Unexpected random encounters with the music of John Williams

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Sir Simon Rattle tells the all-dead-anecdote

 

I don't know where to put it - but just listen to Sir Simon Rattle telling the "all-dead-joke" and reflecting upon the music of John Williams, a French sounding E.T. score, and the impact Star Wars could have had on the LSO's finances!

 

Klassik am Odeonsplatz 2022: Filmmusik trifft auf Romantik | News und Kritik | BR-KLASSIK | Bayerischer Rundfunk

 

A lot of room between the lines for speculation about another appearance of John Williams in Europe.

[Marian Schedenig 6,522]

That's a sweet interview.

[Fabulin 3,442]

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Moderieren wird Maria Furtwängler. Ihren Favoriten im Programm hat die Schauspielerin schon jetzt gefunden: "Meiner ist aus 'Star Wars', ihr kennt das …", sagt sie und singt die Musik von John Williams, die man nie vergisst.

This is the closest we will get to a Furtwängler take on Williams's music. 

 

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Roszá 

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Rszá 

@Holko

[Brando 1,065]

I keep forgetting to post this here, but a few weeks ago, at work, my coworker next to me whistled a little something. And I am very positive he unintentionally, accidentally whistled the carnivore motif from Jurassic Park. Because instinctively, I was about to whistle it back, because you don’t just whistle the carnivore motif once. 

[Holko 8,228]

6 hours ago, Fabulin said:

This is the closest we will get to a Furtwängler take on Williams's music. 

 

@Holko

R

[BB-8 1,945]

Harrison Ford is 80 today, offering many (unexpected) random encounters with the music of John Williams:

 

Harrison Ford 80. Geburtstag - Die Superbayern | BR Podcast

[Marian Schedenig 6,522]

That was… not funny.  And the only Williams was the Superman march of all things, but I guess that's just their regular signature tune, given the name.

[BB-8 1,945]

9 hours ago, Marian Schedenig said:

That was… not funny.  And the only Williams was the Superman march of all things, but I guess that's just their regular signature tune, given the name.

I agree, that podcast series is just silly and not funny at all. A shame BR uses music by JW to introduce such utter crap. Wonder whether BR are paying any royalties for the (mis)use of the Superman Theme.

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On 15/06/2022 at 1:50 AM, Marian Schedenig said:

Not entirely unexpected, but not necessarily worth making a new thread either, so I'm just dropping this here… apparently, Simon Rattle just conducted the Star Wars main titles with the LSO at the BMW Classics concert last Saturday:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CeyTQ2NK-Bd/

 

Rattle also did a flash mob (unexpected and random by definition) with music by JW last week in Munich...

 

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For me, a random encounter with John Williams.

[apples 61]

Was flying with KLM a few days ago, and look what was in their music section 

 

 

 

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This is insane....

 

[Damien F 984]

One of my favourite places is the Louvre courtyard on a summer's evening in Paris. The sunsets are usually beautiful and there is a nice atmosphere there. There is usually a few classical music musicians busking in the courtyard which adds to the romanticism of the place. I was in Paris last week and arrived at the courtyard one evening to hear a very talented cellist perform Sayuri's theme from Memoirs of a Geisha.

 

 

 

 

 

[GerateWohl 2,856]

On 04/08/2022 at 4:25 PM, BB-8 said:

This is insane....

 

The best point is when the conductor asks, who is the only person who received more than Williams' 52 academy award nominations and someone from the audience says "Hans Zimmer?".

But apart from that they obviously have a lot of fun playing that music.

 

[Michael G. 384]

 

Minions: The Rise of Gru

 

I can understand the JAWS reference, but why CEO3K???

[BB-8 1,945]

 

bells up!

 

[bollemanneke 2,935]

Just heard a Raiders March variation in a SpongeBob episode. (And they keep using Romeo and Juliet by Tchaikovsky too.)

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Zapping into the European Championships in Munich 2022 at lunchtime, I happened upon the beginning of "Summon the Heroes" between beach-volleyball sets.

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"...totally took from Holst, and Strauss, and Wagner..."

 

Now that's what I call a sweeping statement.

[Drew 564]

I once heard Raiders March on the weather channel.

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I can't recall having seen this before - another grand European orchestra playing John Williams.

 

 

[Sandor 681]

Maybe posted already, but Coldplay open some of the shows of their current -and very successful- Music Of The Spheres-tour with Flying from E.T.

 

 

 

 

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19 hours ago, Sandor said:

Maybe posted already, but Coldplay open some of the shows of their current -and very successful- Music Of The Spheres-tour with Flying from E.T.

 

Any idea which recording?

 

Could be LSO given the timpani knock.

 

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,475]

22 hours ago, BB-8 said:

I can't recall having seen this before - another grand European orchestra playing John Williams.

 

I'm not sure it counts as unexpected or random when it's a concert whose program is advertised ahead of time 

[Sandor 681]

10 minutes ago, BB-8 said:

 

Any idea which recording?

 

Could be LSO given the timpani knock.

 

 

 

I don’t know for sure, but I would guess the same recording you suggested. 

[pete 737]

Not Williams, but I was reminded of him and the Always score as a nice piano version of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes started playing at the cafe I'm killing time in. 

[BB-8 1,945]

Not sure where to put this upcoming release that includes four arrangements of JW music for piano (and orchestra?):

 

Over the Moon - E. T.

Main Theme Sabrina

Main Theme  Schindler's List

The Force Theme - Star Wars

 

Orchestra dell' Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Sabine Devieilhe, Antonio Pappano, Michel Portal, Nemanja Radulović, Frivolités Parisienens, Les Trilles Du Diable, Camélia Jordana, Vanessa Paradis

 

Cinema | Warner Classics

 

 

 

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Wha the f**ck...

 

[Jay 32,104]

John Williams has been bald longer than I have been alive

[BB-8 1,945]

6 minutes ago, BB-8 said:

What the f**ck...

https://www.discogs.com/de/sell/release/14166985?ev=rb

Note the turtle-neck!

[karelm 2,641]

4 hours ago, BB-8 said:

https://www.discogs.com/de/sell/release/14166985?ev=rb

Note the turtle-neck!

 

Our Johnny always looks suave and classy in a turtleneck.

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That made the Berlin Concert special. No one forced him to wear a tie.

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I find this cover pic a little creepy.

Seen that there's a transfer to CD...

http://www.jw-collection.de/misc/prokofiev.htm

[BB-8 1,945]

 

 

[MrJosh 770]

The other day, we were headed to dinner and someone's car horn beeped, but they had programmed it to beep Hedwig's Theme. 

[BB-8 1,945]

34 minutes ago, MrJosh said:

The other day, we were headed to dinner and someone's car horn beeped, but they had programmed it to beep Hedwig's Theme. 

 

[MrJosh 770]

15 minutes ago, BB-8 said:

 

Just when I think I've heard everything....

[Brando 1,065]

1 hour ago, MrJosh said:

The other day, we were headed to dinner and someone's car horn beeped, but they had programmed it to beep Hedwig's Theme. 

I really need proof of this to believe it

[MrJosh 770]

1 minute ago, Brando said:

I really need proof of this to believe it

I looked for them after we parked and couldn't find them. I wanted to record it.  It was a whole phrase too, not just a few notes!

[Martinland 233]

2 hours ago, MrJosh said:

Just when I think I've heard everything....

I'm tone-deaf now... oO

[Tom 3,715]

11 hours ago, BB-8 said:

 

 

Well, I just had to read through the comments, which were all positive, except two.  Here was my favorite:

"I love almost all your orchestrations. Pieces like these are the failures. Please give us music next time and cease with the noise."

[pete 737]

I swear I saw an Instagram cat video that has a cheap arrangement of some of the more joyous Home Alone 2 music, I think The Plaza Hotel melody.

[Marian Schedenig 6,522]

Not necessarily entirely unexpected (it's the Boston Pops, after all), but I guess this thread is as good a place as any to drop this:

 

[Disco Stu 15,475]

Didn’t expect it from Minnie Driver’s Twitter account

 

 

[Jay 32,104]

We're having breakfast in our hotel in Venice. The staff have a little radio going that was playing Cotton Eye Joe when we got here, and now it's playing some violin - led medley of Star Wars themes 

[Marian Schedenig 6,522]

Ah, Venice…

 

[Tom Guernsey 1,760]

This is almost the inverse of this thread, but we were watching the musical Anything Goes (a filmed recent live stage production) on BBC4 at the weekend. While this version of the famous title track is clearly closer to what Cole Porter originally wrote, it’s nothing compared to the brilliance of the Temple of Doom version which makes all others seem really quite disappointing somehow!

[Luke Skywalker 1,511]

On 4/12/2022 at 3:42 PM, Marian Schedenig said:

Ah, Venice…

 

Cant wait to have those mandolin sweeteners released dome day….

[Tom Guernsey 1,760]

There’s probably a “random thoughts about JW” thread somewhere but thinking more about how great his arrangement of Anything Goes is made me consider how he’s one of those supremely talented people whose life and talent would easily be enough for several lifetimes. Obviously another incarnation of him as a film composer to write for all those movies he would have been perfect for but had to turn down due to scheduling, an incarnation as an arranger/orchestrator to add his amazing use of the orchestra to a whole load more projects than he has actually been able to (although it’s amazing he did this at all, all things considered), another as a concert hall composer and perhaps another as a conductor. While he’s undeniably fine at the last two, I’m less certain that he’d have stood out doing just those relative to his other talents. A more left field one could be composer of musicals. I know Thomas and the King isn’t exactly great but with better projects and collaborators matched to his melodic gifts, he could easily have written some of the most famous Broadway songs in history.

 

It also led me to thinking of other individuals whose single lifetime wasn’t possibly enough for their talent and the best one I could think of was Leonard Bernstein. He could easily have just been a world class conductor, similarly he could have built on West Side Story and written a string of hit Broadway shows that could have further redefined the genre (maybe usurped Stephen Sondheim!) but also could just have been a concert hall composer. His output in all these fields is impressive but with his writing in particular, you really do crave more!

 

ps. If anyone has a better thread for this and is vaguely interested in this probably pointless thought experiment, do let me know. If not, as you were!

[BB-8 1,945]

Unexpected random encounter with John Williams

 

Amazon.de: John Williams Mini Cardboard Cutout