Popular Post Thor 7,508 Posted January 27, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted January 27, 2020 OK, so while all of you were in Vienna for the John Williams concert on January 18th (and apparently had the time of your lives), I hosted a John Williams concert here in Oslo (well, actually a suburb of Oslo called Lørenskog). Most bizarre collision of events ever! Nils – who is a member here, and will no doubt chime in soon – plays clarinet in the Lørenskog band, and was more heavily involved in the event than I was; I was just a hired hand, really. In any case, several hundred audience members showed up for this concert in the new Lørenskog House of Culture. The performers this evening were the Lørenskog band, accompanied by the Skala Opera Choir. Also featured were soloists from within the band, as well as an external soloist – violinst Aja Humm who has played with major orchestras, like the Oslo Philharmonic, and has her own string quartet called Fine Nordic Strings. Although I was pissed to miss out on the Vienna concert and history being written down on the continent, this particular concert had one great advantage over that one – the world concert premieres of “Hassle in the Castle” from CHECKMATE and “Mambone” from BACHELOR FLAT! Both of these were newly arranged by composer Knut Avenstroup Haugen (perhaps most famous internationally for his AGE OF CONAN game scores). Everyone knows how much I obsess over early/obscure Williams and the chance to hear it live, so that was a treat. And then there were more classic selections, of course. That was also thrilling, especially the epic performance of “Duel of the Fates”. There was apparently a video recording of the concert, but all I have at this moment is an audio file with medium sound quality (you can barely make out my own comments between the pieces…but that’s probably for the best, LOL!). I’m not sure I’m at liberty to post any of the audio clips here; Nils would have to approve first. In any case, I just wanted to tell about this event, since it’s so rare to have the two aforementioned pieces performed live. Here’s the full concert programme: 1. Superman: The Movie: “The Planet Krypton”/”Superman March” 2. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: “Harry’s Wondrous World” 3. Checkmate: “Hassle in the Castle” 4. Jurassic Park: “Suite” 5. Schindler’s List: “Jewish Town”/”Theme” (violin: Aja Humm) 6. Catch Me If You Can: “Selections” (saxophone: Øivind Hansen) 7. Saving Private Ryan: “Hymn to the Fallen” (w/Skala Opera Choir) 8. Indiana Jones: “Keeper of the Grail”/”The Raider’s March” - INTERMISSION – 9. Star Wars Saga: Main Title / Yoda’s Theme / The Imperial March / Princess Leia’s Theme / The Throne Room/Finale 10. The Terminal: “Viktor’s Tale” (clarinet: Christin Kolden) 11. E.T.: “Adventures on Earth” (selections) 12. Bachelor Flat: “Mambone” 13. The Phantom Menace: “Duel of the Fates” (w/Skala Opera Choir) 14. Amistad: “Dry Your Tears, Afrika” (w/Skala Opera Choir) 15. Encore: “The Olympic Spirit” I’m waiting for pictures, videos and (better) audio to come in, but meanwhile, here’s a brief video snippet of the rehearsal of Schindler’s List the day before the concert, as posted on Facebook: Fabulin, Marcus, crlbrg and 8 others 9 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurassic Shark 12,079 Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 That's a nice selection of both regular concert pieces and quite many that's uncommon to hear at a JW concert! Did the band include a string section? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 7,508 Posted January 27, 2020 Author Share Posted January 27, 2020 5 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said: That's a nice selection of both regular concert pieces and quite many that's uncommon to hear at a JW concert! Did the band include a string section? Not a section, but there was Aja Humm's violin. And then a contrabass in certain tracks. That's all I can remember. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 Were these licensed arrangements or was the concert essentially a performance of unauthorized material? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 7,508 Posted January 27, 2020 Author Share Posted January 27, 2020 Several of them are existing arrangements (there are several by Paul Lavender, for example), but I don't believe the two "rare" pieces were approved by Williams or anything. Knut basically had to construct arrangements from listening to the soundtrack, like Leigh Philips did on Goldsmith's THE SALAMANDER. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 So basically you're promoting a concert that was done without the composers concent and for which he was not compensated properly? MikeH 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holko 9,526 Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 When did he ever care about that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor 7,508 Posted January 27, 2020 Author Share Posted January 27, 2020 I have no idea. As I said, I don't know the going-ons behind the scenes. I'll let Nils elaborate on that. But with the hundreds of Williams concerts being performed all over the world at any given time, with all kinds of differents ensembles, I doubt all of them have specific permissions from the composer. Especially not ensembles like this that are primarily made up of non-professional performers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 You don't think the composer should be properly paid for his music, and that the music composed are his authorized arrangement? MikeH 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Fabulin 3,514 Posted January 27, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted January 27, 2020 . Thor, Biodome and Timo Martikainen 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurassic Shark 12,079 Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 1 hour ago, Stefancos said: So basically you're promoting a concert that was done without the composers concent and for which he was not compensated properly? This happens all the time, also on recordings. Ref. City of Prague... I'd believe the composer is still compensated even though it's an arrangement of an original piece. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisAfonso 186 Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 I'd guess even though he will not get paid a share of the nonexistent sheet music rental or purchase, he gets performance royalties from the usual performance rights organizations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Nils 35 Posted January 28, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted January 28, 2020 Thank you, Thor, for doing an amazing job hosting our show!(I was the one who hired Thor, so I’m at least partially responsible for him having to skip the Vienna event, which was announced after our concert date was set. Sorry, Thor! ) Your presentations were excellent, with just the right length and a great mix of interesting, relevant information and fun facts. People from the audience have told me they would have liked to meet you after the concert to congratulate you on your job and tell you how your introductions really enhanced the concert experience for them. Kudos! Cool also that you joined us for the after-concert party. It was exhilarating to perform a full concert of my favorite composer’s music, and playing the never-before-performed-live (as far as we know) "Hassle in the Castle" and "Mambone" was a blast! Of course, we’re only non-professionals, so there were some rough spots – performing a two hour concert with some quite difficult symphonic music is a challenge! The selections with the (really excellent) Skala Opera Choir were definitely some of the high points. They were located on two high balconies on each side of the hall, which gave the choir pieces a marvelous, majestic “surround” sound. As a 12 year-old in the audience commented on "Duel of the Fates": "That was epic!" Yes, we did both audio and video recordings of the event. I’ll check with the guys responsible for the recordings – hopefully we can post some of it here later. 19 hours ago, Stefancos said: Were these licensed arrangements or was the concert essentially a performance of unauthorized material? Apart from the specially commissioned "Hassle in the Castle" and "Mambone" arrangements, everything we played were published, licensed versions, many from the Williams “Signature Edition” series for concert band. And we report what we play to the Norwegian performance rights organization (TONO). The Illustrious Jerry, Jurassic Shark, Incanus and 5 others 5 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biodome 714 Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 It's so cool that you had a choir! I wonder how pieces like Duel of the Fates sounded. I've only ever heard the instrumental arrangements of that. Nils 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265 Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 19 hours ago, First TROS March Accolyte said: Stop trolling, Stefan, lol Good job with the concert, @Thor. I hope we will get to hear these rare pieces if a recording exists! I'm not trolling at all. I was just curious as to the nature of this concert. We know Williams is particularl regarding his arrangements that have been prepared for the concert hall. MikeH 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nils 35 Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 2 hours ago, Biodome said: It's so cool that you had a choir! I wonder how pieces like Duel of the Fates sounded. I've only ever heard the instrumental arrangements of that. Actually, for that piece we combined the parts from the purely instrumental concert band version with the choral parts from the orchestral version. Biodome 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Nils 35 Posted February 4, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted February 4, 2020 Here are links to recordings of our “world premiere” live performances of “Hassle in the Castle” and “Mambone”, as well as the SCHINDLER’S LIST pieces and “Duel of the Fates”. As Thor mentioned, the sound quality is not terrific, and the balance is a bit off here and there. And PLEASE NOTE: We are not the LSO, VPO, or Hollywood studio musicians – just a bunch of people playing an instrument in our spare time. Please keep that in mind when you listen. There IS some shaky stuff in there. “Hassle in the Castle”: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7xzhxm17jb669u3/Hassle_in_the_Castle.mp3?dl=0 “Mambone”: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ee0ug3ofsm1yz4k/Mambone.mp3?dl=0 “Jewish Town”/”Theme” from SCHINDLER’S LIST (violin: Aja Humm): https://www.dropbox.com/s/oqb0dhle3ktqelq/Schindlers_List.mp3?dl=0 “Duel of the Fates” (this is a shorter version than the original, and with some noticeable differences in the instrumentation – for instance, there is a very prominent snare drum part): https://www.dropbox.com/s/b7av098b8kmyzo7/Duel_of_the_Fates.mp3?dl=0 Miguel Andrade, Biodome, The Illustrious Jerry and 5 others 5 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miguel Andrade 1,263 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 Thank you @Nils and @Thor. Downloading now and ready to enjoy your performances Nils 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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