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Williams composing fanfare for the Hollywood Bowl centennial - "Centennial Overture"


Miguel Andrade

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Thanks for sharing the video. As far as the music goes... it's got a lot going on. It's tone is kind of odd. It's got a fun tone to it, sometimes almost comical. The bouncy percussion and bells and thing remind me of JW's music for the news or maybe some of his Olympics stuff. It almost sounds like a less grand, slightly more formal Galaxy's Edge. Maybe this piece is an example of JW writing a concert piece like he does film action scene music. It kind of has JW action music qualities.

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I like it! Too bad we'll never hear it in good sound quality. A lot of these Hollywood Bowl /Tanglewood special concert versions survive only in crap quality bootleg form, and I can predict this will be one of them.

 

Hopefully a few people made videos and we'll get a slightly better sounding one to pick from

 

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Nice piece, fun and playful. There is something interesting happening in almost every bar, and the various sections of the piece are well balanced (not too short nor too long). It would be nice to have a studio recording...  

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So all these years when William Ross was composing his film music, John Williams wrote concert music in secret.

 

I can't find another explanation! :D

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3 minutes ago, Bespin said:

So all these years when William Ross composed his film music, John Williams was composing concert music in secret.

 

I can't find another explanation! :D


What do you mean…?

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There's just no real reason to do a studio recording as it was an event specific piece.Or to even  perform it again

 

and there was no radio broadcast

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2 hours ago, Will said:

 

Another video I found (haven't watched yet so can't say anything about the quality).

 

I have watched them both. I would say the 2nd one is maybe a bit less cluttered with extraneous sounds and people walking by, but this one is more muddy unfortunately.

 

Still, the piece is really different and the same simultaneously. I feel that JW was trying to capture all of the types of music the orchestras have played at the Bowl. So, you get some of the rousing fanfare pieces, the more eclectic rhythmic elements perhaps representing some of the 20th century composers, and of course, as noted earlier, Hurray for Hollywood - which even though I knew it was coming still made me laugh. 

 

Hard to imagine how this gets released unless someone commissions something like "The LA Philharmonic Plays John Williams Concert Hall Pieces" (lame title, I know) and then they collect things like this, Soundings (which has no audio only release), the Oscars piece, maybe better recordings of the concerti that Slatkin never had a chance to do. There's probably 2 hours of music that could use some really excellent playing. Or of course, if they wanted to do a "John Williams Live at the Hollywood Bowl" from his 3 concerts this year, that could be cool! Maybe we could get the the TROS suite finally!

 

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2 hours ago, lairdo said:

 

Still, the piece is really different and the same simultaneously. I feel that JW was trying to capture all of the types of music the orchestras have played at the Bowl. So, you get some of the rousing fanfare pieces, the more eclectic rhythmic elements perhaps representing some of the 20th century composers, and of course, as noted earlier, Hurray for Hollywood - which even though I knew it was coming still made me laugh. 

 

He might be going for that, but all those types of music also map onto his own music at the Hollywood Bowl--I think it is a fun, rousing piece in the spirit of Hollywood, but with Williams own mature sensibities.

 

As for the comments from many about not getting a recording, I disagree.  This occasion is a bit more momentous than an arrival for a prince or such--and it a celebration of music itself.  I think Dudamel will see to it that it is recorded and released (though these things take time).  

 

After several listens, I think those string lines were developed into the Oscars Overture, but who knows. 

 

Also, did I mention that I think this piece is fantastic? 

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Unfortunately I couldn't enjoy much of it and its an interesting piece but the sound quality didn't do justice here. Hope to hear it again in good quality or better if it gets a proper album recording. The beginning does sound unusually comical 

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When we get stuff like this and Overture to the Oscars, I end up appreciating his weird concert pieces like the Violin Concerto and Highwood's Ghost a hell of a lot more.

 

God bless the man for writing such wonderful music so consistently at this point in his life.

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Hector J Guzzman?

 

Yes it sounds better than the other ones. Too bad there's a girl talking to someone in the beginning.

 

Maybe someone can make a patchwork version using all the videos to minimise ambient noise and people talking

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23 hours ago, igger6 said:

I guess nobody in the front of the Bowl had the temerity to film it…

 

Nicely played!

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