Gurkensalat

https://www.ardmediathek.de/ard/player/Y3JpZDovL2Rhc2Vyc3RlLmRlL21vcmdlbm1hZ2F6aW4vMjlmZGFhMjItZjQ0My00ZjI4LWJiYWUtNThlNmE0NTAyNzFk/livemusik-anne-sophie-mutter

Schrödingers Hook!

Schrödingers Hook!

A look back to John Williams’ lively, exciting score for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom on the 35th anniversary of its theatrical release:
 
https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2019/05/24/indiana-jones-temple-of-doom-35-anniversary/

As part of of the ongoing series "Legacy Conversations", here's an exclusive interview with one of America’s most talented, lively and creative living conductors: Leonard Slatkin.
 
https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2019/05/16/leonard-slatkin-podcast/

In this interview, Maestro Slatkin offers his own insightful comments about the music and the legacy of his dear friend John Williams.
 
Hope you'll enjoy!

The symphony has actually been performed three times. I found a concert review in The Guardian from July 10 1972, and the LSO and Previn performed the symphony in Nottingham, the day after the London performance. 

The only dumpster fire on JWFan is the hostile negativity pervading these threads, where enjoying or being positive about something is drowned out by antagonistic cynicism.
 
People can actually separate the fact that movies are made (first and foremost) to be profitable. Likewise, that filmmakers also strive to make them entertaining for fans who enjoy the escapism the series provides.
 
It never ceases to amaze me how posters, who proclaim their disdain for these new films ad nauseam, feel so compelled to relentlessly promote their opinions and ruin discussion by those who actually enjoy them. It's no wonder so many good posters have migrated to the Discord where you can actually have civil discussions on topics without the onslaught of vacuous negativity.

You know, all those movies you love from the 80s and 90s were decried as cynical creatively bankrupt cash grabs by people of the age you are now.

Sorry, but that's not what Spielberg said. He never went against streaming or Netflix per se. Here's exactly what he said one year ago (from 4:25)
 
 
As you can see his thoughts are very specific and refer to a much larger context and the state of studio productions and the Hollywood industry in general, it's not like he has a personal agenda against Netflix or anything else (hey, his company even produced shows for Netflix such as Five Came Back and Haunting of Hill House). Yes, it's a strong opinion and of course it's debatable as every opinion, but this idea that Spielberg suddenly turned into an evil old fellow with an agenda against a specific studio (a company seen by many as the new church of quality entertainment) to protect a dying business model is frankly ridiculous.
 
I wish people (especially people working in the industry) would honestly stop to make judgement based on assumption read on other people's Twitter feeds. Read, research and then form your opinion and only after that you can go to your social media to spread your gospel.

Gerhardts TESB was a nice expansion at the time to the 1 disc OST. Some sloppy playing, e.g. the hectic asteroid field.
Gerhardts ROTJ is strange since one of the few expanded areas is The Ewok Battle which is the film version of The Forest Battle, which is also on the disc. Choosing this repetition instead of anything other out of close to 2 h of unreleased music was mind boggling. On the other hand I like the orchestral version of YubYub.
Kojian is nice, good recording quality. Some tracks are a bit slow. Again, the few expansions are not those I would have chosen, but so what. When I bought it in 1988 I was happy for every additional bit of music and played it quite often.
Skywalker recording is a nice round package of the concert suites, played well, although a bit slow sometimes. Don't like the electronic sounding Cantina band.
 

Yes, I'm talking about Empire, where the brass is completely out to lunch on a bunch of cues... those squawks at 1:58 of "Luke's First Crash" or 2:00 into "The Rebels Escape Again" are brutal.  And there are plenty of other moments where they are flat, understated or can't even hit the proper pitch.
 
I love the Jedi album. Beside the Kojian album, which is BRILLIANT recorded, no one beats a K.E. Wilkinson recording.  And while there are a few flaws there aren't as many as in Empire, which just sounded rushed.
 
-Erik-

Gerhardt's Empire is the best, both for performance and for the variety of content in the program.  His recording of the Main Title crawl is my favorite re-recording of that piece.  And this album contains the definitive recording of Han Solo & The Princess. My one and only nitpick with this album would be the End Titles, wish he'd have recorded The Rebel Fleet music that leads into the credits too.

There are so many blown notes in the brass.  Why they were never addressed during the recording of the album is a mystery.  A few inserts here and there and this album would have been a masterpiece!
 
-Erik-

It's about frickin' time they dropped that stupid limitation!

After the Discman, I even used Sony's MiniDiscman for a time!
 
Actually I still think the MiniDisc should have taken off, instead of the Compact Disc. We're so used to it now, but if you think about it CDs are so impractical! They're easy to scratch, relatively big, rather awkward to handle, they skip so easily.... It's like the old LP vinyl records, only in miniature.
 
The MiniDiscs are so much better! They don't scratch, they're smaller, they don't skip, they can be easily overwritten.
 

In this absolute form the statement is not true. Not all hifi enthusiasts prefer 2 channel. There are lots of orchestral recordings that sound in 5.1 much better than stereo (IMO). This is the case for conservative surround (only ambiance) as well as more adventurous mixes. Just listen to SACDs from Bis, Telarc, Pentatone and other classical labels that care about recording quality. If you really think that they sound worse than the stereo versions, there is something wrong with your setup, I think. Of course you need good speakers with similar sound signature to achieve a cohesive sound field, and correct placement.
In film music I can recommend the Bernard Herrmann SACD from Dutton/Vocalion (Citizen Kane and others). A spectacular release.
 

In this absolute form the statement is not true. Not all hifi enthusiasts prefer 2 channel. There are lots of orchestral recordings that sound in 5.1 much better than stereo (IMO). This is the case for conservative surround (only ambiance) as well as more adventurous mixes. Just listen to SACDs from Bis, Telarc, Pentatone and other classical labels that care about recording quality. If you really think that they sound worse than the stereo versions, there is something wrong with your setup, I think. Of course you need good speakers with similar sound signature to achieve a cohesive sound field, and correct placement.
In film music I can recommend the Bernard Herrmann SACD from Dutton/Vocalion (Citizen Kane and others). A spectacular release.
 

On SACD or blu-ray audio!

Intermittent lurker here, so forgive the rambling and possible burying of the lead.  Last paragraph is likely most of interest here but if I let myself edit this then I'll wind up never posting it.
 
I'm likely buying this set once I rejigger my "fun money queue."  Between the UHD and the extended version on Blu (turns out the UHD digital copy comes with that, so I needn't have bought the disc), Superman has been a pricey indulgence this year.  II & III is very, very tempting.  Way back when, II was my favorite score; more so than the original.  Just not sure I need III again.  The UHD and it is nice to have the score (though not isolated) in hi-res surround.  I do wish the vintage sound mix were lossless but it's also nice to have that.  I also confess it feels like a missed opportunity not to have the isolated score (which I believe was included, in stereo, on the original DVD).  While DVD-A is truly dead, it's my understanding that SACD actually still does pretty well in classical, jazz and other niches.  In fact, Pink Floyd is about to reissue two OOP SACDs (Dark Side and Wish You Were Here) and a third (Animals) which has never been on the format at all.  Yes, niches within niches among neighboring niches -- just like film scores.  Thing is, Blu-ray Audio is fully compatible with Blu-ray; it's the same basic spec.  There's no reason hi-res and/or surround can't be played on all Blu-ray hardware easily purchased for, what, $50US?  Of course, that doesn't include full surround gear but that's a deeper topic for elsewhere.  It's just an acknowledgement there are still complications.
 
I don't think I personally benefit much from hi-res but accept that others do.  Likewise, I get the "we have two ears" dismissal.  Forgive the diversion before returning to orchestras.  Surround implementation can range from gimmicky (Flaming Lips' "Yoshimi") to "big stereo" (Beales' 1+ often gets this criticism), and points in between.  One of my favorite albums, R.E.M.'s "Automatic for the People" received a 5.1 mix around 2000 or so and received a ground-up ATMOS (5.1.x) mix last year.  When listening to either in 5.1 it is apparent that each was remixed differently and that each brings out elements that were buried (intentionally or otherwise).  As a moderately critical listener without training, I find this wonderful.  Not only is it immersive (to me) but for someone with an attentive but inexpert ear it can help me become more aware of elements I hadn't keyed into before.  For some that's a distraction or even revisionist.  For me it's refreshing.  Then, when I return to stereo mixes (whether the original or new ones) it gives me a richer experience.  Even if I still don't notice those elements in the stereo mix it somehow still feels fresher.  Psychosomatic, maybe; subjective, certainly.  Blasphemy... to some.
 
Okay.  Orchestral.  I have a handful of vintage RCA "Living Stereo" SACDs that are in 3.0 surround from the 1950s.  In the case of the orchestral ones, it helps spreading the sections across an extra channel.  Same even with something like Belafonte Live at Carnegie.  It brings more presence.  Last year, Deutsche Grammophone released two excellent surround sets on Blu-ray audio.  One is Bernstein's complete Beethoven's symphonies in 5.1.  The other is Steinberg conducting Holst's "Planets" and Strauss' "Zarathustra" in a vintage quad/4.0 mix.  As with the handful of classical titles I have, the rears are used more to provide "presence" than anything else.  For some, that's annoying; for others immersive.  I rather like it, personally.  Unlike DSP settings in a receiver, this bakes it in so there is no artifacting and -- more critically -- it has human artistic intent and engineering talent behind it, rather than an algorithm.  Best of all, on the Blu-ray one can listen in surround, hi-res stereo or standard stereo because Blu-ray Audio is backwards compatible.  This sets it apart from SACD and DVD-A's proprietary issues.  It also means that, when titles are affordable (like "Planets" and, for the disc count, Beethoven -- and unlike R.E.M.!), people who are fine with 16/44.1 get what they want, as do the hi-res folks and the surround kooks like me.  Best of all, one can upgrade or downgrade to suit their taste, budget, etc.).
 
For anyone interested, here's an interesting video about the process of prepping the Bernstein/Beethoven set.  He discusses surround mid-way through:
 
 
All of this is to say, it's nice having the choice.  It's too bad that economic realities of this licensed niche and the waning physical media market makes it less likely such options will arrive even though it seems this (and at least Star Trek: TMP) are ready to go in hi-res stereo.  If/when they become downloadable, maybe I'll give them a shot.  I did buy the most recent Star Wars hi-res download; it's more problematic history and edits make it harder for me to fully embrace it, though.  

Great, but again a concerto where there are already good recordings available. Patiently waiting for clarinet and viola concertos (and Scherzo for piano and orchestra). 

Great, but again a concerto where there are already good recordings available. Patiently waiting for clarinet and viola concertos (and Scherzo for piano and orchestra). 

I vehemently disagree concerning Memoirs, War Horse and especially Tintin with its 2 separate recording sessions.

Minidisc was awesome! SHUT UP!

I am not sure that I would call the movie great, but it is nice and entertaining. I agree that the score IS great, I often listen to it.