Quppa

Edith Bowman interviewed Bouzereau about the documentary for her Soundtracking podcast: https://audioboom.com/posts/8601213-laurent-bouzereau-on-his-documentary-the-music-of-john-williams

I went to this tonight (the second of four performances) and it was of course excellent. In addition to the above set list - already fairly deep cuts as far as these things go - there were various other rarities and arrangements included: Lost in Space theme (followed by a quick mash-up with that hyperspace cue with the descending trumpet lines from Return of the Jedi). Amazing Stories theme. Some excerpts of the A and B themes from the Raiders March (I think cues directly from the score - the MSO is doing LTP concerts of Raiders again in January). A few cues from A New Hope showcasing Luke's Theme in different contexts. An arrangement with various villain themes illustrating different keys, including the droid march from TPM (now I want an LTP of the prequels even more), Smee's Plan (@PoggoAOTS I think called this Hook's theme, tsk tsk) and the major key version of the Imperial March from Solo. Anakin's Theme and the Imperial March were joined together in a single performance with a bit of Anakin's Betrayal from ROTS in between - really well done. Amblin Entertainment logo (leading into Adventures on Earth). Star Wars Main Title as the only encore. I must admit I wasn't familiar with the concert arrangements of The Lost World and A Window to the Past - both were somewhat different to the OST recordings (already concert arrangements, I thought).

The exclusivity agreement is annoying from a cost perspective - means I can't get Screen Archives Entertainment's slightly cheaper shipping rates - but if it means EON is taking an active interest and planning to approve more expansions, so be it.

From the Film Score Monthly thread, it sounds like the remainder of the recordings are simply lost and the M&E (music & effects) elements might not be up to snuff.

The 2003 CD release is 41:09, making this remaster 6:08 longer, most of which is accounted for by the 2 extra performances of the title song - does this mean we're still missing a decent chunk of music? @Mr Keith Hicks listed about 15 minutes as missing.

The Leftovers is quite accessible - that was my introduction to his work. The Voyager compilation album from 2019 is a good place to start.

Thoroughly enjoying this so far - I hadn't realised the track list was so extensive. 2 hours and 47 minutes! What a treat.

For once a streaming-only release actually makes sense. Somewhat strange track selection - I wonder if a casual listener would appreciate the violin concerto. There are numerous unreleased concert arrangements that really deserve a proper recording and release, and volume 4 of The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration would be nice to have one day. I wish Deutsche Grammophon would focus on filling gaps like that (they did new recordings for Joe Hisaishi's A Symphonic Celebration, after all).

But why would Balfe have turned it down? He's nothing if not prolific (9 credits listed on IMDb for 2022).

I was just listening to Holt's interview on Soundtracking from July 2022 - she confirms here that the 'job came back around Christmastime' and that 'there was somebody else on board and scheduling changed' (discussed about 5 minutes into the podcast). Curious who that might have been. https://audioboom.com/posts/8115257-episode-314-composer-natalie-holt-on-the-music-of-obi-wan-kenobi

As it turns out, Qobuz has it available in 24-bit 96 kHz audio for those who care about that sort of thing. https://www.qobuz.com/album/exotic-themes-for-the-silver-screen-vol-1-michael-giacchino/nc0k7tz2d7jxa

I confirmed with Mutant that the lossless files are 16-bit 44.1 kHz, so should be identical to the physical CD quality-wise (i.e. you won't be missing out on anything with the CD). Enterprising Young Men works better than I expected! Quite enjoyable.

I got around to watching Meet Joe Black - certainly not a good film, despite Anthony Hopkins' best efforts, but what a score. I'm not sure how much unreleased music there is (the pizzicato strings piece from ~0:41:53 stood out), but bring on a remaster/expansion. It's also a shame the Anything Goes arrangement didn't appear on the original soundtrack release. Is there a list of expanded/recent Thomas Newman soundtracks? I can think of: 1985 - The Man with One Red Shoe (La-La Land Records, 2018) 1987 - Less Than Zero (La-La Land Records, 2016) 1992 - Whispers in the Dark (Intrada, 2012) 1993 - Flesh and Bone (La-La Land Records, 2022) 1995 - The Shawshank Redemption (La-La Land Records, 2016)

I like Denève's pieces on CD1, particularly the E.T. suite - good to have some variety next to the rather staid track selection on CD2. I really hope the 2025 Berlin concerts will mix things up a bit when it comes to the set list.

My order from JPC has been shipped - looking forward to listening to the Denève tracks missing from the digital release.