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I’m still seeing seats available for all three Williams events, but can’t drop $600 right now. I’ve had luck getting great seats between the sale date and concert date anyway - not stressing it for now.

I’m sure he’s fine. He’s said in recent interviews that he doesn’t find these long award shows that fun anymore, that they used to be more natural and entertaining, and has acknowledged that along with his record number of nominations are a great deal of losses. He probably just didn’t want to sit through three-plus hours of fanfare after being to so many of these over the years.

In honor of Schindler’s List turning 30, the orchestra played the main theme as Spielberg came out to hand out Best Director. Awkwardly, or perhaps a bit fittingly, it was directly after Cillian Murphy won Best Actor for his performance in another WW2 drama.

Alas, Oppenheimer won. Don’t think Williams is even there - they didn’t do a split screen of all the nominees, and when someone who won earlier shouted out Williams as an inspiration, they never showed him for one of those classic “reaction shots”.

Interesting that they haven’t listed a co-conductor!

Another truly wonderful evening! Not much to add since I covered this same program in my post about the Philly concert, but Williams was again in amazing spirits, even widely smiling at the orchestra while conducting. He couldn’t remember Mark Hamill’s name, referring only to Carrie Fisher’s screen “partner”, but that’s literally my only nitpick beyond again lamenting the missed opportunity of having Williams conduct Yo-Yo Ma himself. Beyond that, nothing but great energy from the stage and the audience, and in an iconic and historic venue that Williams highly praised when he began the second half of the program (even theorizing there are ghosts in the Hall that dance and play music when it’s empty after performances). I guess for now, this is it until Tanglewood for East Coast-ers. August feels so far away, but I’m sure it’ll be here before we all know it! Until then, grateful as ever to the living legend that is Maestro John Williams for countless priceless musical memories, from the first note of the first piece to the famous “sleepy hands”, and everything in between. I mentioned in that thread that I emailed the station and they told me the concert won’t be broadcast.

First half done! Exactly the same as the first, including Williams greeting the crowd before and after the Schindler’s List encore. Also worth noting that while the Philly concert was confirmed to not have a future broadcast, it was heavily mic’d all the way down to one specifically in front of Yo-Yo Ma. Meanwhile, tonight’s concert only has a single microphone hanging in front of the conductor’s podium and no where else. There are a bunch of cameras at the back of the hall, but I can’t see how a good sound recording could be acquired for this one with the only mic I can see.

A single seat in orchestra center, row Q has opened up.

I believe it'll be "Violin Concerto No. 2 & Selected Film Themes", which was recorded in Boston in October 2021. It features the Concerto, along with Theme from The Long Goodbye, Han Solo and the Princess, and Marion's Theme. Notably, the release has no audience applause before and after pieces (except for the Blu-Ray version).

Me!

Wowwww, that box set sounds incredible!!! I wonder what the bonus content will be. I’m sure it’ll cost an arm and a leg, but if the vinyl editions in the box are exclusive in some way (like the limited gold variants the individual releases had when they first went on sale), it'll be perfect. Also excited to see what concerts are unearthed on Stage+! The choice to release a box set now with Japan done also feels a bit… definitive? Surely this isn’t the end of their John Williams live releases?

Yes, he gave a synopsis of the book/film’s story.

Update: emailed the station and they replied saying the concert was not recorded for broadcast.

The bottom of the main program page with the listed of pieces states: “Philadelphia Orchestra concerts are broadcast on WRTI 90.1 FM on Sunday: afternoons at 1 PM and are repeated on Monday evenings at 7 PM on WRTI HD 2. Visit www.wrti.org to listen live or for more details.” I can’t find anything on their site specifying what concert would be broadcast this coming Sunday and Monday, but maybe it’s a proper recording of this performance?

Williams, the audience, the radio commentators, and online reviews thought otherwise. Try finding joy in funny little moments instead of annoyance. And stop derailing this thread with attitude - your initial comment was uncalled for.

It’s a fun memory and a cute moment. Get over it. 🥰

A magical evening with the Maestro! I’m sooooo glad he did the second half of the concert instead - hearing him introduce his own iconic pieces and conduct them himself just can’t be beat! Williams was in great form, telling the usual funny stories with even greater humor and joy than usual (and noting that Empire is when he “put clothes on Darth Vader and Yoda” when telling the Luke-Leia-love-them story before Leia’s Theme). He also seemed more spry than the last time I saw him, walking much more quickly and easily and even bending down multiple times to pick up his massive score books. At one point, his baton even fell to the ground and he was about to pick it up himself before a cellist did for him. Needless to say, Yo-Yo Ma was brilliant during the Concerto and Schindler’s List Theme in the first half, but the second half with Williams himself stole the show, and the energy of the audience alone demonstrated that. The second half encores were Helena’s Theme, Star Wars Main Title Suite, and Imperial March. So, no surprises this time, but still a wonderful concert full of classics and amazing energy from both Williams and his audience. My only “critiques” would be that beyond Williams coming out before and after Schindler’s to bow with Yo-Yo Ma, there was no other interaction between them, and you’d have expected Williams to conduct Yo-Yo at some point given their double headline spots in the concert. And additionally, Williams’ security needs to chill a bit. A kid who couldn’t have been older than 14 walked up to the stage with a CD and sharpie in hand towards the end of the concert when Williams was exiting, and a security guard standing stage right began motioning to the kid to leave and ultimately came down to tell him to go away. Let’s not forget Williams used to come out the stage door after Boston shows and greet everyone. I know eBay scalpers ruined that, and now Williams is up in age, but for security to get on a kid’s ass just because he was holding a CD was sad. Not necessarily Williams’ fault, of course, and also not surprising since Williams hasn’t signed for people in years, but it definitely showed how times have changed. Anyway, looking forward to experiencing this wonderful program again at the legendary Carnegie Hall in a couple days! Hopefully Williams does the second half there, too. It really enhanced the entire evening. Tonight was my 30th time seeing him conduct live, and I certainly hope there will be many more ahead! My pics from the evening:

Intermission! Schindler’s was indeed the first half encore. Williams came out before and after the piece to wave to the audience and take a bow.

Relatively major plot twist! Interesting that Williams and Yo-Yo wouldn’t share the stage together, but Williams conducting the second half’s contents sounds way more fun, so no complaints from me! EDIT: Seems two others already reported the news, haha, but here’s a pic of the insert!

Me!

Explain?

After being completely sold out for half a year, three seats opened up this morning - one left orchestra aisle seat in row M, and two partial view ones all the way up on the third balcony. I grabbed the M one, and the two balcony ones were already gone by the time I finished checking out. But if anyone else is still hoping to attend this, keep checking up until just about showtime!

Floor prices are down to $359.

Great first performance! The orchestra sounded more powerful during Fellowship, but everyone was still on point tonight and the audience was really into it. Only real disappointment was the merch. Fellowship had a whole dedicated program book and, more significantly, soundtrack CDs signed by Shore himself. This time, there were no programs, and while they were selling more signed Fellowship CDs, the Two Towers CDs they were selling (for $35!) were not signed. The only other merch was shirts, sheet music, and the Music Of book. Was really hoping for signed Two Towers CDs. Oh well.

Dozens of floor seats are currently available (towards the back and off to the side). They’re all $509. Still can’t get over the insane prices for this and the Philly show vs. previous years.