Search the Community

Hi all, We’ve just missed our lifetime chance to see John Williams at the Scala in Milan on 12/12/2022. We would travel anywhere in the world to see him… Does anyone have a change of plan and can swap tickets ? Thank you a millions time. You can reach me via caroline.got@hotmail.com

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is following up their free outdoor concert from earlier this year with two performances celebrating the maestro at the Hamer Hall together with the MSO Chorus this Wednesday and Thursday. The programme has mostly the usual greatest hits with a handful of rarer inclusions. I think I'm most excited about hearing Duel of the Fates live for the first time (still hoping we might see LTP concerts of the prequel trilogy one day - who cares about the quality of the movies themselves). The Music of John Williams A 90th Birthday Celebration 1 & 2 June / 7:30pm Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall Program Superman: March Fiddler on the Roof (excerpts) by Jerry Bock arr. Williams Call of the Champions (the Official Theme of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games) Jaws: The Shark Theme Raiders of the Lost Ark: March Star Wars: A New Hope: Princess Leia’s Theme Home Alone: Somewhere In My Memory Jurassic Park: Theme Interval Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: Duel of the Fates Schindler’s List: Theme Saving Private Ryan: Hymn to the Fallen Catch Me If You Can: Closing In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The Knight Bus Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Double Trouble Hook: Flight to Neverland Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: The Asteroid Field Star Wars: A New Hope: Throne Room and Finale Artists Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Nicholas Buc conductor Art of the Score hosts MSO Chorus Warren Trevelyan-Jones chorus director

Hello fellow John Williams and Star Wars fans alike! Was wondering if anyone would be in possession of (and if so, willing to sell) the following programme from John Williams’ live concert performance at the Royal Albert Hall in 1978? Thank you in advance! May The Force Be With You!

MPORTANT: Based on our previous ones these concerts WILL sell out pretty quickly so please buy your tickets earlier rather than later. For those who have not attended our previous concerts, these were conceived by me over a lifetime of film music concert going. The emphasis is on the music I NEVER ever heard done by the composers themselves or anyone else. Future ones will include, of course, a John Williams night. For this one we include iconic Elmer Bernstein material like TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, THE GREAT ESCAPE, GHOSTBUSTERS and TRUE GRIT. But while we have you here we will explore scores that no one has ever played including WHERE’S JACK, THE TIN STAR, HAWAII, THE SILENCERS, ROBOT MONSTER, GOLD, THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL, I LOVE YOU ALICE B TOKLAS, BRIDGE AT REMAGEN, HUD and many more. https://theautry.org/events/music-and-festivals/music-elmer-bernstein

The Deutsche Radiophilharmonie (German Radio Philharmonic) performed a Williams-only concert apparently this summer. There has been a television broadcast which can be found here: https://sr-mediathek.de/index.php?seite=7&id=79205 (as long there is no geoblocking). However, on YouTube there is a much longer version. Enjoy!

I've read that in 1977 there was a concert with music from Star Wars given in London, prior to the film's release. Is there any truth to that?

The Czech National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Shih-Hung Young, is currently on tour in Scandinavia this month, performing live to projection concerts of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Besides Oslo, where I attended the concert today, their website lists Aalborg, Karlstad, Stockholm, København, and Aarhus as other cities where they will perform. I am not exactly sure of the concert dates and ticket availability for those, however. This was, in fact, my first ever live to projection concert, and so I'll simply write a few brief thoughts on it, which will not be based on any sort of experience, standards or comparisons with these sorts of events, so do take what I say with a grain of salt. I cannot complain about the technique of the orchestra - it was top-notch. They did really well on the complex action sequences, such as the spider chase and the Quidditch scenes, which where powerful and well-synchronized, no doubt a result of the conductor who was meticulously following the score and the guidance screen in front of him, and lead the orchestra without any noticeable issues. He seems to have lots of experience with live to projection conducting, and those skills were evident. I also loved The Flying Car, and was amazed at how much sound the orchestra produced while playing the Voldemort/Chamber Opening motif - it actually drowned everything else that was going on in the film sound-wise, and I was in nothing but complete awe My criticisms would come from the fact that the audience was explicitly encouraged to cheer, applaud and boo for various characters and events in the film. I realized that half of the seats were filled with small children and young teenagers, who were probably the target audience, and so the whole concert became too casual for my tastes. While I have nothing against applauding the orchestra where applause is due, I do have problems with applause while the orchestra is actually playing. Some character appearances and their actions resulted in moments of complete noise, which made listening to the orchestra practically impossible at times. Also, it seems that the orchestra decided not to play through the whole of the end credits, so there was no reprise of the Fawkes' theme, for instance, which was a minor disappointment - I really liked that rendition on the OST and was hoping to hear it separately from the action/dialogue in the film. On the non-musical side of things, there was a lot of merchandise to buy at the venue. Scarfs, pins, robes from all of the four Hogwarts houses, etc. I got the Programme notes, which were printed on such a massively-sized booklet that I initially thought they were selling vinyls . The notes include lots of pictures and quotes from the film, as well as detailed analysis on the score itself and notable pieces. They were also selling the CD album, which is the 5 Collectible covers version. All of it was definitely overpriced, but, I guess, that's what you'd expect when buying from a temporary stall at a concert venue.

John Williams has added Indianapolis to his 2018 conducting tour. Link

I've just returned from a spectacular concert that was stunning both musically and visually, so I thought I should write a short overview of what was going on there in the Oslo Konserthus. I am pretty sure there are more John Williams fans in Norway, so if you've been to the concert as well, you're very welcome to contribute your thoughts and correct any mistakes that I may have made (I didn't take any notes, and I am writing this from memory, so there is no guarantee that I won't mix up anything ) I try to never miss any performances of John Williams' scores in my area, even if it's some local amateur orchestra, so when it was announced earlier this year that the world-class Oslo Philharmonic was going to perform music from Star Wars, I simply had no excuses not to grab the tickets asap (and the tickets for both performances sold out in a relatively short time - the whole concert hall was completely full of people of all ages). The orchestra was conducted by the renowned American composer & conductor Lucas Richman. The theme of the whole concert was "using music to tell a story", so Richman did his best to explain bits of the Star Wars story behind every piece, mentioning important characters and events within that universe. The first part of the concert revolved around the Prequels: 1. Main Title 2. Duel of the Fates (instrumental) 3. Anakin's Theme 4. The Flag Parade 5. The Adventures of Jar Jar 6. Across the Stars 7. Battle of the Heroes (instrumental) 8. The Imperial March I've actually never heard a Prequel piece performed live before, so it was really amazing to hear those for the first time non-digitally. There were no vocals during the concert, so the orchestra had to substitute the choir parts by tweaking the orchestration. I suppose the absence of a choir did remove the original oomph out of Duel of the Fates and Battle of the Heroes, but the orchestra did perform those parts really well. The Imperial March was, obviously, a crowd-pleaser, and the concert organizers took full advantage of the lighting available to turn the whole hall red, and invited many cosplayers to provide a real presence of the Empire. The costumes were really well made and realistic, so I assumed there might have been members of the Nordic Garrison involved, which is a branch of the 501st Legion here in Scandinavia, but I am not really sure, and there weren't any details provided about who those people really were. Here's a shot of the whole thing (note the ominous Darth Vader in the back): After a short break, the orchestra returned for the second part, where the classic pieces from the Original Trilogy were presented, with the addition of Rey's Theme: 1. The Asteroid Field 2. Rey's Theme 3. Princess Leia's Theme 4. Cantina Band 5. Yoda's Theme 6. Here They Come 7. Luke and Leia 8. The Forest Battle 9. Throne Room and Finale Personally, I was dying to hear some of these live I loved all of it, and the only criticism I could possibly give would go towards the performance of Cantina Band, as I thought that the instrument balance sounded somewhat off. The woodwinds were drowned by the percussion, and the melody wasn't as clear as I'd have liked. I guess this would always be a problem in a concert hall environment, as these are inherently quieter instruments, as opposed to a studio environment, where the volumes can be tweaked much more. Nevertheless, the technique of the musicians was shining during the whole concert, including the very delicate parts of the score, and it was all really spectacular to hear. The conductor returned for an encore with the reprise of The Imperial March, this time with even more Imperial cosplay: The crowd was ecstatic, and the standing ovations continued for 5 minutes if not more. It would have been nice with a few more pieces, but the concert had already gone beyond the official 1hr 45min mark, so I suppose they didn't have time for more. As far as I am concerned, I wouldn't hesitate to call this my favorite performance of John Williams' music. My previous favorite was the RSNO concert earlier this year, and I've been to a few more performances, although the orchestras there were less known.

The John Williams 2018 conducting tour continues in Baltimore: An Evening with John Williams Plus, for a small additional charge of $500, a limited number of tickets are available for a VIP post-concert Dessert & Champagne Reception with John Williams and Marin Alsop.

Some of you in the Los Angeles area might be interested in attending this concert of the Pacific Symphony conducted by Andre Previn October 19-21, 2017 PREVIN: Almost an Overture (West Coast premiere) MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 9, K. 271 RACHMANINOFF: Symphony No. 2 https://www.pacificsymphony.org/tickets/concert/mozart_rachmaninoff/15742 Andre Previn is one of JW's oldest friends and the one who suggested the use of the London Symphony Orchestra for Star Wars. Previn was music director of the LSO at the time and JW and he were old friends & colleagues from the early studio days. Legend has it that Previn tried to get JW to ditch film music and become a "serious composer and concert conductor". Previn himself wrote over 50 film scores and earned four oscars for these scores before becoming an acclaimed full time concert composer and conductor. These days, the 87 year old Previn is quite frail and mostly wheelchair bound so this might be one of our last opportunities to see him in concert and also features a west coast premiere of an overture of his.

http://www.cleveland.com/musicdance/index.ssf/2017/05/cleveland_orchestra_announces_29.html#comments

Programme includes: Superman: Theme Witches of Eastwick: Devil’s Dance Jurassic Park: Theme JFK: Prologue War Horse: Dartmoor 1912 Harry Potter: Hedwig’s Theme Jaws: Main Theme ET: Flying Theme Olympic Fanfare and Theme Raiders of the Lost Ark: March Schindler’s List: Theme Close Encounters (excerpts) Saving Private Ryan: Hymn to the Fallen Star Wars: Highlights London Symphony Orchestra

Hi, I'm new here so please forgive me if I do anything stupid. My name is Greg as you can see and I really love John Williams music. I would very much love to get his autograph. I'm far from rich, but it means enough to me that I would fly somewhere to get it. I live in Seattle. I'm thinking of flying to L.A. as I see he is doing some concerts at the Hollywood bowl. Does anyone know what my odds are of getting him to sign if I wait hours before the show? Or is there a better place? Thank you so much for your help it means a lot. Greg

Of the many official live concerts that have been recorded and then broadcasted over the years (and often still available on Tanglewood and BSO websites), which one should really have to be released on CD/BD? Which is your favorite? Why it's so special? Please no bootlegs... only known official recordings!

Links: -Concert info and tickets -Lecture-discussion -Concert and event managed by High C Consulting

Hi! I don't post here much these days, but just a quick heads up about this event which i'm producing as part of the Belfast Film Festival. Sunday 30th March - A screening of Branagh's Hamlet with Patrick Doyle introducing the film and speaking about his Oscar nominated score. http://belfastfilmfestival.org/films/hamlet Monday 31st March - A concert of Patrick's music from Sir Kenneth Branagh's movies. Here's a promo and link: Patrick Doyle Belfast Concert Promo from Tim Burden on http://ulsterorchestra.com/concerts/2014/march31/the-music-of-patrick-doyle-from-the-films-of-sir-kenneth-branagh Tuesday 1st April - From Concept to Screen: Patrick Doyle Film Music Workshop for all ages. http://belfastfilmfestival.org/films/patrick-doyle-concept-screen-workshop I hope those than can make it along will come and say hello. Drop me a message at tburden@filmscoremonthly.com if you intend to. All the best!

I'm looking forward to a John Williams concert in here in Sydney, Australia, this Saturday (01/03/2014): Robertson conducts John Williams Music from the Movies http://www.sydneysymphony.com/production-pages/2014/concert-season/robertson-conducts-john-williams.aspx The Sydney Symphony orchestra (SSO) will play an evening of JW pieces under their new Chief Conductor, David Robertson. I'll eagerly write a review of the concert in the days to follow. It's the third SSO all-JW concert I have attended so far. Cynically, they tend to be a quick cash-grab for the orchestra by appealing to kids and other pop-culture buffs who wouldn't otherwise attend a symphony concert. The conductor, David Robertson, is using the concert as a way to demonstrate his embrace of American 'pops' music. I call it that, despite my deep resentment of JW music (or film music in general) being referred to 'popular'. As many will point out, 'popular' has a very stubborn musical connotation of 'inferior', and despite how far and wide JW's music has reached, it can barely be called 'popular' (in the commercial sense, despite it's immense success), and absolutely not inferior (or unsophisticated) - quite the opposite, but of course I'm preaching to the converted here. The last JW concert here in Sydney was back in 2011 (I'm noticing roughly a 3-year cycle). It was a mediocre performance from the orchestra, who sounded almost like they were sight-reading. Broad appeal was generated by blending in the presence of prominent Aussie host/comedian, Shaun Micallef. Most of the night I wished he'd just shut-up and let the orchestra play. With Robertson (an American himself, hence the concert) hosting this time, I hope I can look forward to the orchestra playing with 'dignity'. Encouragingly, there will be voices involved, which gives me hope of Hymn to the Fallen being played (possibly my favourie JW piece). They will definitly be playing from 'Empire of the Sun' according to the press release. Of course, in the end of the day, I'm extremely grateful for the orchestra recognising the appeal and importance of JW music (and film music in general), and I look forward to attending their concerts at any rate - no matter how much intellectual snobbery I may display in this writing! The only step up at the moment is hoping for JW himself to come to Oz, but he seems very content with sticking to his homeland at the moment. Looks like I'll just have to try make it to Boston in June. Review to follow! UPDATE: This concert was recorded for later broadcast, and will be aired on ABC Classic FM on Sunday, 16/03/2014 at 2pm Australian EDST. 92.9FM in Sydney. The rest of the world can stream it through the ABC Classic website http://www.abc.net.au/classic.

Hello all! I'm selling one ticket for the concert on September 28th at the Phoenix Symphony Hall. This is a chance to see John Williams AND Steven Spielberg together on stage. It is also a charity event, so you'll enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime evening AND do good! I am stuck in Europe for work so cannot make it. If you are interested, please contact me at francis.barel@gmail.com. Thank you. http://www.jwfan.com/?p=5833

What would you think if at John Williams' next concert in December, he did a performace of Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait with Daniel Day-Lewis as narrator??

Just this month, Hal Leonard Publishing has begun releasing installments in the new Henry Mancini Concert Library Series, analogous to the John Williams Signature Edition Series. Already available are the orchestral scores (and parts, if needed) of the Peter Gunn Theme, The Pink Panther Theme, and March with Mancini. Should prove useful for music directors and score collectors alike.