How do we feel about "John Williams Conducts John Williams"?

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

I only recently picked up this classic 1990 compilation of concert music JW recorded with the "Skywalker Symphony Orchestra". Somehow even with its bargain pricing and extreme availability, I never got around to picking it up in all the years of seeing it alongside every other SW CD (back when you could find them at retail stores). I had listened to it by...other means, and found many of the recordings to be pretty much along the lines of what I already had on CD. Now I own it.

I am not a fan of the Cantina track. I'm not sure what they were thinking with that one. The sound effects that aren't even from SW??

My vote for the best track goes to "Jabba The Hutt". Worst: "The Cantina Band".

"Princess Leia", "Luke and Leia" and "The Forest Battle" don't really have much to offer you can't get from the original album recordings. A glaring omission is "Han Solo and the Princess". Vader's theme is a nice recording, but I think "Yoda's Theme" and "Parade of the Ewoks" are just wonderful.

[flytrumpet 0]

I have to admit I'm not a big fan of that compilation,seems like something that has been put together quickly.It's pretty much a freelance orchestra playing,eventhough the musicians are all pretty good.

I much prefer as far as rerecording goes the Utah symphony contribution.

[Diego 21]

For me, pretty much every track has a better performance on other CDs and the absence of Han Solo & The Princess (which would make the CD exactly 60 minutes long) has always bothered me, since I like the arrangement a lot (thankfully we have the Gerhardt). It would have been nice to include some new concert piece or something exclusive to this set, since, as it is, there's nothing you can't get somewhere else and most likely better played. The Imperial March is indeed one of the best, and the sound quality is excellent in all the CD though.

[Charlie Brigden 7]

Is this the Skywalker Symphony one? Doesn't it have the only Williams-conducted version of "Jabba The Hutt" in existence? Or am I getting confused?

I'm not hugely versed in these, as (Gerhardt's aside) I always avoided buying anything that wasn't the film version when I was younger.

[Diego 21]

I'm pretty sure there's a Boston Pops recording of Jabba The Hutt.

Edit:

Here it is

[Marian Schedenig 8,158]

Few here like it, but in my opinion it's excellent. The Star Wars stuff is good, although it doesn't come close to the Gerhardt recording. But the rest is really good, too, and that easily tops the Gerhardt ESB. Most here say The Asteroid Field is too slow, but I love it. If I want to listen to the fast version, I can just play the OST. Same goes for the concert intro. Oh, and I like Cantina Band. More than the original, I think.

[Wojo 2,453]

I don't have this one. I have the Gerhardts, and just bought the Utah Symphony recording.

[sulky 6]

I much prefer as far as rerecording goes the Utah symphony contribution.

Agreed.

[KingPin 201]

I actually like the Cantina Band version on this CD. I also like Here They Come, but as far as everything else is concerned, I think it's a mediocre album. I disagreed with several of the tempo choices - made the livelier pieces feel slow (The Asteroid Field, Parade of the Ewoks). I thought the sound was acoustically rather dry - missing that reverb that you find in many other recordings of these pieces, which may have affected sound balance as well.

[Marian Schedenig 8,158]

Here They Come is the one cue on the album which I consider a failure. It's just *too* slow. There's no spark in it.

I used to strongly dislike the sound of the recording. It took me at least 5 years to notice there's a piano in The Imperial March. It gains a lot on a good system, but it's still no reference recording, nor does it have the human warmth of the Gerhardt NPO recordings. It's not from Murphy's best period (though not quite from his worst either).

[Wojo 2,453]

How about a session of "Darth Vader Conducts John Williams"?

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1923946

Now I really have seen it all.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

I personally enjoy the album quite a bit, especially when I am in the mood to listen to Star Wars yet not necessarily the whole "shebang". Like some, I disagreed with some tempo choices (I would have conducted "The Forest Battle" at a faster tempo, for instance), and I find the sound effects at the end of "Cantina Band" to be hilarious and annoying at the same time. (I can only assume that they were playfully re-enacting the scene of Han and Greedo with sound effects.) I admit that this is the only Star Wars re-recording I own, though, so I cannot compare it to any other.

[Hlao-roo 389]

We feel that "John Williams Conducts John Williams" is a series of woefully flat performances of otherwise fine music. We further feel that "John Williams Conducts John Williams" should be cast into the dustbin of history.

[publicist 4,643]

We feel that "John Williams Conducts John Williams" is a series of woefully flat performances of otherwise fine music. We further feel that "John Williams Conducts John Williams" should be cast into the dustbin of history.

At least it's DDD!

[Diego 21]

For those of you that like the Cantina Band on the SW trilogy CD, Erich Kunzel recorded the same arrangement twice (with the new ending) minus the stupid laser sound effects, one is on "Fantastic Journey" and the other is on "Great Film Fantasies", I prefer the latter. No version even comes close to the original though.

[BurgaFlippinMan 7]

i think it has a cracking performance of The Imperial March. Quite possibly the best imo

[TownerFan 4,983]

There are some very good performances in this album (namely "The Imperial March", "The Throne Room Fanfare", "Jabba the Hutt" and "Princess Leia"), while others lack the punch they would have needed. However, it's nice Williams collected several pieces from the SW Trilogy onto one single album and took the time to make a pleasant recording out of it (actually it was a project born out of the official "test" for the Skywalker Symphony Orchestra, which Williams helped to form, as the liner notes explain).

[MSM 126]

The performances are quite lackluster compared to the much superior Boston Pops album "John Williams Conducts Music from the Star Wars Trilogy". Also the extra percussion in the Imperial March is totally unnecessary.

[TownerFan 4,983]

Sometimes I don't understand you people. Yes, there are better interpretations of Williams' Star Wars music than this one. But what's wrong in hearing new and different performances, especially if conducted by the Man himself? I like to hear different takes on familiar music.

I see film score nerds can be nitpicky and anal-retentive as much as opera lovers or classical music buffs. Or maybe even worse.

[AzOutcast 122]

I actually got this one at a young age, so it's a disc I've grown up with. The standout for me is Here They Come as I prefer the slower tempo. The OST always felt rushed in comparison and this one packs a little more punch.

[DaHaK 0]

The Imperial March is definitely a stand out here. Like AZOutcast above me, I too got this at a young age in 1995 on cassette (I have since purchased the CD). I popped it into my Dad's tape deck in the truck and it started to fast forward and reverse sides on it's own (that thing had to be possessed), so the first track I heard was Forest Battle. WOW! It blew me away because before then, I had only heard that as a MIDI from Super Return Of The Jedi SNES game (I wasn't exposed to the anthology until XMAS 1995). With each track, my love grew for this music.

Yes some of the tracks have an extreme tempo difference then what we know and love, but these recordings are no less wonderful. The little things are what makes this pay off. As I said before, the Imperial March is top notch. Yoda's theme is strong. Luke & Leia, Forest Battle and Princess Leia are well defined here. I consider them to be different but wonderful takes on the themes. The Throne Room is pure magic (especially at 3:25). Heck even the Main Theme's drawn out beginning is cool because it's different but familiar. To me, the weak links are the Little People, Cantina, and Here They Come. And it is a shame about the Han Solo and the Princess arrangement not being on there. Other then that, just great stuff!

This CD has earned it's place next to my Star Wars scores.

[Omen II 1,235]

I've not played this album in quite a while; I bought it on cassette when it first came out, but the tape has since become a bit warped so it no longer plays properly. However, it was a memorable purchase for me in that it was the first time that I saw a picture of John Williams (in the cassette booklet). Prior to that I had no idea what he looked like - bear in mind that this was in the days before the internet was widely available. Who would have thought he was bald and had a beard!

[MSM 126]

Sometimes I don't understand you people. Yes, there are better interpretations of Williams' Star Wars music than this one. But what's wrong in hearing new and different performances, especially if conducted by the Man himself? I like to hear different takes on familiar music.

I see film score nerds can be nitpicky and anal-retentive as much as opera lovers or classical music buffs. Or maybe even worse.

I also like that there are different recordings from Williams himself. But I don't see what is wrong with being critical about recordings? One can hardly love them all equally.

[Marian Schedenig 8,158]

Maurizio is right though that there seems to be a general dislike of "re-recordings" among the film music community. Apparently, the fact that film music is usually written for a single recording leads many to the conclusion that all other recordings must automatically be "wrong" (and even more so if they differ from the "original").

[MSM 126]

When I speak for myself, I don't especially like this album, but generally I tend to like re-recodings (much) better than the original soundtracks, especially when it comes to Williams scores before 1992.

I basically prefer all Williams re-recordings of Star Wars music over the original albums. I prefer the Williams on Williams re-recordings (except the Jurassic Park medley) over the respective OST recodings of the same pieces, I prefer the Boston Pops re-recordings of the Superman March, 1941 March, Midway March and Raiders March better than the originals.

[mahler3 478]

I've not played this album in quite a while; I bought it on cassette when it first came out, but the tape has since become a bit warped so it no longer plays properly. However, it was a memorable purchase for me in that it was the first time that I saw a picture of John Williams (in the cassette booklet). Prior to that I had no idea what he looked like - bear in mind that this was in the days before the internet was widely available. Who would have thought he was bald and had a beard!

I miss those days of CD discoveries, I remember getting this along with Sony's Spielberg / Williams Collaboration in Virgin Megastore (RIP) and couldn't help notice the fact that Williams was significantly thinner in the Star Wars booklet pics as opposed to the 'hamster pouches' on the Collaboration CD I love that Drew artwork!

I too am not overly fussed on this CD, the timpani is almost non-existent, snare drums too loud and overall sound too 'toppy' (similar to the equally flawed Boston Pops Star Wars recordings IMO). The strong trombones in Forest Battle are good however.