"Celebrating John Williams" concert (Gustavo Dudamel/LA Phil, Disney Concert Hall, January 24-27, 2019) - 2CD set available on March 15

[TownerFan 5,267]

To all our Angeleno friends, this looks like a terrific concert coming your way in a few weeks:

 

https://www.laphil.com/events/performances/172/2019-01-24/celebrating-john-williams/

 

Quote

 

Program

• John WILLIAMS : Olympic Fanfare and Theme
• John WILLIAMS : Excerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
• John WILLIAMS : Out to Sea/Shark Cage Fugue from Jaws
• John WILLIAMS : Three Selections from Harry Potter
• John WILLIAMS : Theme from Schindler’s List
• John WILLIAMS : Adventures on Earth from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
• Intermission
• John WILLIAMS : Flight to Neverland from Hook
• John WILLIAMS : Theme from Jurassic Park
• John WILLIAMS : Three Selections from Indiana Jones­
• John WILLIAMS : Sayuri’s Theme from Memoirs of a Geisha
• John WILLIAMS : Three Selections from Star Wars

Artists

• Los Angeles Philharmonic
• Gustavo Dudamel conductor
• Simone Porter violin

About This Performance

Anyone who appreciates the iconic film scores of John Williams will be transported when Gustavo leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in this emblematic sampling of Williams’ unforgettable themes, augmented by a selection of film clips.

Pre-Concert Talk: Upbeat Live
With Speaker to be announced – 7pm

 

 

I hope JW himself will appear in the audience.

[Smeltington 1,603]

Wow, sounds fantastic. Pretty typical setlist, but will still be special given the setting. Seems like they should be playing Soundings though 

[karelm 3,099]

I'm going!

[Jedi767 6]

Wow... Tickets are basically sold out already. And they're not cheap!

[karelm 3,099]

13 hours ago, Jedi767 said:

Wow... Tickets are basically sold out already. And they're not cheap!

Yeah, LA Phil is way too expensive.  But then again these sell out.  I don't think any seat was less than $100.

[Thor 8,505]

Wow. Ticket prices are really out of control these days...

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,445]

I think LA is particularly pricey when it comes to concerts. 

[karelm 3,099]

It is.  But I guess its priced right if there are no empty seats for each of these four days.

[Ricard 2,270]

All posts discussing JW's appearance at Gustavo Dudamel's induction into the Hollywood Walk of Fame have been moved here:

 

[TownerFan 5,267]

 

[Jurassic Shark 13,364]

Is it Gustavo sitting at the front of the bike?

[Incanus 5,818]

1 hour ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Is it Gustavo sitting at the front of the bike?

Williams riding the bike and Gustavo in the basket you mean?

[Jurassic Shark 13,364]

4 minutes ago, Incanus said:

Williams riding the bike and Gustavo in the basket you mean?

 

Exactly!

[karelm 3,099]

Johnny was there!!  Concert was exceptional!  More details later.  Too tired now.

[Miguel Andrade 1,381]

Not sure if this little video has been posted somewhere else... 

 

 

[crumbs 14,904]

John's mind is as sharp as ever, presuming this interview was fairly recent. Fantastic to see, especially after last October.

 

I know it's been said a lot but that operation in 2015 has worked wonders. He seems revitalized and revivified in a way I haven't seen since the early 2000s.

[Ricard 2,270]

 

[Thor 8,505]

As crumbs says, he does indeed look to be in tremendous shape. He has very youthful movements; it's only when he walks, you can glean his age. Also evident in the Twitter video Ricard just posted. When my own grandfather passed away, he was one year younger than Williams is now...

[karelm 3,099]

This concert was absolutely wonderful.  Flawless performance.  LA Phil recorded it for commercial release I believe.  The announcer said "silence the phones and don't applaud till music is finished because it is being recorded for a future release".  I would expect if it was for the radio they would have said for future broadcast.   Regardless, it was so good - the concert hall has excellent acoustics for this type of detailed music.  It was a little distracting watching Johnny listen to his own music but the whole sold out audience seemed to envelop him with love and admiration.  Dudamel would frequently bow to him during the performance and everyone enjoyed watching the nonverbal exchange of joy, passion, and musicianship. The sonorities were so refined and richly detailed, bombastic and intense when needing to be. 

 

Program:

Olympic Fanfare and Theme (with the mighty organ)

Close Encounters suite (excellent half diminished flat 5 to tonic, @Ludwig with glorious harp gliss'...you would approve)

Shark Cage Fugue/Out to Sea from Jaws

Harry Potter Suite (Hedwig's Theme, Fawkes the Phoenix, Harry's Wondrous World)

Schindler's List theme

Adventures on Earth from E.T.

-Intermission-

Flight to Neverland from Hook

Jurassic Park theme (sounded amazing with five unison trumpets and a very emphatic ending)

Indiana Jones (Motorcycle Scherzo, Marion's Theme, Raiders March)

Suyuri's Theme from Geisha

Star Wars (Imperial March (imagine hearing it with 8 horns, 5 trombones, 5 trumpets, 8 percussionists at Disney Hall...never heard it sound so good), Yoda's Theme, Throne Room and Finale from Star Wars)

 

Encore:

Williams's Adagio for Strings (<-- gorgeous this!)

Superman March

 

It was a long concert - ending around 10:30pm with several video clips.  I especially enjoyed during the Throne Room, they played scenes from the 8 star wars films including scoring session photos from all of them. 

 

JW looked great, happy, energetic, and deeply moved by the performance and audience enthusiasm.  Sorry the video with Dudamel talking is hard to hear, he didn't have a mic.

 

 

 

[Thor 8,505]

32 minutes ago, karelm said:

Williams's Adagio for Strings (<-- gorgeous this!)

 

Thanks for the report, karelm!

 

What do you mean, Williams' "Adagio for Strings"? Did the arrange the Barber piece?

[karelm 3,099]

18 minutes ago, Thor said:

 

Thanks for the report, karelm!

 

What do you mean, Williams' "Adagio for Strings"? Did the arrange the Barber piece?

No, it is the piece by Williams that Dudamel introduces in my second video (by the way, does the video play)?  For me, it only plays audio even though it was an MOV file.  The first few seconds of it are in that clip. Since it's an encore, it isn't in the program so all I know about it is that clip where he calls it Adagio - I think it is adapted from The Force Awakens.

[Jay 39,761]

22 minutes ago, Thor said:

What do you mean, Williams' "Adagio for Strings"? Did the arrange the Barber piece?

 

lol

 

http://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/28749-new-williams-concert-arrangement-adagio-from-the-force-awakens-premiering-august-7th-2018-at-tanglewood-update-world-premiere-was-march-2018-in-mexico-city-video-on-page-1/

 

You have multiple posts on the first page...

[Thor 8,505]

He, he. Shows how much I follow STAR WARS threads or anything FORCE AWAKENS-related.

[Dzadza 90]

From LA times review "But something else was at the heart of the program, which continues through Sunday and is being recorded live for release in a month or two on Deutsche Grammophon."
So - that's why it's being recorded 😋

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,357]

8 hours ago, karelm said:

Olympic Fanfare and Theme (with the mighty organ)

Yes! YES! 

[crumbs 14,904]

Glad we'll finally have a proper recording of the Adagio from The Force Awakens. I believe it's the only concert suite John wrote for TFA that we don't have in proper quality (other than the concert ending of the credits suite).

 

Interesting thing about Gustavo's anecdote, that John wrote the film cue the night before recording it. Would this indicate there was an alternate version of the cue, possibly performed a day earlier, which JW had to re-write in a hurry? Seems unusually last-minute considering the prolonged recording sessions in 2015.

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,357]

1 minute ago, crumbs said:

I believe it's the only concert suite John wrote for TFA that we don't have in proper quality (other than the concert ending of the credits suite).

Correct.

 

2 minutes ago, crumbs said:

Interesting thing about Gustavo's anecdote, that John wrote the film cue the night before recording it. Would this indicate there was an alternate version of the cue, possibly performed a day earlier, which JW had to re-write in a hurry? Seems unusually last-minute considering the prolonged recording sessions in 2015.

Wasn't there an unused cue that would've underscored General Hux's speech? The Starkiller only covers the segment thereafter, so is it possible that has any relation to what Dudamel was talking about?

[crumbs 14,904]

15 minutes ago, The Illustrious Jerry said:

Wasn't there an unused cue that would've underscored General Hux's speech? The Starkiller only covers the segment thereafter, so is it possible that has any relation to what Dudamel was talking about?

 

Definitely possible. If we had TFA's scoring session dates and knew the date Dudamel guest conducted, we could work it out pretty quickly.

 

Still plenty of possibilities. Maybe the unused Hux speech cue went into a more aggressive, action-oriented cue underscoring the Starkiller destruction sequence (which John re-wrote overnight, as mentioned in the anecdote)? Or maybe the unused Hux speech was re-written with a more restrained, mournful approach (to better segue into the adagio that followed) and ultimately neither version was used? If I had to guess, I'd say the former is more likely.

 

It's incredible just how little we know about the ~60 minutes of unused, unreleased music John recorded for TFA (178 all up from memory, of which only about 110 features in the final cut). A definitive sheet music or cue list leak would be incredible to study.

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,357]

@crumbs this post of yours actually pinpoints a possible alternate for this scene.

 

 

[crumbs 14,904]

Completely forgot about that @The Illustrious Jerry. You're right, from the cue titles we've discovered there's Sunbeam Strings and Beam is Released. The former is the adagio Williams wrote the night before Gustavo conducted it (and was used in the final film). The latter cue is unknown. Possibly the unused Parade Grounds speech cue but that doesn't really fit the cue title...

 

Personally, I'd put my money on a legitimate alternate. Combined with the fact Williams wrote the adagio version the night before the sessions indicates JJ might have requested a tonal change to JW's original approach at the eleventh hour.

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,357]

But would his original approach have included music during that part of the scene, or did he only plan to underscore Hux's speech? If so JJ would've asked him to move back the positioning of the cue and leave the speech unscored, but let the music start shortly after when the Starkiller fires. So maybe that particular part was never meant to be scored and it was originally just the speech cue. Just some thoughts. Whatever it may be, I think it was best the way things turned out in the final cut (no parade grounds cue, adagio afterwards).

[crumbs 14,904]

I would've thought they'd be two completely different cues, although that's based on the final film's edit. From what we've heard, the unused speech cue crescendos pretty brilliantly as Hux finishes speaking; it seems like a natural cue ending to me.

 

Though as you speculate, maybe the destruction sequence was originally intended to be unscored.

 

I'm struggling to remember if there was another cue title that might have fit the Hux speech (other than Beam is Released).

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,357]

I just went over the complete cue list and it doesn't appear so. There are plenty of online edits of the 'complete score' that have named the parade grounds cue "The Last Day of the Republic". 

 

5 minutes ago, crumbs said:

Though as you speculate, maybe the destruction sequence was originally intended to be unscored.

That is beginning to seem quite plausible. 

[crumbs 14,904]

An interesting tidbit (because sometimes Williams cue titles correlate with cue titles), the original OST track title for Sunbeam Strings was The Republic's Demise. 

[Ricard 2,270]

On 25/01/2019 at 7:52 PM, Dzadza said:

From LA times review "But something else was at the heart of the program, which continues through Sunday and is being recorded live for release in a month or two on Deutsche Grammophon."
So - that's why it's being recorded 😋

 

Here's the link:

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-laphil-dudamel-williams-review-20190125-story.html

 

[The Illustrious Jerry 3,357]

10 hours ago, crumbs said:

An interesting tidbit (because sometimes Williams cue titles correlate with cue titles), the original OST track title for Sunbeam Strings was The Republic's Demise. 

The plot thickens... 

[JohnnyD 1,330]

Cool! I can’t wait for the CD release. I’ve always wanted to listen to Adagio for Strings from The Force Awakens. Glad it was properly recorded for release along with the rest of the concert.

[Amer 2,271]

Me too. This would be an instant purchase. I only wish the revised 'Han Solo and The Princess ' had been included in the program. Also wondering if 'Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra' is also the revised edition. 

 

P. S. Do you think this was recorded on video. It would great if this turned up as a blu ray release like the previous Dudamel Williams Concert only this time the program titles are more my type. 

[crumbs 14,904]

1 hour ago, Amer said:

Me too. This would be an instant purchase. I only wish the revised 'Han Solo and The Princess ' had been included in the program. Also wondering if 'Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra' is also the revised edition. 

 

True, but at least we have the LSO performance of that one in pretty great quality.

 

It would be nice if Williams followed up that Skywalker Symphony album with a new compilation featuring his modern Star Wars concert suites, even some of the prequel ones (the choirless ones would be easiest, I guess). He's already written nine new suites in the last 4 years alone:

• Rey's Theme
• March of the Resistance
• Scherzo for X-Wings
• The Jedi Steps
• Jedi Steps and Finale (with two different endings)
• Adagio for Strings
• The Rebellion is Reborn
• Han Solo and the Princess (Revised)
• The Adventures of Han

Plus all his new music for the theme park (which hopefully gets released commercially) and whatever new suites he composes for IX. Not to mention his new violin arrangements for ASM, including Across the Stars and Luke and Leia.

[Amer 2,271]

1 hour ago, crumbs said:

 

True, but at least we have the LSO performance of that one in pretty great quality.

 

It would be nice if Williams followed up that Skywalker Symphony album with a new compilation featuring his modern Star Wars concert suites, even some of the prequel ones (the choirless ones would be easiest, I guess). He's already written nine new suites in the last 4 years alone:

• Rey's Theme
• March of the Resistance
• Scherzo for X-Wings
• The Jedi Steps
• Jedi Steps and Finale (with two different endings)
• Adagio for Strings
• The Rebellion is Reborn
• Han Solo and the Princess (Revised)
• The Adventures of Han

Plus all his new music for the theme park (which hopefully gets released commercially) and whatever new suites he composes for IX. Not to mention his new violin arrangements for ASM, including Across the Stars and Luke and Leia.

 

Neat idea. But I think he may do this after Episode 9 wraps up. Once the 3rd Trilogy wraps up he should revisit these last six films as a follow up to his Sony Album. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,445]

He never did that after the Prequels were finished, why would he do that now?

[Amer 2,271]

54 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

He never did that after the Prequels were finished, why would he do that now?

All the reason more for wrapping up the saga. After all he just did the new soloist rendition of Across The Stars. Basically the album concert pieces from the Prequel would suffice for the inclusion. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,445]

Disney would have to be interested in finding it of course.

[crumbs 14,904]

Disney seems a hell of a lot more generous financially than Lucasfilm was under Lucas! John has been afforded luxurious recording schedules on both films now, plus he was surely paid handsomely just to compose a theme for the last spinoff film.

[Ricard 2,270]

[SteveMc 2,675]

Splendid to see!

[Will 2,254]

Wow! Great to finally have a video (if only in part) of JW conducting his superb "Happy Birthday Variations." 

[crlbrg 382]

At that age breathing must be a chore, let alone conducting. Amazing!

[Once 697]

His agility reminds a lot of my great grandma when I was a child. Back then she was also in her 80's.

She's 20 years older than Williams, though (born in 1912), and still around today.

[Alex 2,888]

He moves amazingly for a man with a bionic heart and a spine made of paper.