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


MaxTheHouseelf

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52 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

The Vienna concerts took place on January 18 & 29 2020, and the BD / CD set arrived on May 4 2020

Don't forget the fact that all the butchering only ended in Dcember (?) .

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38 minutes ago, MfL85 said:

So does anyone know - will John Williams leave Berlin today or stay for some more time. In the concert it sounded like he will return to LA in one or two weeks. Maybe he will rest some days before flying home?

During the first concert he said a week or two, but yesterday he said he would return to LA and write “the fifth Indiana Jones movie in a few days”.

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Henry Sitronu: And why ? Look at the Blomstedt concert a couple of days ago. All were there (Mayer, Dohr, Ottensamer, Pahud, Dufour, Kashimoto, Quandt etc.). And why not at Williams ? Can you explain that ?

 

Pawel P.: Not only one was missing. There were already several soloists not on board. One or two wouldn´t have mattered...

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10 minutes ago, heritage said:

Henry Sitronu: And why ? Look at the Blomstedt concert a couple of days ago. All were there (Mayer, Dohr, Ottensamer, Pahud, Dufour, Kashimoto, Quandt etc.). And why not at Williams ? Can you explain that ?

I can’t explain it. Maybe it’s true that the older soloists were less interested in playing these concerts than the younger scholars. Good for the scholars then. :)

The BPhil is a solid institution. Scholar or soloist – the difference (if there is one) is irrelevant to me. The lack of experience of older soloists might be compensated by technical abilities.

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Henry Sitronu: A Soloist is the star of the section. And a Stefan Dohr, Emmanuel Pahud, Mathieu Dufour and Albrecht Mayer are one of the best in the world. If not the best. They are definitely better than the others players. Thats a fact. 

But maybe they have no desire for JW. That can be the reason, they have not played. There were also many soloists missing in Vienna last year ?

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40 minutes ago, Pawel P. said:

I was sitting in a row behind Anne-Sophie Mutter, a chair next to her. She reacted like a true Williams fan, she even enthusiastically screamed after every piece. :)

Well, I was then sitting in a row behind and a chair next to you. 🙂

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As I said before, for an orchestra that has an academy, this was the perfect opportunity to let many of them play.

 

Now if the orchestra was on the verge of collapsing most of the time - like in Vienna, mind you - this could have been a problem.

 

But I could only think of one thing after I heard 2 concerts and the dress rehearsal: I just heard the greatest orchestra in the world.

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5 minutes ago, Remco said:

But I could only think of one thing after I heard 2 concerts and the dress rehearsal: I just heard the greatest orchestra in the world.

Looks like John Williams thought the same, too.

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2 hours ago, MfL85 said:

So does anyone know - will John Williams leave Berlin today or stay for some more time. In the concert it sounded like he will return to LA in one or two weeks. Maybe he will rest some days before flying home?

He said at the concert yesterday that he’s going back to work in LA in a few days, so I reckon he flew back today or maybe tomorrow.

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6 minutes ago, GerateWohl said:

About 40 years ago our neighbor played in the Berlin Philharmonic and he told us, what an issue it was for many players when the first woman joined the orchestra, because they found that totally inappropriate. If you think about the classic purists in those classic forums, who claim, there might not have existed any relevant composer since Stravinsky, you might find those in such orchestras as well. Surely not the majority, but still it exists. Maybe that's one of the reasons for the low attendance of soloists.

Yeah there was a well known german critic Who claimed anything written After Wagner was worse than the music before. Mahler, Schönberg, Debussy all wrote good works but not as great as in the 19th century according to him.

 

I disagree though.

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25 minutes ago, heritage said:

JW knows not the sound of the best soloists from Berlin. If they had played, JW would never fly to Los Angeles. He would stay in Berlin for the rest of his life :mrgreen:

This is getting boring....sorry.

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Exact. And the soloists have the ability to function neither solo nor in an orchestra. Because they are so good. They play the difficult solo parts that a normal orchestra member can´t play so good. 

So no wonder that the Vienna Horn section was better than in Berlin. Because their best Horn player (Stefan Dohr) was missing. But i have no comparison to Vienna because i wasn´t there. 

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Why play Anne-Sophie Mutter the solo parts and not a normal member of the BP ? If everybody plays equally well, then no orchestra needs soloists and everybody can substitute  each other.  But it is not that easy.

So you don´t understand the discussion. 

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6 minutes ago, heritage said:

Why play Anne-Sophie Mutter the solo parts and not a normal member of the BP ? If everybody plays equally well, then no orchestra needs soloists and everybody can substitute  each other.  But it is not that easy.

So you don´t understand the discussion. 


I think you don’t understand the difference between a principal and a soloist.

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On 17/10/2021 at 2:31 PM, Martinland said:

Please, where? ;)

 

 

On 16/10/2021 at 6:02 PM, Michael G. said:

 

On 17/10/2021 at 11:39 AM, karelm said:

I thought this was cute.

 

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43 minutes ago, heritage said:

Why play Anne-Sophie Mutter the solo parts and not a normal member of the BP ? If everybody plays equally well, then no orchestra needs soloists and everybody can substitute  each other.  But it is not that easy.

So you don´t understand the discussion. 

 

Eh, she played the solo parts because she is a famous career soloist. Principal players are also called "soloists" in some orchestras. It just refers to the player who (by virtue of playing the 1st part) plays most of the solos for the instrument, in a given work. Principal players are also expected to lead the other musicians of their sections, as well as to blend in when necessary.

 

But it's not like every "soloist" player is drastically different than the other members of the orchestra. I think you're slightly overestimating the difference. That being said, I do think in most cases principal players are "the best"/have the most personality in their playing, and that's why they got hired for the role. So FWIW, I do agree with you though about the principals missing from these concerts. I wish Stefan Dohr was playing.

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The soloists in the orchestra are the leader of the section. Many soloists are not so famous or different from the other players in the section. But Stefan Dohr (Horn), Albrecht Mayer (Oboe), Emmanuel Pahud and Mathieu Dufour (Flute) are very important for the BP. They will be connected with this orchestra more like any other players. They stand out in this orchestra. It is like previously a Adolph Herseth and Dale Clevenger for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. 

And I´am disappointed that they play not in such a big/great concert.  I think they don´t like film music. I have no other reason. Or they don´t know JW or they are to rooted in the classic music world. 

 

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4 hours ago, Pawel P. said:

 she even enthusiastically screamed after every piece. :)

I did that at the one and only live concert of John Williams music in my home town and got a lot of disapproving looks and comments from the drippy audience.

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6 hours ago, Henry Sítrónu said:

I can’t explain it.

I can; stumbled upon these by pure chance while browsing/calibrating a day before the concert, made me raise an eyebrow:

 

At 2:00 (!!) and 8:20:

 

https://www.digitalconcerthall.com/en/playlist/10#

 

(EDIT: I just checked - you have to go down to the end of that page and click on "Watch interview")

 

He is one of the absent soloists, I suppose?

 

I also watched two movements of the Tchaikovsky by the way (the famously energetic 'Allegro molto vivace' and the quiet finale) - excellent; but the conducting is so utterly over the top, I do prefer Williams. ;)

(Imagine the latter behaving like this - even back when his conducting was indeed livelier 40 years ago)

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1 minute ago, bollemanneke said:

Wait a moment, the main page says Princess Leia was performed on Oct 16? Is that an error?

Yes. It was only performed on the 14th.

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2 hours ago, Martinland said:

I can; stumbled upon these by pure chance while browsing/calibrating a day before the concert, made me raise an eyebrow:

 

At 2:00 (!!) and 8:20:

 

https://www.digitalconcerthall.com/en/playlist/10#

 

(EDIT: I just checked - you have to go down to the end of this page and click on "Watch interview")

 

He is one of the absent soloists, I suppose?

 

I did watch two movements of the Tchaikovsky by the way (the famously energetic 'Allegro molto vivace' and the quiet finale) - excellent; but his conducting is so utterly over the top, I do prefer Williams. ;)

 

Ugh, can't stand that guy's attitude.

 

2 minutes ago, Henry Sítrónu said:

Final seconds of yesterday’s Imperial March

 

 

FullSizeRender.mov

 

Hm, can't see it for some reason.

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6 hours ago, Henry Sítrónu said:

Segundos finales de la Marcha Imperial de ayer

 

 

FullSizeRender.mov

 

I can't see it either, for some reason.

This video I am sending is the final of the Imperial March on Thursday. Williams seems to be enjoying. It was one of the best versions I have ever heard, second only to the one in Vienna (in this version the decrease in tempo in the last measure seems impressive to me).

 

 

Williams parece estar disfrutando. Fue una de las mejores versiones que he escuchado, solo superada por la de Viena (en esta versión la disminución del tempo en el último compás me parece impresionante).

 

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1 hour ago, Pauling said:

 

I can't see it either, for some reason.

This video I am sending is the final seconds of the Imperial March on Thursday. Williams seems to be enjoying. It was one of the best versions I have ever heard, second only to the one in Vienna (in this version the decrease in tempo in the last measure seems impressive to me).

IMG_0814.MOV

 

Can't see yours either, unfortunately.

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