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Posts posted by Hlao-roo
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John Williams's music is definitely laughable.
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Sad. But this is the world we live in now.
Daniel Seamus Cunningham
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14 hours ago, mattmane said:
I'll be attending the July 2nd performance by the Houston Symphony with some friends and family. Can't wait!
I, Daniel Seamus Cunningham, shall also be in attendance.
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12 hours ago, king mark said:
I say no name changes allowed on the MB
11 hours ago, Stefancos said:Agreed!
Indeed.
Daniel Seamus Cunningham
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houstonsymphonyblog.org/03/30/horner-collage-horn-premiere/
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The Houston Symphony celebrates the legacy of the late Oscar-winning composer, James Horner.
Titanic. Avatar. Braveheart. Field of Dreams. Some of the biggest movies of the past 30 years have told their stories with the help of sweeping, colorful scores by the late James Horner. He entrusted some of their most poignant moments to the French horn: In Field of Dreams, for instance, the horn lent its glow to the first sight of the ballpark in the cornfield.
As the great horn parts accumulated, two veterans of Horner recording sessions, David Pyatt and Richard Watkins, began longing for something even juicier. They envisioned a Horner concerthall piece spotlighting the horn.
“His writing for horn was so unique, it needed to be done!” Pyatt recalls. Thus was born Collage: A Concerto for Four Horns, for which the Houston Symphony gives the U.S. premiere March 31-April 3. The orchestra’s Principal Horn, William VerMeulen, and Associate Principal, Robert Johnson, will share the solo roles with British guests Pyatt and Watkins.
Collage joins one of the orchestral repertoire’s tiniest niches: the four-horn concerto. The only example from a major composer is Robert Schumann’s Konzertstück, or Concert Piece, a blockbuster that VerMeulen and his Houston Symphony colleagues played in 1997 under conductor Christoph Eschenbach. Whereas the Konzertstück includes “incredibly virtuosic” horn parts, Watkins says, Collage sets a different tone.
“None of the parts require fiendish technical virtuosity,” Watkins explains. “It’s more a display of the instrument’s beautiful lyrical sound.”
“Pyatt says his favorite among the Horner scores he played is Iris…Watkins singles out Horner’s ‘typically lush, romantic score’ in For Greater Glory…”
Watkins, former principal horn of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, juggles a busy solo career with teaching at the Royal Academy of Music; Pyatt is the London Philharmonic’s principal horn. Like generations of top London musicians before them, they’re experienced hands at recording movie soundtracks. Pyatt says his favorite among the Horner scores he played is Iris, a 2001 biopic about British novelist Iris Murdoch; its chamber-ensemble score interweaves Pyatt’s horn and Joshua Bell’s violin. Watkins singles out Horner’s “typically lush, romantic score” in For Greater Glory, a 2012 war epic set in Mexico.
“His music gets to the emotional heart of a film, without complication or irrelevance,” Pyatt says.
At the time For Greater Glory was recorded, Watkins says, the International Horn Society—which promotes the instrument’s performance, study and repertoire—had been backing him in commissioning works. He turned to Horner.
“I thought James would be an ideal choice, with his obvious love of the instrument,” Watkins says. “Although he never played professionally, he studied the instrument. James was thrilled at the prospect, and several weeks later suggested a concerto for four horns and orchestra.”
The Houston Symphony’s Principal Horn, William VerMeulen.
There was one hitch, says VerMeulen, a former member of the Horn Society’s advisory council. Commissioning Horner to write a concerto was expensive, and the Society couldn’t quite cover the bill.
“I said, if I can get my orchestra to pitch in, can we secure the North American premiere rights?” VerMeulen recalls. “That in itself took some negotiating. The whole reason James was doing this was as a favor to his film horn players. He didn’t want it to be just a plain old project that any orchestra could get.”
But the deal fell into place, and the Houston Symphony gets “bragging rights. This is a big deal,” VerMeulen says. “The Schumann piece is such a singularity that having the North American premiere of another high-profile concerto for four horns is a huge feather in Houston’s cap.”
Horner gave the four-horn form his own spin, Watkins says, by treating the soloists as independent voices rather than a block, as in Schumann’s Konzertstück. Dividing the horns across both sides of the stage added a spatial element—most powerfully in the opening, where the soloists enter one by one “to stunning effect.”
Houston Symphony horn player Robert Johnson.
Watkins, Pyatt and two other Horner veterans premiered Collage in March 2015 with the London Philharmonic. They recorded it in London last May, less than a month before Horner died in a crash of his private plane.
Now Collage arrives in the United States. Joining celebrated colleagues to introduce a major composer’s work will be a career milestone for the Houston Symphony’s Johnson.
“I dreamt of soloing with the Houston Symphony when I attended weekly concerts as a youngster at Rice University,” Johnson says. “For my dream to be realized in this fashion is beyond what I even imagined.”
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Anyone planning on going?
www.houstonsymphony.org/tickets/production/detail?id=6570
QuoteThe Houston Symphony celebrates the legacy of the late Oscar-winning film composer James Horner (Titanic, Avatar) with the North American premiere of Collage, his Concerto for Four Horns. The Houston Symphony is honored to present Horner's last completed concert work with renowned horn soloists including the Houston Symphony’s own William VerMeulen and Robert Johnson. Also on the program is swashbuckling film music from the Golden Age of Hollywood and Rachmaninoff’s brilliant Symphonic Dances.
Program
Korngold: The Sea HawkJames Horner: Concerto for Four Horns and Orchestra
North American Premiere,
Co-Commission of the
Houston Symphony and the
International Horn SocietyRachmaninoff: Symphonic DancesArtist
Michael Francis, conductor
David Pyatt, horn
William VerMeulen, horn
Richard Watkins, horn
Robert Johnson, horn -
On 3/17/2016 at 10:12 PM, azahid said:
MV Gerhard has officially confirmed on FSM that THE TOWERING INFERNO is upcoming from LLL:
" I am stating this right now -- Towering IS happening, but do not expect it for 2016"
He also added earlier:
"Some fantastic Williams planned, though...and a smattering of some other fantastic composers ranging from Mancina to Mancini!"Arabesque, please.
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Nixon was entirely orchestrated by John Neufeld.
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So yet another dude with an obscure foreign name wins Best Original Score. What else is new?
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6 hours ago, mrbellamy said:
I'm pretty sure Twitter was actually invented in order to give us John Williams sessions quotes.
Would that more scoring sessions were live-tweeted.
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1 hour ago, Tom said:
I don't know, I just saw the Star Wars medley on the Disney special currently airing. Rey's theme was glorious and the audience seemed into it.
But were they inspired to become musicians?
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11 minutes ago, KK. said:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/19/entertainment/harper-lee-obit-feat/
Well another one of the greats of the last century has passed. To say that To Kill a Mockingbird played a big part in my childhood would be an understatement indeed, and I think that goes for most people in the Americas. I never did bother checking out Go Set a Watchman after I heard the criticism, and I'm not sure I want to now. But I know how much she's moved a nation, and the world at that. May she rest in peace.
Go Set a Watchman's a bit rough around the edges (would've benefited from the editing her debut novel received), and the circumstances surrounding its publishing remain iffy, but it's definitely worth of a look.
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When will we get The China Syndrome live to projection?
5 hours ago, someonefun124 said:Me too! Houston Symphony would do the score justice.
Are you going to the Raiders one in July?
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5 hours ago, Jay said:
Several people have been discussing it in the Last Score You Listened To thread
Thanks.
11 hours ago, Incanus said:I got mine yesterday. The re-recording is a treat for those who have wanted to hear the score with modern improved sonics and I find very little to quibble about the performance. The second disc with re-recorded suites from various Goldsmith scores is a bit of a hit and miss in terms of performance as I felt some of the versions recorded didn't quite capture the energy of the originals. The main attraction is the disc 1 but I have to admit the disc 2 forms a wonderful 1 hour+ Goldsmith concert.
How is The Mummy suite?
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I love "Howard Blake"!
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I still keep reading his name as "Trevor-Row."
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Anyone receive Tadlow's new recording of The Blue Max yet? I'm looking forward to that one.
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31 minutes ago, Mari said:
In this 1993 Boston Pops tribute, Christopher Reeve said that without John Williams' music, Superman's powers are greatly diminished. The same can be said for all John Williams film scores and I look forward to hearing any more he wants to gift to the world.
Happy Birthday, John Williams!
And, continuing an annual tradition:
Happy Birthday, Alan (Hlao-roo)!
Thanks, Kathy!
Perhaps one day Ahmed Best will pay similar tribute.
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So why did they start to suck?
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A Patch of Blue (Goldsmith). Gorgeous music box theme.
Who will write music for Indiana Jones 5 (2022)?
in General Discussion
Posted
If not Santaolalla, I'd be fine with Williams