Foxfan

I was at the Edinburgh performance at Usher Hall. The conductor Richard Kaufman was quite informative when introducing pieces, such as the fact that his hands replaced those of Jack Nicholson during the cello scene in Witches of Eastwick, and he curiouy asked how many in the audience had actually seen Yes, Giorgio, to which only myself and one other person raised our hands. Midway was nice to hear live for the first time, as was Jim's New Life for which apparently Kaufman got JW's personal authorization to perform. Oddly enough, 1941 was selected as the encore. I'm not sure how many in the audience knew what it was.

The great thing about Philly is that for us on the Northeast, it represents the first opportunity to see John Williams' face while he conducts from behind the orchestra if you get seats in the Terrace/Choir section in Verizon Hall. Boston, Tanglewood or Lincoln Centre don't have such seating arrangements.

Ah but our sales tax is added after (unlike your VAT). So 34.50CAD before comparing to European currencies. That'll be 24 Euros. It's also NTSC.

I paid $30 for it when it was first released. I might give it a try. Any takers?

Darn I should have sold my Limited Edition Munich DVD (studios were putting out movie-only releases and making the special features optional in the mid 2000s) for an inflated price on the used market before this announcement. It'll be pretty much useless now.

I am seriously considering this if I can get a reward flight.

I'm looking at attending the Friday show as I'd like to be home for Saturday (I'll have been away for over a year by then). I might even go for the Lockhart-led performance on Thursday as well (featuring light classics and music from the 1960s). Anything sounds good in Symphony Hall.

I was lucky enough to get the E.T. SACD when it was still in print. I doubt I would hear any additional nuances in the vinyl record.

I think Shore probably charges too much for his works to be performed live. With Williams he probably donates the rights to his scores to the Boston Pops.

Not too soon... I need more money! Living in Europe really takes away from my disposable income. By the way, the program notes (about Spacecamp and AI) are a joke, right? I'd love it to be true, but sarcasm is hard to detect in written form.

I hope it's a success so they can do Home Alone 2 next year... a much better score.

Is there any official source for this? It's highly unusual for a program description to be available on other websites without being first published by the BSO. I'm actually hoping the dates are wrong (two weeks earlier or one week later would have been best for my holiday plans).

Williams will be sharing the podium again with David Newman, but unfortunately it won't be the "real" Boston Pops, but rather the "Esplanade" (freelance) orchestra, as the BSO officially closes its season on Sunday, August 16th. It also appears that Mr. Williams will NOT be among the Tanglewood on Parade conductors scheduled for August 4th. If anyone wants to see our beloved Maestro this year, Boston Symphony Hall would be the better place to go (dates to be announced). http://www.bso.org/?brands=6427

Question, did JW purposely edit/shorten the "Hymn to the Fallen" piece for concert performances, or did the orchestra and chorus just fall apart at several moments during the Saturday night performance and miraculously ended back up in the same bars? "Dry Your Tears" sounded great though and it would be nice to have an MP3 recording of it. So many of the recent scores are due for concert arrangement recordings. All we've had is Geisha with the Chicago Symphony.

Wow! All the choral pieces must have sounded amazing. And although I heard the entire Geisha suite with Yo-Yo Ma at Tanglewood in 2006, Brush on Silk with the Symphony Hall acoustics would be just so impressive. So sad I can't make it for the first time in 11 years! One disappointment though would have been the omission of "The Book Thief".

Not sure if it was posted earlier, but a partial program description has been released in the latest Boston Pops mailout I received. The Tanglewood Festival Chorus will be featured, and we know at least Star Wars, Saving Private Ryan, Memoirs of a Geisha, Amistad, and ET will be performed. We can pretty much expect the Book Thief suite to be played as well. I'm still not sure whether I'll be going though (for the first time in eleven years).

Can someone in Europe check to see if their copy of Lincoln has the Sony Classical red stripe logo on the side spine label? It kinda bothers me that Tintin, War Horse and Book Thief have it, but my North American version of Lincoln doesn't. I might be tempted to import an overseas release if I can have all four recent titles match.

Foreign students and their rich parents coming to visit Harvard and MIT before signing the cheque.

Yeah I stayed at 40 Berkeley a couple of years ago. Small private room with a single bed and a chair. It also doubles as a homeless shelter though so be warned. I HI location is more recommended. Brand new from two years ago. If you were driving in there are many cheaper hotels/motels at the I-93/95 junction north of the city (around $100), but parking is $36 at Prudential ($16 if you keep your Symphony Hall ticket stub). Or if you wanted to visit other cities you can take the night bus from South Station to New York following the show (no hotel to pay). Did that once.

That's not Williams in the video.

So we know harp and oboe will replace the piano in the opening bars. Any other changes?

It's very generous of Mr. Williams' to donate his services yet again. I attended the last Detroit concert he conducted in 2008. The orchestra is quite good, Orchestra Hall is very nice, and Williams is a good friend of DSO conductor Leonard Slatkin (his mother was a cellist for "Jaws" and he conducted half of the Williams 80th birthday tribute concert at Tanglewood).

My first ever Williams concert in 2003 had him conduct Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3. I don't recall much of it but remember how natural and accurate he seemed to be while conducting.

No one else is thinking JFK? I've been meaning to buy it but used prices have creeped up in the last month or so with the upcoming anniversary.

"The Book Thief" is still not listed on Amazon.com, but I found a listing on Amazon.ca (Canada) that has a release date of November 19. Sony Classical is really terrible at announcing release dates and generating hype for such a prolific release.