Prelude for Piano and Orchestra (new Williams composition - premiered June 2021; Albany Symphony performance & recording coming 2022)

[thx99 1,986]

(Note: The “Prelude” is what will be premiered; the “Scherzo for Piano and Orchestra” is a previously-existing work.)
 

[crumbs 15,512]

Exciting! Seems JW has been keeping himself busy during iso. 

[Disco Stu 15,509]

YES!

 

Very interesting that it’s a work written expressly to be paired with the earlier Scherzo.  Cant wait to hear it!

[SteveMc 2,678]

Can't wait!

[Jay 42,449]

Here's the scherzo if you haven't heard it

 

 

[Tom 5,615]

Further evidence that this is the world's most slowly developing full piano concerto.  

 

Excellent news.  

 

I wouldn't be surprised if he tinkered with the scherzo as well. 

[Bayesian 1,513]

This is likely the closest we’ll ever get to a JW piano concerto! Really excited for this!

[GerateWohl 5,961]

5 hours ago, Jay said:

Here's the scherzo if you haven't heard it

 

 

Who said last time, it's like a cat walking on the piano? I really had to laugh, because, yeah, that's not completely wrong. Would be a great title.

Looking forward to the prelude. Will we at last get a recording of Prelude and Scherzo with Cheng or Lang at the piano?

[artguy360 2,023]

I'm looking forward to the prelude but I do not enjoy the scherzo. There's just nothing about it that grabs my ear or serves as a recognizable foundation for all the kinetic noise.

[ChrisAfonso 222]

6 hours ago, Bayesian said:

This is likely the closest we’ll ever get to a JW piano concerto! Really excited for this!

 

Apparently he's working up to one, movement by movement

[Jurassic Shark 14,996]

7 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

Who said last time, it's like a cat walking on the piano? I really had to laugh, because, yeah, that's not completely wrong. Would be a great title.

 

It's Like a Cat Walking on the Piano

for Piano and Orchestra

for Gloria Cheng and Lang Lang

[Pawel P. 822]

1 hour ago, artguy360 said:

I'm looking forward to the prelude but I do not enjoy the scherzo. There's just nothing about it that grabs my ear or serves as a recognizable foundation for all the kinetic noise.

 

I feel the opposite, I like the scherzo very much from start to finish, it sounds very fresh and energetic, and has a lot of Williams trademarks in it.

[Thor 9,308]

I didn't like it very much the first time I heard it (which was a mediocre-sounding Youtube video of Lang Lang's premiere performance), but I've come to enjoy it a bit more in its proper album recording. Lots of details I missed the first time around. Just as with "Conversations", I was hoping for a more lyrical piano piece when Williams finally wrote a concert piece for his main instrument (nobody knows what the piano sonata from his student days sounds like anyway), and it turned out to be something far more abstract and experimental. But something to explore further when I'm in the mood.

 

Nice to hear that a "Prelude" has been added to the piece.

[GerateWohl 5,961]

There is an album recording?

[Muad'Dib 1,946]

I can't believe some of the stuff I'm reading about the Scherzo. I absolutely adore it. 

 

I love the piano parts but if you're looking for something more melodic there's a recurring theme that plays throughout the whole piece. 

 

It's one the best JW action pieces!

[Jurassic Shark 14,996]

51 minutes ago, Thor said:

But something to explore further when I'm in the mood.

 

[thx99 1,986]

This is a better-quality recording presumably of the Lang Lang performance.

[Jurassic Shark 14,996]

14 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

There is an album recording?

 

Don't know if it exists on CD.

 

http://www.jw-collection.de/classical/scherzo_piano.html

[thx99 1,986]

@8:53 of the "Scherzo..." video that I posted above...

 

 

[Disco Stu 15,509]

4 hours ago, Muad'Dib said:

I can't believe some of the stuff I'm reading about the Scherzo. I absolutely adore it. 

 

I love the piano parts but if you're looking for something more melodic there's a recurring theme that plays throughout the whole piece. 

 

It's one the best JW action pieces!

 

The orchestral parts really are very typical of that era of JW action music.  Parts sound straight out of Azkaban to me

[mrbellamy 7,310]

That recurring melodic call even sounds a little like Whomping Willow.

[King Mark 3,834]

I'd have to re-listen to it but it didn't leave much of an impression

[Bespin Copilot 9,630]

I don't know this work yet, seems like another hit with a catchy melody!

[rough cut 1,775]

Curious to find out what the Prelude sounds like.

[Tom 5,615]

I would guess that since it is paired with the scherzo, it will be composed in the same modern idiom, which of course is the typical musical language of most of his concert works.  

 

It will be interesting to see if they just happen to be paired by the orchestra or if the prelude is meant to be a separate movement in the same overall piece.  

[Miguel Andrade 1,523]

11 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

There is an album recording?

 

There is a professional recording of the live premiere. Markus Hable used the cover for the release on the link posted by Jurassic Shark.

Since this is being premiered with the Albany SO under David Alan Miller and he usually seems to record his comissions on Albany Records, I would surely hope for a recording of Prelude and Scherzo in the near future.

[Bespin Copilot 9,630]

So the "Prelude" is a 2021 work?

 

- I ask for a friend who have a discography website.

[Jay 42,449]

I mean, literally all the information we know is in the main post of this thread you're asking this question in.

 

We know: 

 

1) It's a new composition by Williams he recently finished that no one's heard yet

 

2) It will premiere with the Albany Symphony "next season", which could mean late 2021 or early 2022

 

That's all we know.

[Bespin Copilot 9,630]

DId he published something between 2018 and 2021?

 

There's a gap on my website, maybe I missed something, please tell me, I was lazy in the last years...

 

 

http://www.goplanete.com/johnwilliams/composer/index.htm

[GerateWohl 5,961]

9 minutes ago, Bespin said:

DId he published something between 2018 and 2021?

 

There's a gap on my website, maybe I missed something, please tell me, I was lazy in the last years...

 

 

http://www.goplanete.com/johnwilliams/composer/index.htm

Since you count in the Adagio from TFA I would expect the across the stars arrangements for ASM in that list here?

[Jay 42,449]

Well, there's still the mystery of exactly what Percussive Planet will be

 

And there's the Hollywood Bowl centennial fanfare

 

And the processional for Vienna

 

And the Violin Concerto for Mutter

 

And of course Galaxy's Edge: https://www.jwfan.com/forums/index.php?/topic/29030-galaxys-edge-new-john-williams-composition-2018

 

And if it counts for what you're asking about, the new version of Han Solo and the Princess

and the new versions of a bunch of stuff for Anne Sophie Mutter

[Bespin Copilot 9,630]

No, because it's an arrangement, it's in the arrangement section.

(if it's not there actually, I must add the Mutter albums).

 

I have a very complex rule, where the renaming or a work or not, makes all the difference.

 

Galaxy is on the composition page, I just put it in the score sub-section, as it is a score for a themed Park, not a classical work composed for a friend.

 

 

@Jay Thanks for your links, but I don't want to read all them. Of course, I only put compositions on my pages, where they Premiered or officially where Published.

 

[GerateWohl 5,961]

Ok. But the Adagio from my point of view would be in that sense also just an arrangement.

[Bespin Copilot 9,630]

9 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

Ok. But the Adagio from my point of view would be in that sense also just an arrangement.

 

But JW took the time to change the name. I don't know if it changes something about the rights... anyway. It's like "Stargazers", we know that's from E.T., but with the name change, the dissociation with the movie, for me it's a new composition.

 

With a new name, it becomes more "classical" and acceptable in a serious classical concert, don't you think? hehe

[GerateWohl 5,961]

It's a complicated world.

[Bespin Copilot 9,630]

Finally, I already put the Mutter albums in the arrangements page, so I'm not that crazy yet pheeeeew :

 

 

 

http://www.goplanete.com/johnwilliams/arranger/index.htm

[GerateWohl 5,961]

But there you forgot the suite from Lincoln for piano solo.

 

No sorry. You didn't. You mentioned the Simone Pedroni transcriptions. But I thought the arrangements from Lincoln are based on a suite from Williams. But might be wrong.

[Bespin Copilot 9,630]

It's there, I put a bigger image, showing 2013 to 2020, see up there.

[Jay 42,449]

It makes no sense to list Prelude but not the Violin Concerto, Vienne processional, Holly Bowl centennial, and Percussive Planet (if it is a new work).  They are all in the exact same category of "things we know JW has written, but haven't been performed for the public yet"

[Bespin Copilot 9,630]

Do they were published?

[Jay 42,449]

What do you mean by "published"?  Are you talking about sheet music for sale?  None of these things have that.

[Bespin Copilot 9,630]

Published, someone already showed us a website, were we can see the published works.

 

Anyway, meanwhile these works have 92 times to be revised 'till their Premieres... 

[Jay 42,449]

Yes, all 5 of these were announced via other websites, which is why each has a thread here.  They aren't just like, rumors or something, they are all fully announced works that simply haven't had their debut performance yet.

 

I would just lump all of these together as "upcoming works".  No reason to assign a date until they actually get performed somewhere

[Bespin Copilot 9,630]

NO.

[karelm 3,190]

1 hour ago, Bespin said:

DId he published something between 2018 and 2021?

 

There's a gap on my website, maybe I missed something, please tell me, I was lazy in the last years...

 

 

http://www.goplanete.com/johnwilliams/composer/index.htm

There is also a violin concerto he composed for Anne Sophie Mutter in 2020.  They talked about it together on CBS Sunday Morning interview last year.

1 hour ago, Jay said:

2) It will premiere with the Alabama Symphony "next season", which could mean late 2021 or early 2022

 

Albany Symphony

[Bespin Copilot 9,630]

Only officially published (with a proof and a date of publication) or Premiered works appears on my website. PERIOD.

 

I'm not JW's agent, I'm a discographist.

[Jay 42,449]

13 minutes ago, karelm said:

Albany Symphony

 

Typo fixed

 

 

10 minutes ago, Bespin said:

Only officially published (with a proof and a date of publication) or Premiered works appears on my website. PERIOD.

 

I'm not JW's agent, I'm a discographist.

 

I understand, which is why there is no reason to add "Prelude" to your website at all.

 

You should either list all these works:

• Violin Concerto
• Hollywood Bowl Centennial Fanfare
• Vienne Processional
• Prelude

Or none of these works.

 

All of them are identical to each other.

 

They are all works that have been announced, but have not been performed yet.

 

There is literally nothing making Prelude different in any way from any of these other 3 works.

[Bespin Copilot 9,630]

In the case of the Prelude, we have a program confirmed by the performing artist. In Gloria I trust.

[Jay 42,449]

I know that, and everything else I mentioned also has a program confirmed by the performing artist as well - all shown in the links I provided.

[Bespin Copilot 9,630]

I love my discussions with you Jay! Don't stop to shake me!