Baba Yetu, and even personalized and unique short themes written for the backers by the composer himself! On the high-tier rewards, you also get tickets to performances, rehearsals and world premieres of his music, as well as masterclasses with the composer. For those who haven't heard of Christopher Tin, I'd describe his music as having a style of grandness and majesty. He really enjoys writing in dozens of different languages, featuring ethnic music from all over the world, put in a modern, Western-style, orchestral context. Some of his critics describe his songs as unnecessarily pompous, although his fans often cite that as one of the attractive points. Here's his Kickstarter announcement:

Same here. They still haven't put the gallery tickets up for sale, so need to stay vigilant and grab them when they are released. All is not lost yet.

Just curious, is anyone keeping track of how much the LSO has changed since the Prequel recordings? Are there some current members that were also part of the orchestra back then? I also assume that people responsible for bringing OT scores to life have all retired, but I have no idea.

Aw, seems like I missed the news on this completely. I already have a couple of tickets for the Star Wars screening with the LSO in November, but seeing Williams live would be infinitely better. Guess I'll have to hope for a miracle Obviously, I'd buy a ticket from anyone here if you've got a spare one - wouldn't mind paying a bonus for it too, so do contact me!

Completist in the sense that you have all of the album releases? That's quite a feat I myself have a looong way to go - still haven't touched some of the scores at all.

I'm glad you've enjoyed it! We can definitely do that some time - I do frequent Oslo, especially during weekends. Perhaps it's even possible to find some more Williams fans and do a proper meetup With a full concert hall like that there's bound to be at least some enthusiasts of those scores.

I am not Norwegian myself, just been living here for some time. Have fun at the concert tonight, though!

Jeremy Soule is fairly responsive to his fans on Facebook.