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John Williams' new HAN SOLO AND THE PRINCESS arrangement (Debuted 2018)


Jay

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Unfortunately I think the Boston performance that was broadcast was not the best performance of this piece. Much better sound quality than the cell phone recording from Glasgow, of course, but a flawed performance. So we still await a quality track.

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I didn't say anything before, but I do like the nuance in the Glasgow performance.  I think they are both good, though.

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it's a lot better than the Glasgow recording

 

First of all the Glasgow recording is one minute longer, so it's played at  a much slower tempo. All the middle part of the piece doesn't sound coherent

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11 hours ago, King Mark said:

it's a lot better than the Glasgow recording

 

First of all the Glasgow recording is one minute longer, so it's played at  a much slower tempo. All the middle part of the piece doesn't sound coherent

Well, I generally like slower tempi. 

The middle part does wander, though.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 months later...

From a comment on my YT video of the arrangement:

 

Quote

The new theme sounds like it is taking us back in time, like the introduction of a sad fairytale. We begin with a mournful sequence of Han and Leia lamenting the loss of the perfect yet impossible pairing, a quiet yet regal statement of the motif. Softly and slowly it leads us to remember the painful beauty of their times together. The result is a heartrending sequence that touches our hearts and souls right to the very core.

We then progress to a somewhat chaotic and tumultuous sequence where the motif is never really completed, left to trail off into another variation of the motif, and another, and another. This effectively frames the complex and yet hauntingly perfect romance between the star-crossed couple. The music then sinks into a dark, mysterious sequence, the point when darkness began to infiltrate the purity of their love. We sense the tribulations that have torn through their sacred bond as the theme wavers and morphs several times but is always there, symbolising the unbreakable romance between the princess and the scoundrel.

John Williams allows the music to rise to the grand, sweeping complete theme that enraptured us since Empire Strikes Back, even as he switches out a note or two that conveys the melancholic nostalgia when Han and Leia truly were happy together. For even though the Force was cruel to Skywalker's daughter and the man who loved her, there were moments when even the entire galaxy could not keep them apart.

The final statement of the motif is quiet yet powerful, even as its simplistic tone reminds us of the young Princess Leia, the innocent yet brilliant girl who never quite found her place in the galaxy. That a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, there was a romance full of purity and light, strong yet fragile, ephemeral yet eternal.

One whose roots were cruelly snatched away from her, and the other who threw away his roots to find a better life. Against all odds, they found each other. May the Force be with both of them, always.

 

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  • 1 year later...
15 hours ago, bollemanneke said:

Not worth anyone's money in my humble opinion... Stick to the LSO version.

I'm not watching or listening to a phone recording! How's that better than a proper recording?

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11 minutes ago, rough cut said:

 

A great site.

 

7 minutes ago, Arpy said:

I'm not watching or listening to a phone recording! How's that better than a proper recording?

 

Only E.T. Phone Home is listenable in a phone recording.

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25 minutes ago, Arpy said:

I'm not watching or listening to a phone recording! How's that better than a proper recording?

 The c.d. version is better. LSO version is agonizingly slow.

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Just now, King Mark said:

 The c.d. version is better. LSO version is agonizingly slow.

I like the LSO performance, but I don't like any of the phone recordings! 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/17/2019 at 12:03 AM, Jay said:

From the samples the performances seem pretty good. Anyone got this set yet?  Its on the Sony label so it does appears to be a good compilation. 

 

I'd go for it because of the Han and Leia (Revised) recording. 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Amer said:

From the samples the performances seem pretty good. Anyone got this set yet?  Its on the Sony label so it does appears to be a good compilation. 

 

Yes, many of us have listened to the album: There's an entire thread for the album here with a bunch of comments:

 

https://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/30955-music-from-the-star-wars-saga-by-robert-ziegler-the-slovak-national-symphony-orchestra/

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I missed reading about it. Good to know there was a thread already. Going to order it. Seems pretty decent for an orchestra and conductor Iam unfamilair with.

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  • 7 months later...

I just came across this and wow, what a wonderful piece. Would have been beautiful to have this in IX. Maybe prior to Leia's death or when Han was talking to Ben.

 

So, it was a homenage to Carrie Fisher that JW wrote back in 2017? Wonder why it wasn't used in any film. So many backstories we don't know during the sequels

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In my dreams, there is a version of the credits to TLJ that uses it instead of all the tracked in music. Not sure how that would all transition, but I’m sure Williams could make it work.

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8 hours ago, Taikomochi said:

In my dreams, there is a version of the credits to TLJ that uses it instead of all the tracked in music. Not sure how that would all transition, but I’m sure Williams could make it work.

It would've worked better in TRoS' credits, personally. Since the film featured both Ford and Fisher and was a symbolic end to their story.

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On 12/28/2019 at 12:14 AM, bollemanneke said:

Uh, no, it is not. The performances are mediocre at best and the album ends with two totally unnecessary film cue transcriptions arranged by someone who clearly doesn't recognise notes.


I just listened to all of Ach-to Island and the end of Battle of Crait, they sound note-for-note with the originals (aside from the inferior performance and obvious mix differences). I don’t hear any transcription errors.

 

I still have nightmares about the Silva Screen/Prague transcriptions of Indiana Jones tracks, if you want a really bad transcription listen to The Basket Game from that album. Yikes.

 

(here it is for reference:)

https://open.spotify.com/track/6cN6YK9KgI0qdFDrNto66f?si=RCqVFokTRKK1XPxBJ9hKYg

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On 12/27/2019 at 2:14 PM, bollemanneke said:

Uh, no, it is not. The performances are mediocre at best and the album ends with two totally unnecessary film cue transcriptions arranged by someone who clearly doesn't recognise notes.

 

Are you saying it was transcribed by a... blind person?

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  • 1 year later...
4 minutes ago, stravinsky said:

Has this new arrangement just been released as a single on Spotify from the new Deutsche Grammophon Album?

 

No, that's a 2021 revision of this version, specifically tailered for ASM

 

4 minutes ago, stravinsky said:

 

Or has it been released before? 

 

The ASM version? No, it's brand new. The 2018 arrangement in general? Yea, there's two embedded videos of it right on this page. 

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It seemed to me that the ASM version of this arrangement has less Eiger Sanction-adjacent noodling in the opening minute than the orchestral version.  At several points he basically expands it from a six-note motif to an eight-note.  But maybe it's just less prominent to my ear in the violin version?

 

Either way, it's a fascinating phenomenon that I'm not sure has an analogue anywhere in Williams' oeuvre—a concert suite that not only changes the core notes of a theme's identity in the course of six minutes, but does so with a theme from decades earlier.

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The video in the old OP of this says it's now set to private. Is there another link for it at all? I've completely forgotten ever listening to this, but apparently I loved it back when I heard it. 

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