NEW Concert work: "Highwood’s Ghost", a fantasia for cello, harp and orchestra for cellist Yo-Yo Ma and harpist Jessica Zhou (Premieres August 19th at Tanglewood)

[Nick Parker 3,040]

1 hour ago, TGP said:

Just that it seems to move more into the realm of painting some external dramatic picture than maintaining an independent musical architecture.  Obviously that's some people's cup of tea but it loses my interest.

 

I know whachu mean. Interesting, since Williams tends to approach music as more of an aural experience in terms of the details (using a certain idea as the trigger--Frank Zappa wrote very much in a similar way).

[karelm 2,903]

2 hours ago, TGP said:

Just that it seems to move more into the realm of painting some external dramatic picture than maintaining an independent musical architecture.  Obviously that's some people's cup of tea but it loses my interest.

 

JW says it does have a moment of ectoplasmic visitation which is probably what you are referring to.  You dislike Berg's Lulu and Wozzeck because though purely abstract tonality, they follow a narrative (extramusical) dramatic structure?

[SteveMc 2,674]

The contrast between the tight outer sections and the rhapsodic middle adds strength to the piece, overall, to me.

[Dixon Hill 4,232]

1 hour ago, karelm said:

 

JW says it does have a moment of ectoplasmic visitation which is probably what you are referring to.  You dislike Berg's Lulu and Wozzeck because though purely abstract tonality, they follow a narrative (extramusical) dramatic structure?

 

But those are operas, it's a given that the music is more supportive in its role and thus less rigidly structured.  It's freestanding pieces that lose me somewhat when they venture more into an overtly dramatic realm, trying to paint a clear narrative as opposed to following some internal architecture, or at least not doing that alone.  Just not my thing usually.  I find I'd rather just listen to film music than much of the classical repertoire in that vein.

[_deleted_ 203]

Highwood's Ghost is a more engaging experience for me because the ascending three-note motif is so effective here! It seems to suggest strength and it opens some lyrical passages in HG. And the three-note motif reminds me of the Scherzo from his Concerto for Cello and Orchestra.  

 

An engaging listen! 👏👏👏👏👏

 

👻

[karelm 2,903]

13 hours ago, TGP said:

 

But those are operas, it's a given that the music is more supportive in its role and thus less rigidly structured.  It's freestanding pieces that lose me somewhat when they venture more into an overtly dramatic realm, trying to paint a clear narrative as opposed to following some internal architecture, or at least not doing that alone.  Just not my thing usually.  I find I'd rather just listen to film music than much of the classical repertoire in that vein.

 

Makes sense.  I know you're a fan of Don Davis, what do you think of his concert music and any recommendations?  I know he has an opera but I haven't heard it.

[Lao Che 86]

2 hours ago, karelm said:

 

Makes sense.  I know you're a fan of Don Davis, what do you think of his concert music and any recommendations?  I know he has an opera but I haven't heard it.

I love and played his string quartet "bleeding particles", there's a recording with the Arditti Quartet, the only one out there from what I could gather. 

 

oh and check this out:) :

 

https://www.dondavis.net/concert/

[Dixon Hill 4,232]

Outside of his opera and the piece on Gloria Cheng's album I don't think I've heard much of his concert music beyond the snippets on his site.  I can't remember which but I think there's a 2 piano piece on his site that I'd really like to hear more of based on the preview.  Thanks for posting the quartet.  Bizarre work.

[Lao Che 86]

9 hours ago, TGP said:

Outside of his opera and the piece on Gloria Cheng's album I don't think I've heard much of his concert music beyond the snippets on his site.  I can't remember which but I think there's a 2 piano piece on his site that I'd really like to hear more of based on the preview.  Thanks for posting the quartet.  Bizarre work.

Actually there's also a second quartet - comissioned by the Hollywood String Quartet - called "Wanderings", but I can't seem to find a recording of the work, just the score.. Goldenthal and Kilar also wrote pretty interesting concert works (mostly orchestral and choral pieces), for those who appreciate their unique styles and often minimalistic approach:)

[aescalle 122]

On 8/22/2018 at 3:21 PM, Ricard said:

Just a reminder that the piece will be conducted this Saturday by JW himself at the Bernstein Centennial Celebration concert. On Friday at 10AM, the BSO and Andris Nelsons will present a Facebook Live performance from Tanglewood, wishing Leonard Bernstein a happy 100th birthday with his daughter, Jamie Bernstein, and performing the overture to Candide in celebration of the occasion. The live stream will promote the August 25 Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood performance featuring John Williams.

 

 

 

[Bespin 8,475]

I'm live!

[lairdo 726]

I just watched the stream. All they did was the Candide Overture and then offline. This time is the rehearsal concert for tomorrow, but the FB Live part seems only to have been the 5 mins of Candide (which was enjoyable). Not really surprised that they didn't capture John Williams this way. Cannot believe his team would have okayed it. Guess, we'll have to listen tomorrow on the stream and see the PBS show in Dec.

1 minute ago, lairdo said:

Guess, we'll have to listen tomorrow on the stream...

 

FYI I am referring to the Boston radio stream which will carry the concert live at 8 EDT. Classical WCRB.

 

Also, the Candide overture video is still available to watch as a recording.

[aescalle 122]

to short !!! 😫😪😭

[Bespin 8,475]

It's just that?

[Ricard 2,242]

On 8/22/2018 at 3:24 PM, Disco Stu said:

Will the Saturday concert be broadcast?

 

And yes it will be streamed online at ClassicalWCBR.org 

[aescalle 122]

So tonight is the final recording night... I hope that the Ghost will let me record him ...With no internet connection problem this time!!!😜

[JohnnyD 1,220]

5 hours ago, Ricard said:

 

And yes it will be streamed online at ClassicalWCBR.org 

 

Awesome. I will definitely catch that. I hope someone will record and post the Maestro conducting his piece, Highwood's Ghost. There is just something very phenomenal about the Maestro conducting his own concert piece. It is something I would love to revisit again on repeat.

[KK 3,307]

Lovely piece. I might agree that it becomes a little less interesting once the horns draw the piece away from the airy Takemitsu-esque opening, but I don't think it's as meandering or even "film-ic" as some suggest here. 

 

The polyphonic descending motto on the winds around 11:30 is lovely stuff. And those closing trills...*chills*

 

I would definitely rank it among his finer works!

[SteveMc 2,674]

Concert starting guys!

http://www.classicalwcrb.org/post/celebrating-lenny-tanglewood

[Will 2,215]

Just tuned in for the first time tonight. They're playing the first Mahler selection right now. After that is Copland's Appalachian Spring finale, and after that comes JW. 

[SteveMc 2,674]

The West Side Story performances were very good, especially Maria.

[Will 2,215]

JW should be onstage within moments! (The Copland just wrapped up) 

 

[SteveMc 2,674]

Curious to hear how Williams will approach the piece.

[JohnnyD 1,220]

Listening to the Maestro conduct his piece now, and it is already better than when it premiered with Andris Nelsons conducting; the sound of the recording seems better too. I REALLY hope someone will record and post this performance. I'd love to revisit this.

[SteveMc 2,674]

The sound of the recording is noticeably sharper.

I wonder if Williams has made any changes to the score?  Some orchestral parts feel a bit more extroverted.  That could just be the conducting approach, of course.

Would very much like to hear the versions side by side.

[JohnnyD 1,220]

That was phenomenal! Great way to commemorate Leonard Bernstein's centennial.

[Faleel 5,330]

4 hours ago, KK said:

 trills...*chills*

The name of Williams' next album: "Trills and chills"!

[Pawel P. 738]

Since it was recorded by cameras and is to be broadcast on television, and the event was significant, I suppose we can expect a blu-ray release soon

[aescalle 122]

What an incredible night!

An I succeed in recording it... Thank you Ghost!🤗

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I didn’t listen last night having already heard the other performance, I’ll wait for the TV broadcast for my first hearing of this one

[Alex 2,833]

Anyway to listen/watch this now?

[SteveMc 2,674]

17 minutes ago, Alex said:

Anyway to listen/watch this now?

@aescalle might be able to help.

[Alex 2,833]

As in will it be available on demand?

[SteveMc 2,674]

Just now, Alex said:

As in will it be available on demand?

I don't think so, sorry.

[Ricard 2,242]

Williams, Ma, Zhou and Nelsons at the World Premiere on August 19:

 

 

Article from The Berkshire Edge:

 

Quote

Did Leonard Bernstein say, “I do believe in spooks!” as he ascended the stairs one night at Tanglewood’s Highwood house? No. But what he did say inspired John Williams to compose “Highwood’s Ghost, an Encounter for Harp, Cello, and Orchestra” for Bernstein’s centenary, which has been Tanglewood’s focus all summer.

 

"Highwood’s Ghost” stands apart from its predecessors by juxtaposing whimsy and dread in a quirky amalgam of the sweet and the spooky. No one juxtaposes whimsy and dread better than John Williams, but even he, at the age of 86, continues to refine his technique, limiting himself to none of the musical formulas he himself established over the course of half a century of filmmaking. Instead, he keeps inventing new formulas, and he employs them effectively in “Highwood’s Ghost.”

 

These days, John Williams achieves his dramatic aims — establishing various moods and transitioning between them — with a subtlety and sophistication that you might not hear in his earliest work. His music has always evinced profound erudition, but he learns something new every day. He continues to perfect his craft.

 

There are plenty of suspenseful moments in “Highwood’s Ghost,” but the prevailing mood of the piece is lighthearted, probably because Williams regards the famous apparition as a “seemingly very pleasant spirit.”

 

So, exactly what did Lenny say? The answer comes directly from Williams:

 

“I well remember one night,” he writes, “as Lenny was making his way up the first stairwell, exclaiming ‘this place is haunted!'”

 

Williams was unfazed by Bernstein’s bizarre revelation. After all, he had dealt with equally strange phenomena long before he had scored “Gidget Goes to Rome” or “Harry Potter.” He was also familiar with some of Lenny’s quirks and foibles:

“It may be expected,” he writes, “that Lenny, genius that he was, might have had a special ability to receive transmission from the sphere of spirits and signs.”

Perhaps so.

 

In any case, Lenny’s legendary encounter at the Highwood Manor house wouldn’t be the last time he would detect paranormal activity on the Tanglewood grounds. Former Bernstein assistant Charlie Harmon, in his memoir “On the Road & Off the Record with Leonard Bernstein,” recounts another spooky incident, this time on the Shed stage during a performance of Beethoven’s third symphony:

 

After an especially stirring Beethoven performance, LB seemed preoccupied. Before greeting his fans in the green room, he said to me, “In the second movement [a funeral march] I saw somebody walking across the back of the stage. I wondered why anybody would be back there.”

 

“Who was it?” I asked.

 

“Koussy,” LB said, his face suddenly drawn, the lines going deep.

 

I stopped what I was doing. Dr. Koussevitzky, founder of Tanglewood, died in 1951.

 

“I’m certain of it. It was Koussy,” LB said.

 

 

https://theberkshireedge.com/leonard-bernstein-and-the-haunting-of-highwood-manor-house/

 

Review from The Berkshire Edge:

 

Quote

The program’s centerpiece, the world premiere of “Highwood’s Ghost” composed by John Williams for Bernstein’s centennial, followed. Highwood Manor House, one of the grand old residences (built in 1846) on the Tanglewood campus inspired Williams, who recalls that Bernstein once exclaimed as he made his way up up a stairwell, “This place is haunted.” Indeed, the 15-minute works pays tribute to both Bernstein and Tanglewood. Williams’ contrast of cello and harp, performed by the world’s virtuosos, illuminated a shifting series of lights and darks punctuated with quirky dissonance. Most impressive was how Nelsons held the orchestra still long after it had ceased playing for what the audience perceived as an odd, even uncomfortable, period — silence is a sound, too.

 

https://theberkshireedge.com/review-tanglewoods-leonard-bernstein-memorial-concert-a-fitting-tribute-to-both-bernstein-and-tanglewood/

 

Review from The Boston Globe:

 

Quote

 

On Sunday afternoon the Tanglewood lawn was packed, whether thanks to the postcard-perfect weather, the presence of Yo-Yo Ma, or most likely some combination of both. Onstage was the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, giving its penultimate performance of the summer, again under Nelsons’s baton. The occasion also marked the unveiling of “Highwood’s Ghost,” a freshly commissioned Bernstein tribute work by John Williams, written for the orchestra with Ma and principal harpist Jessica Zhou as soloists.

 

Williams’s title alludes playfully to long-circulating rumors about paranormal activity at Highwood, a manor house that presides over a picturesque hilltop somewhere between the Koussevitzky Music Shed and Ozawa Hall. The piece itself blends a screen veteran’s cinematically vivid sense of atmosphere with the kind of careful craftsmanship Williams has long displayed in his less well-known but prodigious writing for the concert hall. Zhou’s gracefully dispatched early entrances arrived as if carried in on the wind. And as the piece progressed, the two soloists engaged in a kind of agitated dialogue, with Ma taking up the role of an increasingly emphatic interlocutor while the orchestra played a smaller supporting role. Presumably some kind of accord with spirits past is ultimately found, as the work ends calmly, with the music disappearing into a poised silence that Nelsons drew out at great length.

 

 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2018/08/20/tanglewood-balletic-bernstein-and-john-williams-premiere/MjJImrqSquSKLUs3m6vGjO/story.html

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Lovely piece.

[Bespin 8,475]

Website updated as I listen to the last concert: http://www.goplanete.com/johnwilliams/music/concerts.htm

[lairdo 726]

On 8/25/2018 at 7:23 PM, Steve McQueen said:

The sound of the recording is noticeably sharper.

 

I totally agree with that. It might be the difference between the two different venues at Tanglewood (I've never been), but I also think the BSO (plus guests from other orchestras) probably just has a tighter sound than the TMC given they have played together a lot longer. And then add in you have the composer conducting his own work in what was really an amazing overall concert full of energy. I listened to about half of the full concert out running yesterday afternoon and my pace was definitely quickened. Listened to the 2nd half later in the day and loved it too.

 

For me, HG is one of his most enjoyable concert pieces. I like it better than Markings from last year for sure.

[SteveMc 2,674]

Definitely an enjoyable piece!  I , for one, love Markings as well.

The only thing really missing from Saturday's performance was the silence at the end, which enhanced the ending, methinks.

[Ricard 2,242]

 

Andris Nelsons, John Williams, Steven Spielberg and Bradley Cooper

.

 

 

 

 

[Jay 37,281]

15 minutes ago, Ricard said:

 

What a great picture!

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

Why Bradley Cooper? Was he the host or something?

[Disco Stu 15,495]

He's making a movie about Bernstein I think.

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

Interesting... or perhaps Spielberg finally found Edgardo Mortara?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Spielberg is directing West Side Story, guys. By Leonard Bernstein.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

I was talking about Cooper.  He's directing and starring in a movie about Bernstein

https://variety.com/2018/film/news/bradley-cooper-leonard-bernstein-movie-1202805902/

[Jurassic Shark 12,024]

It was just a joke Stefan, just a joke.

[TownerFan 4,983]

Just now, Stefancos said:

Spielberg is directing West Side Story, guys. By Leonard Bernstein.

 

He's casting for some time now, but apparently there are issues finding the right actors to play Tony and Maria (he's auditioning only Latin-American actors)

 

Btw, Spielberg is also producing an upcoming biopic on Lenny, with BRadley Cooper directing and starring in the title role. Let's hope JW will write the music.

[KK 3,307]

Aren't Gyllenhaal and Cary Fukunaga also working on a Bernstein biopic?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

What do you think of the new Williams piece, KK?