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John Williams & Berliner Philharmoniker 14th/15th/16th Oct 2021


MaxTheHouseelf

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4 minutes ago, Damien F said:

 

When John said that Indy was being chased by "the bad guys", I saw a cellist jokingly raising his eyebrows to another musician. I think they were acknowledging who those bad guys were 

 

 

Did he not use the word "nazis" at all? At Tanglewood this summer he did

 

“Thank you.  This is from Indiana Jones, Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra.  And the reason for "Motorcycle" is that we had Sean Connery and Harrison Ford on a motorcycle being chased by Nazis, and they had to get away very quickly.  And I had to write this piece to accompany that scene.  Unfortunately when I went to the theater to hear the scene, all I could hear was the motorcycle.  So I resolved to make it a piece for Orchestra.  Motorcycle and Orchestra, without the Motorcycle.  All right!”

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2 minutes ago, ciarlese said:

It was nice to listen to the Maestro' s introduction to Scherzo for motorcycle and orchestra while realising that that scene was set on Germany not far from Berlin.

 

He was nice enough in his introduction to call the pursuers "bad guys" rather than "nazis"... His jokes about the motorcycle were a lot of fun :)

Great piece by the way, in an arrangement I'm not used to. I'm glad it will be on his mind when he starts scoring IJ5, instead of, say, Adventures of Mutt... 

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1 minute ago, Jay said:

"Thank you.  This is from Indiana Jones, Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra.  And the reason for "Motorcycle" is that we had Sean Connery and Harrison Ford on a motorcycle being chased by Nazis, and they had to get away very quickly.  And I had to write this piece to accompany that scene.  Unfortunately when I went to the theater to hear the scene, all I could hear was the motorcycle.  So I resolved to make it a piece for Orchestra.  Motorcycle and Orchestra, without the Motorcycle.  All right!”

 

Pretty much that, except for a little self-deprecating addendum about the hurt vanity of the composer

and he didn't remember Sean Connery's name, and got help from the audience :D

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Ha!  At Tanglewood, he didn't remember Roald Dahl's name, and got help from the audience

 

“Here is something that I wanted to show you and have you hear.  It’s from a film called Big Friendly Giant, which Steven Spielberg made 2 or 3 years ago, which not too many people saw <audience laughter> But it was written by um, oh dear... Charlie and the Chocolate Factory <audience helps him out> Thank you very much - Roald Dahl!  And it’s called Big Friendly Giant.  

 

And Steven wanted to make this film for technical reasons, because he wanted to present an adult man, the giant, having scenes and playing the entire film with a young girl, 8 or 9 years old, small enough to be held in his hand.  And he would take the little girl to the land of dreams, and find dreams, searches for them - good dreams not bad ones - and capture them and enclose them in bottles.  And then the giant could distribute these to children throughout the world.  And what you’ll see here is a montage put together from this, of all the searching for the dreams, and the orchestra - particularly the flutes - will accompany all this choreography and these gyrations.  And the lighting I think you’ll agree is very beautiful.  I hope you enjoy this.  Big Friendly Giant.”

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9 minutes ago, eitam said:

 

Pretty much that, except for a little self-deprecating addendum about the hurt vanity of the composer

and he didn't remember Sean Connery's name, and got help from the audience :D

He didn't even remember the finale of Jurassic Park...🤔

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Just now, ciarlese said:

He didn't even remember the finale of Jurassic Park...🤔

Well it wasn't a that bad memory especially if he only saw it when it was released

During this piece I thought I heard a false note from the wood section, thought it was just my imagination but Williams seems to have been surprised too

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5 minutes ago, eitam said:

 

Well, he struggled for the name "donnybrook", and he clearly didn't remember Karen Allen's name. But the important thing is that he knows the music (he didn't even need the score for some of those pieces, e.g. Raiders' March), and he conducts as if he were some 30 years younger ! Actually he seemed more healthy to me than he did in Vienna ! 

 

I'm Irish and I also struggled to remember that word! John beat me to it 🤣

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Hey,

 

Did anyone from the UK go to today's show? If so we're there any issues with using your NHS Covid Pass? In an email they told me I should bring a print out because their program doesn't recognise our QR codes. 

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I did, no issue whatsoever. They tried to scan it, which they couldn’t. I just told him it’s NHS from UK and he let me thew.  Also the show was brilliant 🤩 front row central seat today, his live performance blew my mind off!!  So looking forward to tmr and Saturday 🎶

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43 minutes ago, Chanelnelly said:

Hey,

 

Did anyone from the UK go to today's show? If so we're there any issues with using your NHS Covid Pass? In an email they told me I should bring a print out because their program doesn't recognise our QR codes. 

 

I confirm that they cannot recognise the UK covid vaccine certificate, however I can't see any improvement in having a printed copy (which I had) instead of a pdf file.

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6 minutes ago, ciarlese said:

 

I confirm that they cannot recognise the UK covid vaccine certificate, however I can't see any improvement in having a printed copy (which I had) instead of a pdf file.

Did they accept your print out? 

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2 hours ago, Thor said:

We’re sitting inside the Lindenbrau, in the back. Jim, his girlfriend, Biodome and I. Room for a couple more at the table. 

 

Sorry I missed you. I was waiting outside the front entrance for about 15 minutes, then met some other guys there and got delayed, then saw that you had posted here but also had to catch up with a friend and had to leave.

4 hours ago, ciarlese said:

I am sat exactly there!

Seat 1, what's yours?

 

A left, row 3, seat 2. Don't say we've been sitting next to each other the entire time?

33 minutes ago, GlastoEls said:

Did I catch you?

 

You caught me at least. These might be the first pictures to have both Williams and me in them.

 

By the way, the concert was clearly recorded. They had a microphone positioned next to the harp, and also put up an extra one for the solo cello during the Elegy. Plus the stage cameras were moving as well.

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1 hour ago, Remco said:

This was absolutely phenomenal. 
 

@Jurassic Shark I know we were the ones to have some problems with the VPO but you don’t need to worry this was absolutely and totally on another level. I’ve never seen an orchestra play so engaged and so in control of everything that they do.

 

The inevitable recording of this will be legendary.

Despite some horn flubs in Jurassic Park "Finale'...

But there are still two takes to make up for this.

I otherwhise agree, top notch level! Perhaps almost like Chicago...

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3 hours ago, GlastoEls said:


Did I catch you?

7EBC9C6B-7370-42BE-9CF1-561F5B4EDA80.jpeg

 

...me for sure my friend (but probably you already know this). THANKS! so I have also a photo with me an JW.

 

What a great experience I had this evening!

 

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2 hours ago, Fabulin said:

The final piece before the break was the concert arrangement of Jurassic Park, In contrast with the original 1993 direction, where one can relax and stirr a tea between the phrases of the maestoso, this rendition followed Williams' recent tendency for much faster tempi. The main theme at today's speed resembled a single lyrical utterance, closer to an aria, credit to the skill of the Berlin Philharmonic which played it with grace. The island fanfare was played by the trumpet section with gusto, I daresay rivalling the legendary original performance of Maurice Murphy and his LSO colleagues.

 

Great review of the concert, however one minor note is that the London Symphony Orchestra didn't do Jurassic Park, it was John's usual Los Angeles studio orchestra, with Malcolm McNab leading the trumpets.

On 23/09/2021 at 6:44 PM, Matt S. said:

 

I would bet a week's pay that the encores will be "Flying" from E.T, along with The Imperial March.  A possible third encore could be anything, but those two I would take to the bank.

 

What do I win??  :lol:

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4 hours ago, Fabulin said:

 

P.S. It should be noted that I was seated behind the orchestra and cannot speak about all nuances of balance or judge the string performance. I am sure those at the front might have praise to add in these areas.

I was directly in front. For me the performance of strings was very good. In particular the celli sections that "blended" with all the other sections with a magnific sound. Also I praised a lot the 1st violin. There was only a small "cough" problem near the end of the concert with a player (but this was not a sound related problem..). I loved the performance. The percussions didn't overload the other sections also. A very "balanced" performance within the various sections. The acoustic of the Philharmonie hall for me is amazing!

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28 minutes ago, Henry Sítrónu said:

Report with sound snippets from yesterday’s concert 

 

https://www.inforadio.de/programm/schema/sendungen/kultur/202110/15/624929.html

The journalist is full of praise for the evening and the legend John Williams. Interestingly, He says, his only criticism is, there were hardly quieter moments. It was almost the whole evening tuti incuding all instruments. Therefore, he especially enjoyed the elegy for cello which provided such moments.

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So glad you all enjoyed the concert yesterday, I am so looking forward to attending on Saturday!

 

I see lots of pictures and people using their phones, was it allowed, or the workers of the Philarmonic were not making people keep their phones off?

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1 minute ago, victorrt said:

So glad you all enjoyed the concert yesterday, I am so looking forward to attending on Saturday!

 

I see lots of pictures and people using their phones, was it allowed, or the workers of the Philarmonic were not making people keep their phones off?

They weren't happy with it, but I suppose they couldn't do much when so many people use them.

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I'm now on the train from Warsaw to Berlin and I'm really looking forward to tonight's and tomorrow's evenings. I'll see Maestro for the third and fourth time, after two concerts in Vienna. This is something absolutely incredible for me. I'am glad that the reviews and reports are so positive. :)

 

By the way, what time did the yesterday's concert end, since it started at 20.00?

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7 minutes ago, toothless said:

In about 9 hours, I’m going to see John Williams conduct an orchestra. Something I had started to think would never happen after London.

 

 

I simply can't wait to attend tonight's performance. After the disappointing cancelation in Vienna in 2018 I doubted I would ever see him conduct in person. I have since seen him both at Tanglewood and in Vienna. I am so grateful to be able to witness this larger than life person on stage and to share the experience with my family. 

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11 hours ago, BB-8 said:

Despite some horn flubs in Jurassic Park "Finale'...

But there are still two takes to make up for this.

I otherwhise agree, top notch level! Perhaps almost like Chicago...


Let’s talk about his phenomenal Leia’s theme solo instead! Individual mistakes can always happen, and for the recording this one will surely be fixed.

 

But it is the ensemble playing of this orchestra that was just fabulous. Even when Williams got a bit more tired at the end of the concert, the orchestra responded by keeping the momentum forward.

 

Also I thought the first flutist was just absolutely fantastic.

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