Tom

The interesting thing is that Williams's concert work has become much more innovative in the last 10 years--and I expect the piano concerto to push things further. Plus, the use of the flute in the BFG was all sorts of fresh.

My title from Williams's comments talking about music as basic as breathing: Breathing Music: The Life of John Williams And for the philosophy comment of the day: The philosopher Gilbert Ryle was once asked "what is being?" His response, "it is like breathing, only quieter." The Williams's version: "Music is like breathing, only louder."

Using the song was great. Quoting the whole damn thing was genius.

Don't get me wrong, I liked the piece (as I do like his concert style). However, my favorite Williams's concert piece moment might be the last movement of Soundings. Hearing such a similar take later was a bit jarring.

I heard it in a full concert BPO broadcast. It is more in the vein of his concert style, but it is very peppy. The last part was a bit too similar to the last movement of Soundings, for my tastes. Maybe the revision changes things a bit.

Thus my hinting ... It was revealed by the BPO insider guy on the board that the piece had a significant revision. I think the newer version has been performed, but I don't think we have a recording. Though, I could be wrong.

Remember that Just Down West Street has been significantly revised.......

That family loves black. I think the ordinary suburban family life is integral to Williams youthful vitality. It has kept him grounded and able to have the necessary boring regimented life to compose hours each day even with the glitz and glamour his career has brought him.

I hear that you are also not directing many other movies--so many announcements, so little time.

Super Bowl tickets this year, at the low end, are $6500. $509 is a bargain. You get to see John Williams, and, just as importantly, you don't have to pretend that watching grown men tackle each other for 3 hours makes any rational sense.

Have any dates abruptly ended when they learned it has nothing to do with the guitarist?

He only attends ceremonies where he knows that he is going to lose.

I would recommend listening to the second movement. You won't love it, but you might like it. Yes, Williams's concert works are an acquired taste. I found them wholly non-accessible 20 years ago. Now, some of them, anyway, are among my favorite pieces. While I would still love a full concerto/symphony in his romantic film mode, it is clearly never going to happen.* The nice thing about being a Williams fan is that one has 100s of hours of his film and ceremony pieces to enjoy, even if his concert music might not speak to one. *Come on, Williams. A Cello Concerto/Suite from AI is just begging to exist!

Yes, it is definitely a Williams concert work. Have you listened to the other movements? The first is the most abrasive, by far.

One would think that by this point we would be in the Cretaceous period.

"Would you check out the size of this guy's violin. Damn his neck must hurt."

Yes, the clarinet mic is too close, but compared to the old bootleg, it is a revelation. I have not taken the time to compare the two, but the middle movement seemed quite a bit longer to me. My guess is that a good chuck of the extensions are there. Maybe the 1st movement cadenza is a bit longer? The third movement struck me as the same. But again, I have not taken the time to relisten to the bootleg. I think Miguel once called this piece a "minor masterpiece." I am quite fond of that description. It is not a tour de force like the second violin concerto or quite as broad as Five Sacred Trees, but it achieves what it sets out to do.

Finally, a new recording. The bootleg's quality was painful. Plus, this is a concerto that deserves a more prominent place in the contemporary clarinet repertoire. Do we have any details on the revisions? Did Williams only just revise it?

Thank you, as well, Ricard. While I did not join the forums till much later, I have been an avid visitor since The Phantom Menace days. Good times all around.

What a great podcast. This one really drew me into the personal world of film scoring. Yes, Mr. Newman loves to talk, but his passion, knowledge, and detailed memory are fantastic. Tim's comments on Williams's complicated feelings on presenting film scores and such makes Williams all the more compelling to me. I feel bad for the guy on some level. It seems like his BPO days, at least the first several, were not all that gratifying. Pretty cool that he stuck it out and has sort of "won the argument," if you will.

Gifts from beyond the grave are tight.

Read on only if you want to become sleepy: From a linguistics point of view, a statement that is true is simply called a true proposition. A fact is a statement concerning some empirical (scientific--broadly construed) reality. Thus, not all "factual statements" are true. The statement that "water freezes at 65 degrees" is a factual statement, but false. Usually, though, we use the shorthand "fact" to refer to a empirical proposition that is indeed "true" by reigning consensus based on best available evidence. But the kicker is that no scientific statement can ever be called true with a 100% certitude, as science deals only with probabilities under the 100% threshold. As factually true as Newton's law that Force + Matter x Acceleration seemed prior to Einstein, the latter proved it was not actually true. The lesson: all facts, no matter how high their probability of support, could turn out to be false upon further inquiry. In the case of the above, the statement that "Williams is the most performed living composer" is a factual claim. The best available evident points to this statement being true. Hence, a fact.

Sure, but that is the case with all statements of fact. The factual claim is that he is the most performed living composer, and that claim (which could turn out to be false) is based on such and such evidence. Sorry, the philosopher in me in coming out.

I have a quibble over the word choice in the original article. "JW 'named'..." makes it sound like some subjectively-based prize. It is a statement of fact. They should have gone with "JW is/was the most performed living composer."

It probably would not change things, but if you emailed BSO about TOD's anniversary, and the fittingness of it being performed, they might pass that along. I doubt Williams remembers these anniversaries so precisely.