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


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I had forgotten this piece already premiered at a public concert this June.

 

Am I correct in thinking there was no broadcast of the concert, and no one on JWFan has heard it yet?

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13 hours ago, Jay said:

I had forgotten this piece already premiered at a public concert this June.

 

Am I correct in thinking there was no broadcast of the concert, and no one on JWFan has heard it yet?

 I attended to the concert as I explained a few posts before yours.

 

There was no broadcast.

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Thanks for the info, jocores, I forgot to say that earlier. I like the fact that the prelude is a calmer piece -- the rather frenetic scherzo needed that. Hope I get to hear it some day.

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14 hours ago, Miguel Andrade said:

If this was to be broadcast at some point would be on Catalunya Ràdio. I've been checking it daily, but no luck so far.

Back in June, over at Facebook, I asked Gloria Cheng if the concert was due to broadcast but she never replied...

I asked Marc Timón, and he said to me that it would not be broadcasted

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4 hours ago, jocores said:

 I attended to the concert as I explained a few posts before yours.

 

There was no broadcast.

 

Absolutely right! Just read it again, thanks for sharing your thoughts! 

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1 hour ago, jocores said:

I asked Marc Timón, and he said to me that it would not be broadcasted

When I asked he said it might be broadcast next year.

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  • 9 months later...
On 03/06/2022 at 10:18 AM, Jay said:

 

But that's tonight!  Also, Gabriella Smith is a fantastic young composer!  What a wonderful program.  Damn, we're in the renaissance of great music, there is so much talent and fine music being made.

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Rats, I saw this just after 4:30 pm PDT - so as the concert was starting and the system would not let me buy a digital ticket. Hopefully someone did and captured the stream. And hopefully an official release happens.

 

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I heard the piece a few months ago when it was played by Ralph van Raat and the North Netherlands Orchestra, the Prelude is a wonderful jazz-inspired piece that complements the Scherzo very well. Can’t wait for the piano concerto that he will write!

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On 5/6/2022 at 3:47 AM, Remco said:

I heard the piece a few months ago when it was played by Ralph van Raat and the North Netherlands Orchestra, the Prelude is a wonderful jazz-inspired piece that complements the Scherzo very well. Can’t wait for the piano concerto that he will write!

 

Very cool.

 

And having just looked van Raat up, I see he is performing it again on June 21, 2022.

https://ralphvanraat.com/event/national-belgian-orchestra-and-ralph-van-raat/

Oops. Misread it. False alarm.

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  • 3 months later...
2 hours ago, jocores said:

The Palau de la música català has just published the Prelude and Scherzo as played by Gloria Cheng las summer, for free. Here you can watch it:

 

https://www.palaudigital.cat/destacats/videos/preludi-i-scherzo-de-john-williams

 

Magnificent, thanks for sharing!

 

There's a lot to dig into in that Prelude, isn't there! And afterwards, fascinating to hear the difference in tempi and approach between Gloria Cheng and Lang Lang. I have to say I much prefer Cheng's take.

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I really like the Prelude. While unique overall, it has some similarities to the first movement of Five Sacred Trees. 

 

There are cool little "Williams in concert mode" touches that really do unite his concert oeuvre taken together (which I suppose is what an oeuvre does) .

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17 hours ago, Tom said:

There are cool little "Williams in concert mode" touches that really do unite his concert oeuvre taken together (which I suppose is what an oeuvre does) .

I've never been quite able to articulate those "Williams in concert mode" touches. Perhaps it has to do with some atonality, clusters, less-defined melody.

What are your thoughts on the details of those elements?

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12 hours ago, TJH132 said:

Waiting for some quality album art for this audio...

Waiting for that album to be released, per the title of this thread…

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I think a third movement could make this piece feel more complete--something in the vein of the Horn concerto with first and last movements that bookend the piece.  

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On 02/10/2022 at 8:52 PM, Will said:

The Prelude is nice! Reminds me of the first movement of the Viola Concerto.

I hear a bit of Bassoon Concerto in the Prelude.  Quite a nice introduction to the Scherzo.

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I would say that this has the most exciting ending of any of Williams concerto-type pieces.  The Tuba has a fun one, but he really lets everything rip in this one closer to his celebratory pieces and Soundings.  He seems to have fun with it.  I find it so odd that it came about 10 years ago with so little fanfare or comments from Williams.  Whoever pestered him (I assume Cheng) to revisit it needs to be strongly thanked.  

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The prelude is absolutely beautiful and I love how metal Williams' piano writing can be, but I've felt for a long time that Williams can fall back on a lot of familiar territory in his concert music and seems to lean heavily on writing for particular instruments to escape the molds he's created for himself. When he doesn't have the idiosyncrasies of those instruments to force him to explore, you get something like this scherzo, which sounds almost temp-tracked and warmed over from...well, his scherzo in the Cello Concerto. Combine that with a pretty limp and wet-noodled motif that others have pointed out fits right in as a mid-tier supporting melody in a post-00s score, and I don't think the end result is very successful, some badass moments and effects notwithstanding.

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  • 2 months later...
1 hour ago, karelm said:

Based on the title of this thread, this is going to be released, now that we're in 2023, anyone know the status?

 

On 29/09/2022 at 12:51 PM, jocores said:

The Palau de la música català has just published the Prelude and Scherzo as played by Gloria Cheng las summer, for free. Here you can watch it:

 

https://www.palaudigital.cat/destacats/videos/preludi-i-scherzo-de-john-williams

 

On 03/10/2022 at 3:26 PM, TownerFan said:

Now on YouTube as well:

 

 

 

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Both live performances have been recorded and made available online (though the Albany one, just for subscribers).

Additionally, a recording was made with the Albany Symphony for an upcoming CD release. To my knowledge, not final release date has been announced. 

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3 hours ago, Miguel Andrade said:

Both live performances have been recorded and made available online (though the Albany one, just for subscribers).

Additionally, a recording was made with the Albany Symphony for an upcoming CD release. To my knowledge, not final release date has been announced. 

Thanks - that upcoming CD release is what I'm looking for, not just a stream of the performance.  Looking for the proper sonics, mastering, etc., of the commercial release.  Basically, it's still TBD.

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He said he will be writing a full piano concerto for Emanuel Ax. 

At the Albany premiere, Alan David Miller clear stated they were recording during that week the Prelude and Scherzo for a upcoming CD.

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