Summon the Heroes by Boston Pops with John Williams - NEW 2020 home recording dedicated to frontline workers

[Timo Martikainen 127]

 

[Disco Stu 15,483]

Cool!   What a rare treat to see Williams playing his own music at his home piano!

 

Also, has Keith Lockhart lost weight or something?  He looks different.

[Fabulin 3,465]

Edit: Ninja'd!

[Holko 8,659]

Awesome!

 

Awww, Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes right on his shelf, what a nerd!

[SteveMc 2,673]

Wow!  

Now I NEED to see Williams perform a piano reduction of the whole thing!

 

YouTube link:

 

[Fabulin 3,465]

"Hi! I'm John Williams" is the cutest thing I've ever heard.

 

[Falstaft 1,998]

Truly wonderful. Really well-done, well-produced performance too, given the limitations of this format.

 

Especially cool to see the maestro in his personal studio, with all those personal effects & books.

 

[Disco Stu 15,483]

2 minutes ago, Falstaft said:

Truly wonderful. Really well-done, well-produced performance too, given the limitations of this format.

 

Especially cool to see the maestro in his personal studio, with all those personal effects & books.

 

 

Including, as @Holko pointed out, little figures of the cantina band on one shelf!

[WilliamsStarShip2282 283]

This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

[Jay 33,774]

Holy cow this is the coolest video I've seen in a long time!  John Williams talking directly to the camera for something to be broadcast on the internet, what a time to be alive!

[Holko 8,659]

1 minute ago, Jay said:

Holy cow this is the coolest video I've seen in a long time!  John Williams talking directly to the camera for something to be broadcast on the internet, what a time to be alive!

He could just do twitch streams sitting there playing all day!

[lairdo 694]

What an amazing treat to wake up to. Everything about this is top rate - the playing, the sentiment, the editing - and of course seeing two maestros - Keith Lockhart and the ultimate Maestro JW. 

 

And just hearing John Williams both play the piano and speak - looking fit and healthy - is a gift to all of us.

 

And then there are the Modal Nodes on the shelf as previously mentioned...

 

I mean, how lucky are we to get to have this music in our lives?

[Will 2,157]

Wow, absolutely beautiful. I came close to tearing up.  What a marvelous sound the orchestra gets too -- I don't know how it was possible to mix them so well given how it was recorded. 

 

[Jay 33,774]

Keith conducting is just for show, right?  These guys had to have all performed on their own time to a click track in their ear right?

[WilliamsStarShip2282 283]

Yes

 

[Smeltington 1,269]

That was beautiful! It's comforting to see Williams and be able to "check in" with him this way. And I loved seeing all the musicians playing in their homes... you can appreciate the magnitude of so many artists from different walks of life coming together to contribute to one performance. I don't always have that in mind when I'm watching an orchestra on stage, dressed in black.

[Matt S. 475]

That was incredible!  Amazing performance in its own right, but truly inspiring given the circumstances!

[Fabulin 3,465]

[Matt S. 475]

Apparently the musicians recorded their parts separately, and it was all edited together after the fact.  Check the opening fanfare: there are three trumpet players, but they recorded their parts twice each (you can see them wearing different clothes!)

 

From the Pops' website:

BSO Recording Engineer Nick Squire and Video Engineer Brandon Cardley, working from their homes, edited the audio and video from 86 individually submitted video files to create the musicians’ gift to all who are giving so much of themselves during this time.

 

https://www.bso.org/brands/pops/features/at-home/pops-at-home-heroic-performances-may-5.aspx

 

 

[Martinland 294]

9 minutes ago, Will said:

I came close to tearing up

I just did - completely. Part of the reasons being that this should not be how we experience orchestras on one hand, but it's soo admirable here on the other hand, and, foremost - Maestro Williams opened the concert with the London Symphony in 1996 with just that, on short notice even (!); we were impressed, to say the least. That was almost 24 years ago. Almost as long as me and my significant other have been together. *sigh*

[crocodile 7,556]

This is uber-cool!!!

 

Karol

[Ricardo Mortimer 43]

I like as he said Hi! 

[Edmilson 5,717]

That was amazing. And I didn't know musicians recorded separetedly could sound like a whole orchestra when joining the video files together. 

 

Maybe this is how film music will be recorded for the foreseeable future until it's safe to resume normal recording sessions again?

[Fabulin 3,465]

Delightful

[Ricardo Mortimer 43]

5 minutes ago, Fabulin said:

Delightful

 

"I enjoyed this my piece of music."

[mstrox 6,069]

This was lovely.

[Amer 1,934]

This was so awesome!

[Thor 6,420]

This is fantastic, rare and just plain heartbreaking. What a treat!

 

While it's fun to identify the objects in his immediate surroundings, Oma Tres-style, it's first and foremost a treat to see and hear Williams playing piano -- something we haven't seen for DECADES (was the last time the Jay Leno show when they played MEMOIRS?). Just a bar or two, but enough to be uber-cool.

 

And I love how they solved the piece itself, visually and musically. It's a fantastic one, and my 'goosebump meter' always rockets sky high whenever the piece reaches its break at 6:15.

[JohnnyD 1,167]

2 hours ago, Jay said:

Holy cow this is the coolest video I've seen in a long time!  John Williams talking directly to the camera for something to be broadcast on the internet, what a time to be alive!

Amen! This made my day!

[Romão 2,240]

That was fantastic. 

[Marian Schedenig 7,229]

This is awesome.

 

...and also quite an accomplishment, I'd say. They certainly could have picked an easier, less densely orchestrated piece for an online performance.

[obiwan71 26]

Indeed, what a fantastic video and performance by the Boston Pops... not to mention the technical achievement. 

Lovely in every way!

[Thor 6,420]

Could some parts have been pre-recorded? Or at least edited together somehow? I can't believe it was all a single take.

[Marian Schedenig 7,229]

6 minutes ago, Thor said:

Could some parts have been pre-recorded? Or at least edited together somehow? I can't believe it was all a single take.

 

As mentioned above, all the parts were recorded separately and the mixed together, so in a way, everything was pre-recorded.

 

While the technology may exist to do this live in real time, I don't think there's an orchestra in the world whose members have internet connections with sufficiently small lag for a live performance involving dozens of players.

[Thor 6,420]

Missed that part. Yes, it makes sense, of course. But kudos to the editor -- it sounded seamless.

 

Interestingly, this is exactly what they did with Williams' "Satelite Celebration" back in the 90s. That was live, and worked surprisingly well (at least if judging by the bootleg recording).

[crlbrg 376]

3 hours ago, Fabulin said:

 

Small edit

[Marian Schedenig 7,229]

14 minutes ago, Thor said:

Interestingly, this is exactly what they did with Williams' "Satelite Celebration" back in the 90s. That was live, and worked surprisingly well (at least if judging by the bootleg recording).

 

I assume that was not done via the internet, which has much more lag than a direct electromagnetic transmission at light speed.

[eitam 345]

Awesome video for an awesome piece of music! And coolest of all, seeing John playing and adressing the camera... As always it's heartening to see him doing well.

 

It was interesting to hear another performance of the music, for example the dissonant background being mixed higher than usual during the crescendo around minute 6.

[Lewya 360]

Looks like Jerry Goldsmith (the guy with the white hair) on the right of that photo behind him. No clue who the two ladies are between Williams and what looks like Goldsmith.

[Marian Schedenig 7,229]

Looks like Ozawa to me.

[Bellosh 2,715]

This is the best thing I've seen in months!!

[Disco Stu 15,483]

11 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Looks like Ozawa to me.

 

I concur.  That's likely a photo from before/after a concert in Boston.

[artguy360 1,776]

Incredible in so many ways! What a treat.

[bollemanneke 3,072]

Awwwwwwww!

[Luke Skywalker 1,622]

Cool

[thx99 1,623]

2 hours ago, Thor said:

While it's fun to identify the objects in his immediate surroundings, Oma Tres-style, it's first and foremost a treat to see and hear Williams playing piano -- something we haven't seen for DECADES (was the last time the Jay Leno show when they played MEMOIRS?). Just a bar or two, but enough to be uber-cool.

It technically hasn't been decades, @Thor.  In 2012, he played a bit of piano on a 60 Minutes segment on the release of Lincoln and also as part of a Brian Williams interview focusing initially on the music he's composed for the Olympic Games, as seen here:
 

 

[Thor 6,420]

True. Thanks for the reminder.

[Trumpeteer 280]

Let's not forget that he is 88 years old! His fingers are flying around like he's 28! That is what made me cry, more than the fact that it is a rare thing to see John Williams perform more than a couple of notes on the piano.

[KK 3,288]

This is officially the coolest Covid video on the internet!

 

2 hours ago, Thor said:

Missed that part. Yes, it makes sense, of course. But kudos to the editor -- it sounded seamless.

 

Interestingly, this is exactly what they did with Williams' "Satelite Celebration" back in the 90s. That was live, and worked surprisingly well (at least if judging by the bootleg recording).

 

All the major symphony orchestras have been doing similar renditions of classical repertoire in this fashion since quarantine began. Every part is recorded as a stemmed and then edited and mixed together. It's pretty impressive, and it looks like most ensembles have boiled it down to a technique.

[crocodile 7,556]

I'm also happy they are performing this particular piece. I remember hearing it in 1996 without knowing who composed it. It's such a memorable melody. I remember playing it once and one of my mates, who cared little about JW or film scores, said "oh, this is the Atlanta olympic theme, isn't it?". And that must have been something like 7-8 years after the games. Shows you how good this tune is.

 

Karol