Remco

John Williams has arrived in Milan.
Source: filarmonica della scala (account Instagram)
317767060_5554736484621873_3050689665627807447_n.mp4 An other video from the Filarmonica
319000239_4936180026485725_2743850812614632773_n.mp4

Indy 5 Trailer.mp4  Here's my go at it, couldn't isolate properly, but it is what it is.
 
I don't think he rethought it, I think he just got rid of possibly chaining himself to a destination. Old Indy had a daughter instead of Mutt, and the VHS had new dates for events, I can't provide a statement, but those were made to be the canon version of the episodes, and the lack of Old Indy is alarming. Lucas is very much the retcon king, but it's not him writing anymore, so Mangold can at least put Indy in that direction.
 

Trailer Music! I hate these guys.  

ITS HERE!!!!!!!!!
 

Full (readable!) Empire Article if anyones interested. It’s divided into two chunks:
 
 

The Leia’s theme quote is awesome and makes an otherwise silly scene work. As for the other quotes, I don’t love them (aside from Here they come and Yoda’s theme which also work well), but it’s like 5-10 min out of a 2.5 hour score. Ultimately, it’s negligible.
 
But yes, too much Binary Sunset

I think it's nonsense. We're talking about 30 second snippets here in a *huge* score that by the way many moviegoers probably would never hear otherwise.
Also, many concert versions have their foundation in the score, such as the second half of 'Rise of Skywalker'. Why not the other way around?
 
I agree though that there is a little too much Force theme in TLJ, and in TROS as well, but that also wasn't helped by the tracking of even more Force theme (such as 'Peace and Purpose' from TLJ when Exegol blows up).

I thought it was glorious to hear the most beautiful part of Leia’s concert version in the film (so much so, that I didn’t even realize how controversial the scene itself was).
 

John Williams has been nominated for a Grammy Awards for The Berlin Concert (Best Orchestral Performance).
 
This is his 73rd nomination. He has a chance to win for the 26th time.  
 
Congratulations Maestro!
 
Also, "Violin Concerto No. 2 & Selected Film Themes" is nominated in the Best Engineered Album, Classical category.
 
Full list of nominees:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/15/arts/music/grammys-nominee-list-2023.html
 
By the way, the Awards & Nominations section is missing a nomination for Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media)

One other observation you’ve all probably noticed. When he talks about the character or piece he’s about to conduct. He speaks of these storybook characters or (as in the case of The Duel) comic cartoon situations with such appreciation and real delight.  When he discusses Hedwig or Yoda or E.T., it’s with the enthusiasm and jubilation that only one with childlike wonder could possess.   Almost like a kid explaining the movie they just enjoyed to their parents.  This genius musician who writes serious concert hall concertos could just as easily look down his nose at the subject matter with disdain, but just the opposite.  For a man of almost 91, he has an infectious young heart. 

I don’t have a full rationalization myself, my semi-hot take comes from the level of detail in TLJ’s score which seems to be at another level from almost any other score.

I think TLJ isn’t just the best sequel score, it’s the best Star Wars score. It’s incredibly well crafted and comparing it to the other sequels demonstrates the benefits of a good director collaboration and/or a director who knows when to say “it’s up to you”.
 
That said, TFA’s album is hard to beat as an album. And TROS none of us have actually had the opportunity to judge as written...

As someone who listens obsessively to the TLJ score (mainly the film cut), I'd be interested in hearing the case you make for this, perhaps in a separate thread 😁
 
I've been slowly visualizing a clear way to verbalize my rationale for liking TLJ's score the way I do, but it's slow going. There's the ever-present danger that my ignorance ("Steiner did it first! This is a Korngold rip-off! JW is borrowing from his own earlier work!") will undercut my case immediately.

Scherzo for X Wings was so fast! I feel like folks usually complain it’s too slow. He played it much faster than the OST recording

None of the battle music is on the soundtrack. 

This is a hard choice. I probably listen to The Last Jedi the most, because it is such a propulsive score. It does rely a bit too heavily on the Force theme for my tastes but the stoic theme for Luke's exile has stolen my heart. However, both The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker are built on the strong foundations of The Force Awakens. This score introduces such a strong collection of themes that I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge its importance. The Rise of Skywalker owes its flaws to the disjointed movie it accompanies but it does live up to the quality of what came before. All in all, my most listened to album must be The Last Jedi, however, I hold the entire musical sequel trilogy in high esteem.  

So Deutsche Grammophon will release "Fawkes the Phoenix" as a single tomorrow (november 11): https://music.apple.com/nz/album/fawkes-the-phoenix-from-harry-potter-and-the/1652091889
 
Seems like this 2022 Vienna concert will be released too  !
 

 
 

The length of The Fabelmans score reminds me of something Williams said during the Seventh Annual Career Achievement Award in the early 90’s.
 
Back then he said:
 
’I think it could be just as interesting to write a ‘Satie-like’ miniature score which is 10 minutes long. That can be the jewel in the hands of a master as a hundred-minute bombast can be in the hands of a fool.’ 

Source: Score Magazine (Dutch), 1991
 

It's so hard to judge Rise of Skywalker because it feels like we've only gotten an hour's worth of 30 second samples and no clear understanding of Williams' intended musical narrative. I'm sure there's a cohesive musical experience just waiting to be assembled by Mike but neither the film nor album make for a satisfying experience. The album in particular wastes far too much time on note for note reprisals of existing music, far more than the oft-criticised Last Jedi OST. 
 
So it really only leaves the other two scores and it's hard to deny the writing prowess and thematic development in TFA. I think TLJ has better highlights but is less consistent and a bit more dull for extended patches. TFA is simply unrivalled with the assortment of quality new themes and I'm grateful for how brilliantly he developed them across the trilogy (rather than abandoning or forgetting about them, as he has in the past). What TLJ really needed was some type of Force-in-hibernation theme to break up the monotony of those incessant Force theme appearances, which would reach its climax in The Spark as Luke returns. By comparison, TFA doesn't really leave you wanting for anything. 
 
In terms of film presentation, Last Jedi leaves the other two for dead. The score is brilliantly mixed and clearly treated with reverence by Johnson and his sound team. Williams is given multiple opportunities to be the only voice in the mix, while he spends the other two films competing for airtime with 500 SFX artists all screaming at the top of their lungs.
 
Enough has been said about Abrams and it's not worth repeating.

TROS is unfortunately let down by both an OST with too many missing highlights (Falcon Flight, Rey Trains, Advice, Parents, etc.) and a pretty lackluster film presentation, microedited, tracked to death, and frequently buried under sound effects. But it’s actually my favorite of the three, even though TFA is my favorite OST and TLJ is my favorite in the film.
 
Just bring on all three in complete form!

The VPO is a governmentally funded and privately sponsored institutional battleship. Its mere existence does not depend on a single gig. Nothing can bring them down. Even during the pandemic, Riccardo Muti was flown in to perform the New Year's concert in front of an empty auditorium (not a single ticket sold). The VPO also doesn't need a digital concert hall or an own record label to increase income and awareness.
 
However, the VPO can't afford a loss of prestige - if, for example, Joe Bloggs came to conduct the best of John Williams. This would annoy long-standing members and sponsors, thinking they were getting a second-rate performance (marketing platform).
 
The LSO, on the other hand, works more like a private company or a pickup band supported by free lancers. They are eager to fulfil every gig to keep the business running. The LSO doesn't need to prove anything regarding their capability of performing the music of John Williams to perfection, and hence a loss of added value (the presence of the Maestro) can be sacrificed but not a complete loss of revenue.

You know what's funny?  Sites like iTunes / Apple Music provide 90 second samples of every track.  In this case, that'd mean 18:00 out of the 31:14 album, leaving only 13:14 unheard

I assume not the actual score, but check this out around the 5 minute mark!