Steve

What I find interesting is that Johnny is respected more among classical musicians/conductors than among classical music critics. Some of the most famous soloists and conductors have performed his music and have appreciated it. I think that is more important than critics writing good reviews about his works.

What I find interesting is that Johnny is respected more among classical musicians/conductors than among classical music critics. Some of the most famous soloists and conductors have performed his music and have appreciated it. I think that is more important than critics writing good reviews about his works.

Exactly. As I wrote in the Bach topic.

I think John Williams is the John Williams of our time, not his.

What I find interesting is that Johnny is respected more among classical musicians/conductors than among classical music critics. Some of the most famous soloists and conductors have performed his music and have appreciated it. I think that is more important than critics writing good reviews about his works.

The cover stories are usually longer than two pages, if I recall correctly.

To be honest, I hope it stays "Wien, Wien, nur Du allein."
 
I don't think this "one-off debut" can be topped by any other European line-up - even if it were the Berliners.
 

The words "sappy" and "cold" in the same sentence with "Bach" is really ridiculous.

This is by far my favourite scene of the movie. The music starting at 1:18 is Those horns
 

The opening with the Rhine music? The renounciation of love? The Valhalla motif? The crescendo of the Walsung motif when Siegfrid dies?
 
And that's just in the Ring cycle. Wagner was one hell of a tunesmith.

Here is the excerpt from the interview with Alex Ross:
 
Talk of leitmotifs leads inevitably to the topic of Richard Wagner, with whom they are inextricably associated. Williams leaned back in his chair and smiled ruefully.

“Well, I saw the ‘Ring’ at the Hamburg Opera, years ago, and found it somewhat inaccessible, mostly because I didn’t know German,” he said. “I don’t really know the Wagner operas at all. If Mr. Hanslick were alive, I think I’d be sitting on the side of Brahms in the debate.” (The Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick campaigned for Brahms and against Wagner in the late nineteenth century.) “People say they hear Wagner in ‘Star Wars,’ and I can only think, It’s not because I put it there. Now, of course, I know that Wagner had a great influence on Korngold and all the early Hollywood composers. Wagner lives with us here—you can’t escape it. I have been in the big river swimming with all of them.”

Hm. I'd love to read that. I don't know if he has ever played or recorded Wagner in his Boston Pops days (I only have a handful of his Boston Pops albums), but perhaps some of you know?
 
I mean, I can understand a criticism of Wagner's political leanings, but musically, he's the benchmark for film music, including Williams' own. Would seem odd to dismiss him.

Williams is the Williams of our time.

I hope we don't just get Violin Concerto No. 2 and a rehash of Across the Strad.

Something for the christmas season.
 
"Star of Bethlehem" Williams conducting the Boston Pops and Tanglewood Festival Chorus
 

Williams is the Williams of our time.

Only 550km for me

Yes.  Williams conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Filmharmonic on 30th October 1976, having attended the Royal Albert Hall the previous year to get a few tips when Jerry Goldsmith was one of the conductors.  The programme in 1976 included such wonderful selections as The Eiger Sanction, The Poseidon Adventure, Heidi, Cinderella Liberty, Jane Eyre, Earthquake and others.
 
Williams returned to the Royal Albert Hall less than two years later to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra this time in a concert entitled LSO In Space on 16th February 1978, famously sharing conducting duties with C3PO.  The concert featured music from Star Wars and "other great space music."
 
His next appearance at the venue was again at Filmharmonic, conducting the National Philharmonic Orchestra on 18th October 1980 as seen in the video to which you linked above.  As well as the music seen in the clip, Williams also conducted two elections from The Empire Strikes Back at the same concert - Yoda's Theme and The Imperial March.
 
The most recent appearance (but hopefully not the last...) at the Royal Albert Hall was with the LSO again at Filmharmonic on 16th November 1985.  I believe that @Naïve Old Fart was at that one, no doubt having it large.

1) Vienna Philharmonic 
2) Berlin Philharmonic 
(...)
LSO

Berliner Philharmoniker would be a great choice for John. So many legendary recordings have been made by them, and when they play romantics like Beethoven, they have no equals in the world. I'd be really curious to hear how John's music would sound on that orchestra.
 
I actually had plans to go to some random concert of theirs, just to hear them play live. I've heard that they do great New Year's Eve concerts, and since the tickets to Berlin are fairly affordable, I was considering the option to meet the coming New Year there. Of course, when the pandemic began, it all had to be postponed.
 
So they're already a great orchestra to have on the bucket list, even without John Williams. With the maestro conducting them, though, it would be a no brainer. Since John made it clear on the BBC that Berliner Philharmoniker is an orchestra he'd really want to conduct, I am fairly optimistic that we will see it happen pretty soon.

I'm not a pessimistic person, not at all. But given COVID19 and his age, I'm just, uh, careful. But of course, living in Berlin myself the thought of going to a JW-concert by bike would be fabulous! :-)

1) Vienna Philharmonic 
2) Berlin Philharmonic 
(...)
LSO

Sarah Willis (BPO horn) talked about a potential Williams concert that didn't happen in an interview this year. So who know? I think they have tried to get him come to Berlin for a few years. As I'm from Germany, this would be great! However, not sure if Williams will travel so far away anymore and we don't know if the vaccine is effective for people of his age.

In a BBC Radio 4 interview from this morning, John Williams mentions that he "[hopes] to be in Berlin in October conducting the orchestra". Is this the first we have heard of a potential concert with what sounds like the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra?? What do you make of this? Interview starts at 7:40am (1h40min in) but JW mentions Berlin at 7:44am, (1h44min in)? 
 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000ph3t 
 
If this is to be true and the vaccines are here to enable us to see concerts again, it is amazing to hear JW is still able and willing to work!! 

What a marvellous find!  Thank you for posting this, @Steve.  I remember reading that FILMHARMONIC NINETEEN EIGHTY was broadcast on TV at the time and wondered if any footage would ever resurface.  The concert took place on 18th October 1980 at the Royal Albert Hall in London (which always looks so dark in videos from the 1970s and 1980s!) and I believe that conducting duties were shared between John Williams, John Addison and Geoff Love.
 
The man introducing Williams at the start of the clip is the actor Donald Sinden, a stalwart of British sitcoms back in the day.  On a point of order, the orchestra is actually the National Philharmonic Orchestra, not the London Philharmonic Orchestra.  It is fascinating to see that relatively recently - we are talking only forty years ago - most orchestras had very few, if any female musicians.  Nowadays most of the best orchestras in Britain have at least as many women as men in their ranks.
 
This was the third of four occasions to date on which Williams has conducted his music at the Royal Albert Hall.