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Hollywood in Vienna 2016: Alexandre Desplat


Marian Schedenig

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11 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

The worse contender though, and by far the worst thing ever to come out of the Hollywood in Vienna series (which has no short list of artistic mutilations) was Goldsmith's First Contact theme gang raped by a choir and heavy operatic soprano. Never mind that having a choir aah theme theme along with the orchestra is odd enough in places (it's not exactly a theme that lends itself well to voices), but the entire thing was based on the soprano singing (on "ah") the melody - and when the melody wasn't there, the vocal line took over bits of the accompaniment. I had to laugh out loudly near the end. One day later, Goldsmith must still be spinning in his grave. The whole thing was a macabre grotesque and I fail to see how anyone could even begin to think this was a good idea, let alone actually deciding to go through with it.

Oh... my... god...

 

Karol

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45 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

The second half belonged entirely to Desplat and fared much better, showcasing his vast range of styles and instrumentations (although it was solely focused on his Hollywood career, starting with Girl With a Pearl Earring). There was a whole array of guest performers, including soloists for the ethnic instruments in Argo and Swiss yodelers and the Don Cossacks Choir on The Grand Budapest Hotel. After accepting the Max Steiner award, Desplat himself stepped up to conduct The Secret Life of Pets. 

 

Ooooooh! I hope there will be a recording of the Pets performance.

 

45 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

 

When asked whether he had any contact with John Williams when composing his Potter scores, he explained that he didn't. "You don't just call John Williams and say, hi John, what the fuck?"

 

 

You can't?! Why didn't someone tell me?!

 

:lol:

 

Quote

Asked about what caused him to drop out of Rogue One, he explained that the recording sessions where originally scheduled for early August, but then moved repeatedly, first to September, and then further, and he was already commited to another project that clashed with the changed schedule.

 

Well, of course. What's he going to say? "Disney ruthlessly fired me. They treated me horribly"?

 

Although it is starting to seem like, while the "divorce" wasn't entirely amicable, it wasn't as hostile as some had feared. It probably really was the schedule, and not Disney's desire to kick Desplat out. 

 

Of course, the conspiracy theorists here can start working on the theory about how the reshoots were planned by Disney to change the schedule so Desplat would have to quit and they could hire Gia... 

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1 hour ago, Marian Schedenig said:

When asked whether he had any contact with John Williams when composing his Potter scores, he explained that he didn't. "You don't just call John Williams and say, hi John, what the fuck?"

 

I hope that's a direct quote.

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Just now, mrbellamy said:

I hope that's a direct quote.

 

Of course.

46 minutes ago, Will said:

Well, of course. What's he going to say? "Disney ruthlessly fired me. They treated me horribly"?

 

Although it is starting to seem like, while the "divorce" wasn't entirely amicable, it wasn't as hostile as some had feared. It probably really was the schedule, and not Disney's desire to kick Desplat out. 

 

Of course, the conspiracy theorists here can start working on the theory about how the reshoots were planned by Disney to change the schedule so Desplat would have to quit and they could hire Gia... 

 

Naturally it's not proof of anything, but his response seemed genuine enough. And repeated changes of schedule can of course lead to a situation where a composer (especially one like Desplat, who's always keeping busy with numerous projects) will no longer commit to it at the expense of his other projects.

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That is awesome.

 

51 minutes ago, Will said:

Well, of course. What's he going to say? "Disney ruthlessly fired me. They treated me horribly"?

 

Although it is starting to seem like, while the "divorce" wasn't entirely amicable, it wasn't as hostile as some had feared. It probably really was the schedule, and not Disney's desire to kick Desplat out. 

 

Of course, the conspiracy theorists here can start working on the theory about how the reshoots were planned by Disney to change the schedule so Desplat would have to quit and they could hire Gia... 

 

From all that we've gathered, my belief right now is that the Rogue One experience was probably a pain in the ass for him but that ultimately Disney would have been happy to keep him around if he was able to take it all the way to December. 

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1 hour ago, crocodile said:

At least it wasn't Schindler's List on ukelele and steel drums.

 

Perhaps they'll do that next year.

 

1 hour ago, crocodile said:

Did they play Godzilla?

 

Yep, the "theme", i.e. Godzilla! (perhaps with a little bit of another cue tacked on, I don't know it well enough to be sure now). The strings were hard to hear because the drums were turned up to 11+ in the mix (plus the stereo separation from the original recording was missing due to the stage setup), and they didn't have those screamy synth overlays, but it was still powerful and fun. They played it in the middle of the second half, but I still had it stuck in my head after the concert was over.

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Desplat conducted the opening credits during the opening of the second half of his LSO concert a couple of years ago. It didn't have the synth elements obviously but sounded actually pretty damn good.

 

Karol

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The prophecy that misread could have been...

 

He isn't the next John Williams.... His is the next John Williams... and the next James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith, John Barry, Lalo Schifrin and Howard Shore.

 

Karol

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Then Desplat arose, and the JWFans perceived that he smiled; and he lifted up his left hand, and a new theme began amid the storm, like and yet unlike to the former theme, and it gathered power and had new beauty. But the discord of Giacchino rose in uproar and contended with it, and again there was a war of sound more violent than before, until many of the JWFans were dismayed and sang no longer, and Giacchino had the mastery.

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27 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

We will be lucky if Williams is allowed to finish the third trilogy!

 

I imagine the conversation with Disney going something like this: 

 

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Mikey G had some stellar "simple" tunes in Lost that showed how that kind of thing is done, but even within the span of that show, the model started to get a little worn and he was taking the obvious route rather than the crafty one in the later seasons.

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8 hours ago, BloodBoal said:

Well, we already had a preview of Giacchino Middle-Earth music. Kingsfoil always sounded Giacchino-ish to me!

 

 

I mean, 00:39 - 01:17: that's pure Giacchino right there! That bit wouldn't feel out of place in a LOST episode.

 

Damn you, Pope!

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It does have a slightly Pope-y feel yes.

 

When in doubt Stefancos, always blame Pope.

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Enjoy!

 

It's really cool to see this live! Kinda funny to see some of the instruments used, when you're so used to seeing a "regular" orchestra. Man I love this piece. 

 

But my God either the performance or acoustics/mix or both are atrocious compared to the film recording. For example, the bass is way too loud and everything else way too low. In terms of performance, I'm sure it's a very difficult piece, of course.

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Looking forward to seeing the full concert when it's released online.

 

The concert hall is beautiful, and they put on a great show (when I went last year for JNH) but the hall's seating is ridiculous. The balcony is at such a shallow angle that you literally cannot see a single inch of the stage. I went to both concerts of JNH and sat in different places and it was horrific. I actually stood up for the entire JNH section of the concert so I could see the orchestra. As did many others near me. Joke seating. 

 

I also met Pope a couple of times at the concerts. Great guy. Seriously a wonderful man. Had a few gold conversations with him. He called across the hall to me after the second concert, because we had a memorable chat a few days earlier and we talk a bit online, and so I walked down to him as he was in a group of JNH's wife and kids and some friends, and we had a chat about the concert. He's a very eloquent and inspiring guy too. He could get a snail to beat Usain Bolt if you gave him 5 minutes. I'm sure he's fun to work with. And let's face it, the man has had a hand in some of the greatest work of the last 20 years.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 5 months later...

I'm finally getting around to watching this video off and on throughout the day.  This was Lockhart's first year conducting for Hollywood in Vienna, right?  He's a good choice for this gig!

 

EDIT: Just got to the piece from Gravity and holy shit that is some terrible music.

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The performance of "Across the Stars" was stupendous!  Even if the solo violinist's facial gesticulations had me snickering.

 

The Desplat portion of the program is boring.

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