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Which of these recent John Williams re-recording albums do you enjoy the most?


Jay

Which of these recent John Williams re-recording albums do you enjoy the most?  

49 members have voted

  1. 1. Which of these recent John Williams re-recording albums do you enjoy the most?

    • John Williams for Winds – Music for Cinema and Beyond
      0
    • The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration Part III
    • Lights, Camera… Music! – Six Decades of John Williams
    • John Williams: Themes and Transcriptions for Piano
      0
    • John Williams: A Life In Music
      0
    • John Williams At The Movies
      0
    • Celebrating John Williams
    • Hooten Plays Williams
    • Across the Stars
    • David Helbock Playing John Williams
    • I have not listened to any of these albums.
  2. 2. Which do you enjoy the most out of these 5 options?

    • The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration Part III
    • Lights, Camera… Music! – Six Decades of John Williams
    • John Williams: A Life In Music
      0
    • Celebrating John Williams
    • Across the Stars
    • I have not listened to any of these albums.
  3. 3. Which do you enjoy the most out of these 5 options?

    • John Williams for Winds – Music for Cinema and Beyond
    • John Williams: Themes and Transcriptions for Piano
    • John Williams At The Movies
    • Hooten Plays Williams
    • David Helbock Playing John Williams
    • I have not listened to any of these albums.


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There's been a resurgence lately in re-recording albums of John Williams' works, from piano arrangements to the full LSO to live concerts to soloist arrangements Williams arranged and conducted himself.

 

So out of these 10 recent albums, which ones do you like the most?  And the least?

 

  1. John Williams for Winds – Music for Cinema and Beyond
  2. The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration Part III
  3. Lights, Camera… Music! – Six Decades of John Williams
  4. John Williams: Themes and Transcriptions for Piano
  5. John Williams: A Life In Music
  6. John Williams At The Movies
  7. Celebrating John Williams
  8. Hooten Plays Williams
  9. Across The Stars
  10. David Helbock Playing John Williams

 

 

And please vote even if you haven't listen to all 10... even if you've only listened to one!

 

 

post-43-024606500 1416150950 williams-spielberg_collaboration3.jpg lights-camera-music.jpg John Williams: Themes And Transcriptions For Piano JW-LSOalbum.jpg At the Movies Celebrating John Williams [2 CD] williams-hooten500x500-1.jpg Across The Stars Playing John Williams

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OK, in order to prevent S/W III from skewing the results, I've modified the poll to include 3 total questions.  The 4 of you who already voted will have to re-vote.

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My Top 6 in order of appreciation:

 

1-Celebrating John Williams

2-Lights, Camera… Music! – Six Decades of John Williams

3-John Williams: A Life In Music

4-The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration Part III

5-Across the Stars

6-John Williams: Themes and Transcriptions for Piano

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Jay, your poll is making the hard life to "John Williams: A Life In Music" album, which is yet an excellent album, and do we have to repeat it, recorded by the legendary London SO!

 

Among others, it contains great full scale modern recordings of the Star Wars Main Theme, Flying from E.T. and Superman Theme (this one without applause at the end, unlike Dudamel's recording). That is significant.

 

 

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I voted for Spielberg/Williams III, but to me Lights, Camera, Music is a very, very close second.  Across the Stars, Celebrating Williams, and the Hooten recording would round out my personal top 5.

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As I type this, Spielberg/Williams III and Across the Stars are running away with it with a combined approx two thirds of the total votes.  I guess people strongly prefer the projects Williams conducts himself!

 

In the first grouping, the kind of "major" albums that got a lot of marketing and Williams had more involvement with, as mentioned S/W III and ATS are running away with it, but the Lockhart album is a clear third place, with 3 people preferring the Dudamel album and not a single vote for the LSO album!

 

Shockingly half the voters have not listened to a single album in my second grouping, which was the "smaller" albums done with no direct input from Williams.  But out of those who have, Hooten's album is winning, following by Pedroni's, then Helbock's, then the two winds-focused albums.  A general overall preference for horn and piano over winds showing itself perhaps?

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In addition to the brilliant performances on S/W 3, it's also maybe my favorite sounding album Williams has ever recorded.  Honestly, I want to hear more albums recorded by Murphy at Royce Hall UCLA, because it's still astounding to me how great this album sounds.

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4 hours ago, Jay said:

Shockingly half the voters have not listened to a single album in my second grouping, which was the "smaller" albums done with no direct input from Williams.  But out of those who have, Hooten's album is winning, following by Pedroni's, then Helbock's, then the two winds-focused albums.  A general overall preference for horn and piano over winds showing itself perhaps?

 

Actually, I'm not a big fan of brass, and far prefer piano and winds, for example (if one were to create a weird competition between instruments). The reason I voted for the Hooten is that it's a whole piece, not recorded that often. I tend to prefer that over endless variations of the evergreen film tracks.

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If it came down to the new version of Leia vs. Marion which never had a concert version, it would be S/W III, but I also listen to (I-III) more often for variety... ATS (deluxe) can feel like a really long violin concerto.

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4 hours ago, Jay said:

 

Shockingly half the voters have not listened to a single album in my second grouping, which was the "smaller" albums done with no direct input from Williams.  But out of those who have, Hooten's album is winning...

 

 

I'm not sure Hooten's album qualifies as having "no direct input from Williams."  He conducted it!  (Of course, that could be why it's winning that poll.)

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The "no involvement from Williams" albums are USUALLY no-gos from me, unless there's a significant amount of interest in the track list, etc.  I don't need another album of SW/Imperial March/Superman THeme/Adventures on Earth/Raiders March, I already have like thirty of them.

 

I actually changed my vote, because I remembered I have the Simone Pedroni release - it's pretty good!  Somewhat interested in bits and pieces of the others, and it's a bummer the coast guard album isn't available for download or purchase.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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