TownerFan

Interview from 2012 with the late Arthur B. Rubinstein (a very fine film composer) mostly about JW:

FYI, Mutter wrote on her Facebook/Instagram that she will soon record the Violin Concerto No.2 in Boston with JW, along with "more film themes". https://www.facebook.com/annesophiemutter/posts/407386110752051

I live very far from Sicily—I’m in the Northern region, but thanks for pointing it out. Will check local newspapers to see if something nice will pop out.

Thanks for posting this, I wasn't aware of this recording. Cellist Steve Erdody told me during our podcast interview that John worked a lot with Lynn Harrell on the various revisions, and apparently he considers the piece still not right enough.

Hollywood produced mainstream films since its heydays. It's the platform upon which studios invest and build their prestige that changed. Once it was the star system, now it's the world of IPs.

I think mainstream here refers exclusively to current big Hollywood studio films that are mostly IP-driven (i.e., based on properties that can be easily used as platforms to produce sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots and sell more licenses for marketing revenues, etc.). This is the template of all big Hollywood studios (Disney, WB, NBC Universal, Viacom, Sony) because it's the most profitable, end of story, just look at the worldwide box office charts of the last 10 years. In my opinion, it is a big issue in terms of creativity and it's something that is creating a lot of constraints for the many talents working in the industry. However, one of the peculiar things of this epoch is that film entertainment (which nowadays include also films and shows produced by streaming companies) is getting more and more tailored to consumers, so it's more likely you can find plenty of stuff more suited to tastes and preferences aimed at very specific demographics.

Having a finalized end credit roll upon which the composer can write a proper concert-like suite is a luxury that nowadays isn't allowed to anybody.

Powell revealed recently on his Instagram that he's at work on a concert suite from Solo:

It’s true that electronic music has been always part of the series, but it was always organically integrated with Don Davis’ post-modern orchestral score (save maybe for the more brazen needle-drops in the first movie). Saying that Davis didn’t provide the sonic identity of The Matrix and suggesting he just stole from other composers is unfair. It’s like saying that Williams didn’t provide any identity to Star Wars because the music sounds like Korngold, Holst, etc. Also, Davis built a real musical progression from film 1 to film 3, and that’s a rare privilege composers are given in such context. Given how much crucial Davis’ score has always been in defining the series, it’s a lost opportunity not to have him back, especially since this new movie looks like an actual sequel directly linked to the previous films, not a soft reboot, or a completely new thing. Of course nobody knows what happened behind the scenes, perhaps WB and Wachowski asked Davis and he declined, who knows. And it’s still totally their right to assign the score to whoever they like the most. But it wouldn’t surprise me if they didn’t even bother asking Davis and just went to their actual preferred collaborators. It’s still Hollywood—loyalty and integrity are the exception, not the rule.

Davis was the voice and the soul of The Matrix. He defined the sonic world of the series, so any film of the series without him will miss something crucial, imho. Perhaps the filmmakers have gone on a completely new route, hence the composer change may make sense, who knows. It's sad that a superb talent like Don isn't getting more high profile gigs, but I guess his style and approach don't gel well with the current requirements of the blockbuster scoring. I'll be forever in awe of him for having the guts to write an unbelieveably complex piece of music for the burly brawl in the second film--too bad it was rejected in the end.

I think musicians, sport athletes, and other people working in arts/entertainment fields are on a kind of whitelist for international travel (given they're fully vaccinated and/or regularly tested, I guess)

That looks like something very much likely. Here's my prediction: Olympic Fanfare and Theme (hopefully with the organ too!) Excerpts from CE3K Hedwig's Theme Fawkes the Phoenix Harry's Wondrous World Sayuri's Theme and Going To School from Memoirs of a Geisha Elegy for Cello and Orchestra March from Superman --intermission-- Theme from Jurassic Park Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra Raiders March Theme from Schindler's List Rey's Theme Yoda's Theme Throne Room and Finale Encores: The Imperial March Flying Theme from E.T. Given the safety protocols, I wonder if the concert will proceed without an intermission to avoid people leaving their seats and mingle etc., so it could be that it might be a tad shorter than usual.

You're correct, I always makes confusion between Richard Hayman and Dick Hyman, they have almost identical names Btw, Williams also commissioned arrangements to top Broadway orchestrator Jonathan Tunick and several Hollywood friends as Herb Spencer and Morton Stevens. Also, he nurtured young talents like Pat Hollenbeck, who also helped him out on Indy 3 and the Hymn to New England piece.

As Leonard Slatkin recollected in the Williams/Goldsmith tribute we did last February, one of the reasons the Pops picked JW as music director was his access to a slew of new arrangers (mostly from Hollywood) who could revive and update the Pops catalogue with new and fresh arrangements. One of the reasons why the orchestra had issues to perform with Fiedler was indeed the poor quality of the arrangements they were playing. While JW kept some of the standards made during the Fiedler years penned by Jack Mason, Glenn Osser, Joe Reisman and others, he commissioned many new ones to friends like Alexander Courage, Dick Hyman, Richard Hayman, Angela Morley, Sid Ramin. That was an absolutely crucial element of his tenure at the Pops. Of course he also crafted several by himself, but as you noted, those were incredibly busy years for him so it wouldn't have been possible to take all that arranging workload by himself.

There are no quotes from JW about the film itself anywhere, but here's an interesting thing he said to Richard Dyer in 1991 that somehow relates to elements of the film that spoke to himself: