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JW London Concert 1996


tmarps

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Hi everyone,

 

Trying to piece together a bit of missing history regarding a concert JW gave at the Royal Academy of Music in 1996 as part of their American Music Festival. Has anyone got any memorabilia, programmes etc or any information regarding this concert?? Seems like there's a great gap in my knowledge regarding this. Thanks guys

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I remember someone commenting here somewhere that Summon The Heroes was performed. I remember because the original comment was that Summon The Heroes was performed at the 1998 concerts. I attended those and it wasn't. When I replied with that, the poster said he/she was getting the 1998 and 1996 concerts mixed up.

It's mentioned here...but does this describes a different concert? 

http://www.johnwilliams.org/reference/bibliography/1996/snedden

 

Yep, different concert: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-music-lso-john-williams-barbican-london-1327016.html

 

Well, 1996 would have been a good year to live in London

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1 hour ago, pete said:

 

Yep, different concert: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-music-lso-john-williams-barbican-london-1327016.html

 

Well, 1996 would have been a good year to live in London

Quite a critical review. Wow. If you believe the author the LSO played terrible.

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On 6/22/2020 at 2:24 PM, tmarps said:

Hi everyone,

 

Trying to piece together a bit of missing history regarding a concert JW gave at the Royal Academy of Music in 1996 as part of their American Music Festival. Has anyone got any memorabilia, programmes etc or any information regarding this concert?? Seems like there's a great gap in my knowledge regarding this. Thanks guys

 

The old Soundtrack! magazine published an article with photos back then. Here's a few scans from the magazine (courtesy of @Miguel Andrade, linked from MArkus Hable's website)

 

st_01.jpg

 

st_03.jpg

 

st_02.jpg

st_04.jpg

st_09.jpg

st_10.jpg

st_11.jpg

 

As it's been already noted, this concert isn't the one he performed with the LSO at the Barbican a few days later (btw, I have the program of that one, I'll try to have it scanned)

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I have a lot of Soundtrack! magazines, but I just checked, and it appears that although I have several 1996 issues, I don't have that one. Bummer!

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22 hours ago, TownerFan said:

 

 

 

As it's been already noted, this concert isn't the one he performed with the LSO at the Barbican a few days later (btw, I have the program of that one, I'll try to have it scanned)

 

I have a few program book scans, not sure if I have the one from 1996. I'll check and post whatever I find on my back up hard drives.

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I think this was the first John Williams concert I ever went to. My parents had to “negotiate” with school to let me leave half an hour early to catch the flight to London! Glad they did as it was a great evening. I have a feeling it was the first ever public performance of Summon the Heroes. Sure it was an eternity waiting for the album to be released! I think it was broadcast on Radio 3 as I’m sure I have an off air recording of it on tape... somewhere. Will have to see if it’s in my endless piles of crap!

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There is indeed a BBC broadcast recording of that LSO concert floating around since the early 00's. It does included Summon the Heroes in the program.

As for the release of the CD, I'm pretty sure I got Summon the Heroes (or Sound of Glory in some other countries) earlier in the year. Can't find a release date for the disc, but it was surely before June, as in the June'96 edition of Classic CD were news of Williams being in London presenting his new Olympic piece with the Pro Arte Orchestra and by that time I already had the CD for a couple of months.

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6 minutes ago, Miguel Andrade said:

There is indeed a BBC broadcast recording of that LSO concert floating around since the early 00's. It does included Summon the Heroes in the program.

As for the release of the CD, I'm pretty sure I got Summon the Heroes (or Sound of Glory in some other countries) earlier in the year. Can't find a release date for the disc, but it was surely before June, as in the June'96 edition of Classic CD were news of Williams being in London presenting his new Olympic piece with the Pro Arte Orchestra and by that time I already had the CD for a couple of months.

Ah fair enough. I’m sure it was some kind of premier (outside the U.K. live premier which wouldn’t be difficult!) but either way a terrific concert. I have no recollection of how difficult it was to get tickets given now difficult it is to get them for concerts now. I guess he wasn’t quite as famous then!

 

On a semi related note, I seem to recall reading that Summon the Heroes wasn’t actually performed live at the opening ceremony... I certainly recall thinking it sounded eerily like the cd version...

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23 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

I think this was the first John Williams concert I ever went to. My parents had to “negotiate” with school to let me leave half an hour early to catch the flight to London! Glad they did as it was a great evening. I have a feeling it was the first ever public performance of Summon the Heroes. Sure it was an eternity waiting for the album to be released! I think it was broadcast on Radio 3 as I’m sure I have an off air recording of it on tape... somewhere. Will have to see if it’s in my endless piles of crap!

 

I am fairly certain that Summon the Heroes received its world premiere live performance at the LSO concert on 26th June 1996.  I was at one of the concerts too so it was the first time I had seen John Williams in the flesh.  In those pre-internet (for me) days I remember just going up to the Barbican and buying the tickets at the box office a few weeks beforehand when I read about the concerts in a magazine.

 

As for the release date of the CD, the answer is in the programme if you still have it.  There is a full page advert from Sony Classical stating that the CD would be released in the UK on 15th July that year but was available to buy at the Barbican in advance at the three concerts.  I remember because that is when and where I bought my copy!

 

16 hours ago, Tom Guernsey said:

 

On a semi related note, I seem to recall reading that Summon the Heroes wasn’t actually performed live at the opening ceremony... I certainly recall thinking it sounded eerily like the cd version...

 

You are probably not wrong as that is a fairly commonplace practice at such open-air events.  The LSO mimed their performances at the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, for example; the string players were given cheap / fake instruments to use in case it rained.

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1 hour ago, Omen II said:

 

I am fairly certain that Summon the Heroes received its world premiere live performance at the LSO concert on 26th June 1996.  I was at one of the concerts too so it was the first time I had seen John Williams in the flesh.  In those pre-internet (for me) days I remember just going up to the Barbican and buying the tickets at the box office a few weeks beforehand when I read about the concerts in a magazine.

 

As for the release date of the CD, the answer is in the programme if you still have it.  There is a full page advert from Sony Classical stating that the CD would be released in the UK on 15th July that year but was available to buy at the Barbican in advance at the three concerts.  I remember because that is when and where I bought my copy!

 

 

I'm pretty sure I got my copy in late Spring. By the time I read about the press presentation with the Pro Arte Orchestra in the June issue of Classic CD, I already had the CD for a while. That might actually have been the first live performance, though for a limited group.

 

Quote

You are probably not wrong as that is a fairly commonplace practice at such open-air events.  The LSO mimed their performances at the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, for example; the string players were given cheap / fake instruments to use in case it rained.

 

Same thing happened at the Salt Lake Winter Olympics and the Barak Obama inauguration.

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11 hours ago, Omen II said:

I read about the concerts in a magazine.

I read about it in Soundtrack! magazine I think - and I still have the Gramophone Film Music  Good CD guide (a book) from 1996 which features a full page ad for that concert (!).

9 hours ago, Miguel Andrade said:

I already had the CD for a while.

Regarding the CD, I can prove the sequence of events quite easily: I brought the CD with me from Austria to London and the last page of the booklet now bears a signature by a certain Maestro. ;)

 

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