Remco

Don't forget the bizarre, blink-and-you'll-miss-it integration of Rose into the climactic battle. She gets all of 2 inexplicable shots near some transport atop the Star Destroyer (wasn't she staying behind at the Resistance base?!), then Finn has a bizarre telekinesis moment where he seemingly talks to her via the Force to tell her something, which is never explained. Then she vanishes from the rest of the sequence (and I think she only re-appears in the background during the reunion sequence).
 
But before I could even comprehend what was happening there, suddenly there's Sith Troopers flying around on jetpacks (remember how they were built up to be crucial characters, only to appear in 3 shots?) and everything starts exploding.
 
The whole climax is like an epileptic seizure captured on film, leaving you dazed and confused. Probably the worst directed and edited sequence of any major Hollywood film in recent years. Were JJ and his editor smoking crack when they signed off on this?
 
Dislike Rian's story choices in TLJ all you like, but that film is superbly directed. At no stage are you utterly dumbfounded by a total lack of context and geography for the events unfolding before your eyes.

I don't know. It's hard to tell when he actually stops because you can't really see his hands anymore when he starts disintegrating. I guess I can be okay with Rey not striking him down in anger and having the combined power of all the Jedi, but still. It seems like a cheap move that wasn't given any thought.

For some reason I thought about the space battle today. SW and RotJ spend just enough time setting up the precise plans ahead of time, and you know the goals and can follow it first time even when things temporarily go wrong (shield's up, gotta bide time - got caught, gotta have a ground battle to get another chance to deactivate the shield).
 
I've seen TROS once, and... what happened above Exogol?
The Resistance just went because we gotta fight.
The FO was already there unified with the Sith fighters and fleet, into the Final Order, in... that 18 hour time limit they idiotically gave again in the opening?
Enemy fleet ridiculously big, no real tension.
Finn and co ride horses on a Star Destroyer, until they don't. I don't know if I'd even remember it if it wasn't in the trailer.
They go for the one antenna which controls all the gajillion ships until it doesn't because now another one does.
Lando arrives out of nowhere with another ridiculous fleet out of nowhere, no impact, meh, we only see 10 shots of the whole thing anyway.
Palps überlightnings everything and they all start going down until he doesn't and they don't.
At some point Finn (and BB maybe?) open some hatch?
Richard E Grant gets blown out the window and the battle is won and they all go home.
 
 
I have no fucking clue what happened.

Don't believe everything you read on the internet folks.  What this guy says here is not true at all.  John Williams is still in Vienna right now.

Yes, I talked with the brilliant solo horn mr. Janezic after the Saturday concert and he said it was her wish that they should play Imperial march as an encore., 😜😜😜💪💪💪

WARNING: Essay inbound.
 
It's interesting, the more that I think about it all; I didn't even attend the concerts and yet I have been practically glued to my screen, constantly refreshing this thread to see updates/photos/videos/reviews.
 
These concerts mean a lot more (imo) for the legacy of John Williams (as well as the acceptance of film music) than any other event I can really think of in recent history. The Vienna Philharmonic has a bit of a reputation of being thought of as perhaps the most elitist/snobbiest orchestra (no offense to Austrian forum users!), the pinnacle of "proper" classical music-making—so to see John Williams ascend this seemingly insurmountable feat of getting this orchestra to play two concerts of nothing but his film music, and having the musicians standing there clapping wildly for him with smiles on their faces... It's a pretty breathtaking accomplishment. It feels like the world is different today than it was two days ago.
 
I've always thought that Williams' music deserves to be held in the same high regard as many of the Romantic masters, and as a classical music fan (and musician) I've longed to see some of his film music pieces start to seep into the concert hall and gradually become mainstays of the repertoire. These concerts are a titanic step in the right direction. It feels in a way that with these concerts, Williams has finally conquered the classical world—after all, if your music is "good enough" for the VPO to play it, then who else could possibly ever deem it unworthy?! The critics? Who cares about them.
 
Audiences pay (and pay handsomely) to see Williams' compositions, and orchestras are starting to figure that out with the advent of live-to-picture concerts. These Vienna concerts show that even in the heart of the classical music world—in the "City of Music", with all its historicity and traditions and its famous-composer graves—that John Williams sells. And I'd wager that even if Williams himself wasn't conducting (he won't be around forever), the concerts would have still made a respectable sum and sold well.
 
It is always so ironic to me that the people crying from the rooftops that "Classical music is dying, what ever are we going to do?!" are the same ones who want to incessantly program postmodernist trash as their only idea of "new music"—and yet it's been shown time and time again that film music (at least great film music, like JW's), sells, and is a great way to introduce people to the orchestra and to classical music.
 
There is a clear antidote to the prospect of classical music "dying"—program stuff that people actually want to hear! Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky's ballet works were not always accepted in the concert hall, and yet nowadays you can't go a season without seeing a "Nutcracker" or a "Rite of Spring" or "Firebird Suite". History repeats itself; what we are facing today in regards to film music is little more the same aversion to change, all over again. The irony being that this sort of concert hall gatekeeping is being done nowadays by the very people who like to claim how "new" and inventive their music is, when in reality it's the same tired mix of atonal crowd-killers we've been hearing for decades now.
 
Opera and ballet were once "popular" art forms, and their staples eventually made their way onto the concert hall stage in the form of overtures and suites, respectively. So too will (I hope) film music like JW's. One day I hope it is commonplace to see an orchestra concert that has (for example) the STAR WARS "Main Title" as its "overture", and then a concerto followed by a symphony after intermission. If orchestras truly want to bring people into classical music, then give them a taste of something familiar/popular, and maybe they'll stick around for the classics. Rather than scare them out of the building by intermission, never to come back, because their idea of "classical music" is now either super-light cliche classical, or downright atonality, with no middle ground.
 
Annnyways, these concerts mean a lot to me and I think, hopefully, a lot in regards to the overall acceptance of Williams' music in the hall. Last year's double DG releases (Dudamel's all-JW live concert program with the LA Phil, and then the violin arrangements album with ASM) certainly helped, as well; they are probably the "gold standard" classical music label, so for them to be willing to put out multiple albums of his music in a year is not a bad sign at all. And hopefully 2020 will see a DG release of this Vienna program. 
 
And back on the concert hall front, Stephane Deneve (a good friend of JW's) is the new Music Director of St. Louis, and he just did a regular subscription program which featured "Hedwig's Theme" alongside other classical staples, a program which he is taking to Philly in the coming months if I recall correctly! He's got the right idea; hopefully others will be moved/relieved at the sight of the VPO applauding and respecting Williams, and will start to follow suit in their programming. But things are looking up, and I couldn't be happier. I hope I'm not just going crazy/I hope some others here share my views on this(?).

The one thing that was the biggest revelation to me personally, and after 25+ years of listening to his music elevated my esteem of Williams as a composer and conductor even further:
 
Having lived in Vienna my whole life, I've heard the Philharmoniker and other orchestras play at the Musikverein numerous times. Occasionally on parterre seats (mostly when I got cheap tickets for dress rehearsals), more often from the balcony. I've always had the impression that 1) the Golden Hall can indeed sound great if played right, but can also be overly reverb-y and intransparent when played too loud, or without the right balance and 2) that the balcony seats seemed to suffer from that problem much more than the parterre seats. I've heard big name conductors with big name orchestras play massive symphonies by master composers like Mahler, Strauss, and Bruckner and regret only having a balcony seat because I could barely hear many of the details in these works I knew so well from various recordings - including the Philharmoniker, who've been at home in that hall for 150 years.
 
The Williams concerts marked the first time that I heard the same concert on two successive days, once from a parterre seat and once from the balcony. And the balcony sound was fantastic - slightly more reverb than below, but never at the expense of clarity. I didn't feel I missed a single detail, and in fact heard a few new ones I'd never been aware of. I could swear I could actually hear the piano in the Imperial March. In short, I've rarely heard such a powerful and yet transparent performance at the Musikverein - a testament to Williams as a conductor and an orchestrator, and with music that was originally written for a single studio recording.

Some fact snippets I gathered from people who talked to people (in the orchestra etc.):
 
- The Philharmoniker were big fans of Williams as a conductor and specifically pointed out his sensible and no-nonsense style as opposed to exaggerated theatrics by many of their regular famous big name conductors. They also supposedly said that such an enormous audience reaction and general atmosphere is unprecedented, even considering the New Year's Concerts.
 
- Originally, three encores (i.e. a "usual" number) were planned: The Duel, Remembrances, and Raiders' March. It was the Philharmoniker who had their go between ask Williams if they couldn't do the Imperial March as well. When he heard the request, Williams was worried that it would be too hard on the horns after such a long and difficult concert - until they told him that it was in fact the special wish of the horn section. My own guess is that ASM requested to also add Nice to Be Around, based on her often citing it as one of her favourites in interviews.
 
- I spotted Austrian ex-president Heinz Fischer and his wife, as well as ex-chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, at the Saturday concert. Fischer left before the final encore (Imperial March).
 
- The Imperial March was a fitting encore, give that Williams was staying at the Hotel Imperial (right next to the Musikverein).

For me one of the highlights was the WarHorse, that flute player was amazing and that brass choir in the end was just too much, cried like a baby!!! 

And the ironic thing is that you could really see that the VPO musicians were truly enjoying themselves, and looked honoured to be performing JW's music under his direction (the principal flute bowing and gesturing towards JW as if passing all the praise back to the maestro after the solo from Dartmoor, is a notable example which comes to mind). If the orchestra, musicians and the Gesellschaft have accepted him, why do the critics keep up this pretentious approach?
 
edit: correction JFK -> Dartmoor

While the first concert yesterday felt more emotional to me, the second one was better performed. Or perhaps the sound was better on the middle balcony (as compared to the ground floor seats yesterday). For some reason, it felt more consistent and composed.
 
Five months ago I thought hearing Williams conduct 5 pieces at Tanglewood was going to be as good as it gets (given Johnny's age). Little did I know I will experience two consecutive days filled with 2.5 hours of music conducted by the maestro at Musikverein (of all places). He looked great too.
 
Karol
 
 

So happy to hear the second concert was great as well. I’m still in awe from yesterday. What maybe impressed me the most is the fact that you can truly feel from his energy on the podium that there is no ego at all. Just the music. Yet at the same time he’s able to pull off an immediate and genuine standing ovation the very moment he walks on stage......
 
That is truly exceptional, and a treasured memory for me personally.

So happy to hear the second concert was great as well. I’m still in awe from yesterday. What maybe impressed me the most is the fact that you can truly feel from his energy on the podium that there is no ego at all. Just the music. Yet at the same time he’s able to pull off an immediate and genuine standing ovation the very moment he walks on stage......
 
That is truly exceptional, and a treasured memory for me personally.

That was an amazing concert.
I went to the 18th one.

I'm generally picky with european orchestra when it comes to performance of John Williams's music, but the VSO surpassed all the other orchestras in the world.
As soon as the brass came in, I was literally shocked. What a powerful sound the french horns had 
 
I honestly never heard JW's music as greatly performed as it was yesterday.  
 
Lets hope for another decade of amazing John Williams's scores 
 
 

I was fortunate enough to have been able to go to both performances, and just came out of the second concert.
 
It was equally amazing as yesterday, if not even better!!!
 
I’ll gather my thoughts as soon as I have some time to put them down... right now I need some champagne to celebrate an amazing weekend!

Maybe I'm naive or down to earth, but this is totally what I expected a soloist at such mixed concert to do.
 
But yes, ASM was great in conduct in every way. She played great, and when a bowstring broke, she corrected the bow between notes and played flawlessly till the end of the piece despite the dangling bowstring. She also clapped for Williams (so did at least one more musician as well) and even did a little "woo" at one point.
 
Can't wait for some description in what ways will the concert today (it started 10 minutes ago) differ, whether in playing or audience reception.
 
P.S. The one thing I still cannot wrap my head around is that Williams conducted for over 2,5 hours yesterday, all standing. At the age of 88!  And he did it with so much energy as if he was middle-aged again. 
 
The fact that it started snowing beautifully right before the concert reminds me of the story of a thunderstorm when Beethoven died. Only this time, it was real!
 
 

People underestimate how prevalent these sorts of mistakes or missed notes are, as well as just how much editing goes into producing a "perfect" take on an album. Many times these days, even flawless "live" performances which have been issued for commercial release, actually involve editing together multiple nights of material to end up with the best overall product.
 
Let's take a symphony recording for example: The first movement from one night will be used for the album, but for the second movement a completely different night's recording may be used. Same goes for every movement. You could very well wind up with a CD of a four-movement symphony where each movement was performed on a different day of the week. 
 
And in addiction to that, individual sections of the movements from different takes, may be cut and spliced seamlessly to create the final version. But the recording will still be labeled as "live", just because the performances that went into creating this Frankenstein monster, were all live. If that's how much editing goes into a "live" performance recording, can you imagine how much goes into studio recordings such as soundtracks?
 
What you wind up with is a hodgepodge of takes sewn together into a "perfect" one. It's a sad truth, that seeing something live will always have one or two (or maybe more!) missed notes than your favorite note-perfect recording of the same thing—the worthwhile difference of course being the addicting excitement that live music can offer, which more often than not overcompensates for any minor mistakes that may occur.
 
EDIT: In fact, come to think of it you could actually see recording mics present in the rehearsal photos. My guess is they've been recording every note the orchestra has played with him, not only in case JW wanted to listen back and make adjustments in subsequent rehearsal hours, but also so they would have this additional material to work with in case they should need it for editing a CD/Blu-Ray release, in the event of any devastating concert mishaps.

Sure, but in this case it isn’t weird to prefer the originals.

The concert was absolutely amazing, but yes, aside from the ‘Remembrances’ encore, I felt there wasn’t really much to the Mutter arrangements, aside from providing her a chance to be a diva. 
 
Also, even though the VPO sounded great generally, you could tell it was all fresh music for them and there were some painful mistakes, some of which may have been JW’s fault. It made me feel a bit nervous honestly! I hope they’ll be more secure tomorrow since this is all recorded. But that aside, it was a legendary afternoon and something I will never forget! 

Basically how I felt for all the Mutter pieces! But it was great to have her for ‘Remembrances’.