lairdo

There is another Williams related nomination on the classical side. The Dallas Winds engineers were nominated for their John Williams album. Best Engineered Album, Classical An Engineer's Award. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) BATES: THE (R)EVOLUTION OF STEVE JOBS Mark Donahue & Dirk Sobotka, engineers; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer (Michael Christie, Garrett Sorenson, Wei Wu, Sasha Cooke, Edwards Parks, Jessica E. Jones & Santa Fe Opera Orchestra) BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY NO. 3; STRAUSS: HORN CONCERTO NO. 1 Mark Donahue, engineer; Mark Donahue, mastering engineer (Manfred Honeck & Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra) JOHN WILLIAMS AT THE MOVIES Keith O. Johnson & Sean Royce Martin, engineers; Keith O. Johnson, mastering engineer (Jerry Junkin & Dallas Winds) LIQUID MELANCHOLY - CLARINET MUSIC OF JAMES M. STEPHENSON Bill Maylone & Mary Mazurek, engineers; Bill Maylone, mastering engineer (John Bruce Yeh) SHOSTAKOVICH: SYMPHONIES NOS. 4 & 11 Shawn Murphy & Nick Squire, engineers; Tim Martyn, mastering engineer (Andris Nelsons & Boston Symphony Orchestra) VISIONS AND VARIATIONS Tom Caulfield, engineer; Jesse Lewis, mastering engineer (A Far Cry)

Totally agree. I forgot to list that. It has a really wonderful mix of music. And I too think it would play well live.

Interesting speculation. Well, other than having gotten a chance to speak to Emil de Cue before he led Raiders at SF Symphony in 2017, I don’t know much about how these things come to be. Of course, there are all the rights issues to sort out, but if Spielberg wanted something to happen, I suspect those would happen. Probably the next criteria set of hurdles is technical: Is there enough music in the film score to make sense for LTP? (I think this is the biggest knock against Saving Private Ryan - it’s fairly sparse of music) Do the parts exists in such a way to support what is needed (all the separate elements available, pieces of music that come out of the speakers vs. orchestra)? How long is the movie? Beyond audience ability to sit, the musicians have to be able to play. (But of course, Wagner operas are non-stop music and go for 5 hours, so this may be less of an issue) And then we get to audience fit as the post references. What is ok to play and attract enough families? Jaws and Jurassic Park are scary movies at times, but they have done well. Raiders has killing and gruesome deaths. Of this list, I have seen Raiders and Jaws. I’m seeing ET in February and maybe Close Encounters in April. They are all great. (I’ve also seen 2 Harry Potters, Star Trek Beyond and La La Land - which I had never seen before - but my wife wanted to go for Valentine’s Day. We are seeing Amadeus in Feb too.) So, which collaborations do I think might work to the above restrictions? Last Crusade seems like a good choice Minority Report is well regarded enough and probably would be fine in performance I agree that Lost World is possible. Hook too but seems to be forgotten nowadays by movie goers. Catch Me If You Can with a live jazz band (this is what La La Land had and it was the best part) as well as orchestra Amistad (with choir) Tintin seems like something that would work and be great internationally too. Lincoln given the subject matter and strength of the movie Less likely I would love to see 1941 but again, it’s not on anyone’s radar Empire of the Sun with choir and a Chopin soloist would be amazing. Probably too long a film though. AI - too esoteric Schindler’s List (which I would love to see) but may not play well with audiences. However, maybe if it does well in rerelease... The Terminal - mostly forgotten Always - completely forgotten BFG, Post, etc are too new and not flashy enough. War of the Worlds - not considered good enough Sugarland Express - JW would not approve apparently Temple of Doom and Crystal Skull would be great in terms of music but harder in terms of audience. But Temple of Doom would be so good to hear live!

I recently watched The Reivers on blu-ray (actually really liked the film a lot - the score fits it well). I was not keeping track of the score and comparing it to the CD release, but I am almost 100% sure that the music that plays at the end of the horse race is not represented on any release. There is likely more missing, but that definitely stood out to me particularly because the first part of the horse race is not scored at all (or at least if it was scored, the music was not used in the film mix). So, I am hoping there is more to get from that film should sessions be found. Next year is the 50th anniversary. I think it's a very, very important part of JW's output being around the point when he went from his TV work and comedy films to full time big film projects and because the score was a big influence on Spielberg hiring him. (And also Mark Rydell and JW did 4 films together which is 3nd most (tied with George counting only his 4 directed SW movies) for a director collaboration behind Chris Columbus and Steven Spielberg.) Anyway, I want more Reivers!

While not composed by Williams, I think it is cool that he performed piano on the Prokofiev/Ward-Steinman cello and piano album (1974). A number of his themes have been arranged and recorded as chamber works - a bunch on solo piano (Example Dan Redfield "Across the Stars."). Nice piano and violin examples are by Orli and Gil Shaman (sister and brother) with 3 tracks from Schindler's List (Hebrew Melodies, 2013).

I totally agree with that. It might be the difference between the two different venues at Tanglewood (I've never been), but I also think the BSO (plus guests from other orchestras) probably just has a tighter sound than the TMC given they have played together a lot longer. And then add in you have the composer conducting his own work in what was really an amazing overall concert full of energy. I listened to about half of the full concert out running yesterday afternoon and my pace was definitely quickened. Listened to the 2nd half later in the day and loved it too. For me, HG is one of his most enjoyable concert pieces. I like it better than Markings from last year for sure.

I just watched the stream. All they did was the Candide Overture and then offline. This time is the rehearsal concert for tomorrow, but the FB Live part seems only to have been the 5 mins of Candide (which was enjoyable). Not really surprised that they didn't capture John Williams this way. Cannot believe his team would have okayed it. Guess, we'll have to listen tomorrow on the stream and see the PBS show in Dec. FYI I am referring to the Boston radio stream which will carry the concert live at 8 EDT. Classical WCRB. Also, the Candide overture video is still available to watch as a recording.

Actually, and I posted this on the FYC thread since it is not there either, there is a very low playing of the Whills theme after the end of the ANH 2nd half. It's sort of like how JW finished TFA although I would say even more subtle. It sounded to me initially just like a sustain of the last note, but in my second viewing of the film, I could distinctly hear the theme. So, I too wish they had put in the whole end credit sequence as mixed on the OST. Guess I will just grab it from the Blu-ray release when that comes out. I will say the transition from the last suite back to ANH was pretty rough though in terms of the edit/mix.

Went again tonight to see RO. After spending the past two days with the score and the FYC tracks, I was paying more attention to its use and mix. Tonight was in IMAX 3D (first night was straight digital 2D). I feel Gia has done a very good job - it's a mix of his style and JW's for sure. The classic trilogy themes fit, and while Gia generally goes more for mood setting, he does have the distinct themes (Gyn/Hope, Empire, Whills) noted in the concert suites on the OST. And he uses those in a JW way in my opinion. I probably would have preferred to re-use the music JW associated with the Empire from ANH instead of a new theme or to call the new theme for Krennic (which it really is despite how labelled on the score). (The Empire March from ESB, Gia has connected directly to Darth Vader.) But this is a minor criticism. During my first viewing, after the end credits finishes the back half of the ANH end credits, I heard a long sustain on the final note. In tonight's showing, I could better hear that Gia is actually playing, very softly, the Whills theme on a celesta (or maybe a celesta + a piano). Felt to me like a nod to how JW ended TFA with the Force theme which was a celesta doubled by Gloria Cheng on Piano. This bit is not on the FYC tracks or the OST. So, we can add that bit to the "missing" music list!

Thanks so much for the links and the excellent work on the spreadsheet!

Thanks Ricard for posting the podcast link. Yes, Gloria was quite thankful of being at the top of the site for a while! It was cool to hear how that worked out.

Exciting news indeed!!! I remember this being mixed across the hall from my office and being invited in to see the reels as they were done. It was awesome to hear the film come together, and it remains one of my favorites. Is anyone else getting a message that the soundtrack is not available in the US iTunes store? The link on the JWfan.net story produces this error as does searching for it on iTunes. I hope there was not some sort of limit hit in terms of downloads.

Also, interestingly, I never saw 2 track mixes of Last Crusade. Ben Burtt did have the multitracks for those in his office at the time, but that's a long time ago.

I think they wanted to do an expanded score of Temple of Doom. I worked on Young Indy, and I remember being called after the show ended asking if I had seen the 2 track masters of Temple of Doom. I told them where I had last seen them (we had used Raiders and Temple of Doom as temp music at times). Unfortunately, the Doom ones had gone missing after I saw them (which was a couple of years before). The Raiders ones, which they had used on the expanded album, were in the same place as I had seen them though, so as far as I know, no one ever knew what happened to them. I have no idea where the multitrack tapes were as I don't think those were at the Ranch. - Laird