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14+ Hours of John Williams' Favorite Composer (Haydn) for $1.09


BLUMENKOHL

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I must admit that I've never heard Williams mention Haydn in any interviews.

Come to think of it, I've rarely heard him talk about his 'favourite composers' at all. There was one interview where he mentioned the British composer Peter Maxwell Davies as favourite of sorts, that's the only one I can think of.

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Spectacular. I bought it.

For those of you who just can't get into this sort of music - too archaic or courtly, you might say - I'd advise checking out the opening of "The Creation."

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One artist who "has all of it" is Haydn, Williams's favorite composer. When he was a young man, Williams's idols included Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Bartók, along with jazz composers like Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Now Williams finds himself returning to the fundamentals. Haydn is "one of the all-time great musical talents," he says. "Without Haydn, we probably wouldn't have Mozart or Beethoven."

One might guess that a Hollywood titan would have a flashier composer as his hero, but given Williams's gregariousness, commitment to reaching a large audience, and his astonishing creativity as he gets older, his Haydn idolatry shouldn't be surprising.

http://chronicle.com/article/Conversations-With-John/4906

What do you listen to for inspiration?

A.

I don’t listen a lot, because I’m working all the time on something and listening to music is not a particular help. It’s difficult to go to concerts and often one is listening to music that is better than one’s own and that isn’t particularly encouraging either. My work, particularly the film work, puts me into a particular setting, and it isn’t helpful to be jarred out of that. Also, people will put music on when they have a dinner party, and I can’t do that. Or listen to music in the car. Because I start listening into the music. I think that D could be a little more sharp, or it’s a little flat or whatever, and before you know it, I’ve lost the dinner table conversation entirely. Or I’m risking driving off the road. If you were to ask me what would I hear just for pleasure, I’d probably say Haydn. Even more than Mozart in my case.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/19/john-williams-lets-his-muses-carry-him-along/?_r=0

"I listen to all kinds of music, a lot of contemporary music and I'm a big fan of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and I love Brahms."

http://www.classicfm.com/pictures/composer-pictures/john-williams-interview-classic-fm/john-williams-relaxing-tommy-pearson/

DO YOU LISTEN TO MUSIC WHEN YOURE NOT WORKING?

Not really. If for example, I listen to Haydn or Brahms, i become very discouraged because ill never be able to write something as good as these great masters. When i'm listening to music, thats all i'm doing. I don't participate in conversations or just have it on in the back round. Like Rachmanivov said " Music is enough for a life time, but a life time is not enough for music". Its not possible to live long enough to listen to everything, study everything and appreciate everything. I'm eighty on and i've barely touched the surface!

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=23235

"my God, a hundred films, and probably an average of an hour in each one of them. I probably have written as much music as Haydn - none of it nearly as good as any of Haydn, I'm well aware of that - and probably in terms of hours more than Wagner"

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4661664

Q: What composers most influenced you, and what do you listen to now?

A: Bach, Beethoven, Chopin. As a piano student, I was pretty conservative until I heard Stravinsky, Prokofiev, the modernists of the late 1940s and '50s. Maybe I'm regressing, but Haydn and Mozart appeal to me the most now.

http://www.earth-dog.com/lounge/viewtopic.php?t=606

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Haydn had a cheery disposition that translated into a playfulness in his music.

A lot of Johns music has similar playfulness, even his darker works.

So I'd say they are very different in terms of their tangible music but they have a link in the "disposition" of their music.

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Spectacular. I bought it.

For those of you who just can't get into this sort of music - too archaic or courtly, you might say - I'd advise checking out the opening of "The Creation."

Haha, I was about to say the same thing. The first four minutes sound remarkably film-scorish, and then we immediately return to the classical era for the rest.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I must say as an classical music lover, Haydn is maybe one of the composers who touches me least.

It's difficult not to compare him to Mozart, and his music is far less inventive than Mozart.

I read bout The Creation in an earlier post, as a matter of fact, this is the only work of Haydn I listen regularly.

My reference version : Karajan with the BPO (Janowitz, Ludwig, etc.)

269612.JPG

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=5235

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