Stars and Sorcery - The Music of John Williams

[Omen II 1,235]

Many of us have been starved of the chance to hear live music over the last year and a half, so it comes as a welcome boost to see that the wonderful Philharmonia Orchestra has scheduled a concert of John Williams music this coming season, albeit in March 2022.

 

Stars and Sorcery

 

The concert is scheduled to take place at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, Kent.  This also augurs well for a London performance (the orchestra has not yet announced its London schedule for the second half of the season).  Historic Canterbury can be reached in an hour or so on the high speed train from London St. Pancras and is also easy to get to by Eurostar from northern France to Ashford International, if travel restrictions have been lifted by then.  Given the location, it would be great if they programmed a couple of selections from Thomas and the King - just imagine it, the age of Henry Plantagenet!

[Omen II 1,235]

I went to this concert yesterday and it was really nice!  Film composer Carl Davis was the conductor and is clearly a keen John Williams fan like we are.  Before the concert there was a free discussion between him and Philharmonia horn player Kira Doherty, which was good fun.  I wanted to ask him during the pre-concert talk whether he had ever listened to Thomas and the King and considered trying to programme any of it in such an appropriate venue, but unfortunately the talk overran so they could only take a couple of audience questions.  For anyone who does not know much about British history, the musical is about the relationship between the mediaeval Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas a Becket and King Henry II.  Becket was murdered by four knights in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 after falling out with the monarch and was later canonised.  As I had the day off work, I made the most of it by visiting the wonderful cathedral which has some magnificent stained glass windows amongst many other treasures (it is a world heritage site).

 

While there was nothing in the programme I had not heard live before, there were a couple of pieces heard less often these days which I enjoyed the most, namely Born on the Fourth of July and the Love Theme from Superman.  Carl Davis mentioned that these were among his favourites too.  He had a couple of senior moments, for example reminiscing that he met John Williams when he was working on The Cardinal - I assume he meant Monsignor - but otherwise he was on very good form for an 85 year old.  He has the amusing habit of sometimes counting in the orchestra as if he were conducting a jazz band ("A 1, 2, 3, 4...!"), which is just about more endearing than it is disconcerting.  He also took the Olympic Fanfare and Theme so frighteningly fast that I thought the horn section was going to start crying!

 

This was my first visit inside the Marlowe Theatre.  It is a comfortable, modern all-purpose venue but presumably not built specifically for orchestral music, so the acoustics were ok but not great.  It was difficult to hear the horn section in particular, as they were effectively projecting their sound into a black curtain at the back of the stage.

 

The excellent Philharmonia Orchestra has a lot of brilliant young musicians, many of whom were on the last train back to London after the concert.  It was fun to hear a couple of them singing the Superman theme out loud and proclaiming it to be "so good" as they walked along the platform at St. Pancras station before descending into the Underground, as football supporters do when returning from having seen their team win away from home.

 

[Tom Guernsey 2,284]

16 hours ago, Omen II said:

I went to this concert yesterday and it was really nice!  Film composer Carl Davis was the conductor and is clearly a keen John Williams fan like we are.  Before the concert there was a free discussion between him and Philharmonia horn player Kira Doherty, which was good fun.  I wanted to ask him during the pre-concert talk whether he had ever listened to Thomas and the King and considered trying to programme any of it in such an appropriate venue, but unfortunately the talk overran so they could only take a couple of audience questions.  For anyone who does not know much about British history, the musical is about the relationship between the mediaeval Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas a Becket and King Henry II.  Becket was murdered by four knights in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 after falling out with the monarch and was later canonised.  As I had the day off work, I made the most of it by visiting the wonderful cathedral which has some magnificent stained glass windows amongst many other treasures (it is a world heritage site).

 

While there was nothing in the programme I had not heard live before, there were a couple of pieces heard less often these days which I enjoyed the most, namely Born on the Fourth of July and the Love Theme from Superman.  Carl Davis mentioned that these were among his favourites too.  He had a couple of senior moments, for example reminiscing that he met John Williams when he was working on The Cardinal - I assume he meant Monsignor - but otherwise he was on very good form for an 85 year old.  He has the amusing habit of sometimes counting in the orchestra as if he were conducting a jazz band ("A 1, 2, 3, 4...!"), which is just about more endearing than it is disconcerting.  He also took the Olympic Fanfare and Theme so frighteningly fast that I thought the horn section was going to start crying!

 

This was my first visit inside the Marlowe Theatre.  It is a comfortable, modern all-purpose venue but presumably not built specifically for orchestral music, so the acoustics were ok but not great.  It was difficult to hear the horn section in particular, as they were effectively projecting their sound into a black curtain at the back of the stage.

 

The excellent Philharmonia Orchestra has a lot of brilliant young musicians, many of whom were on the last train back to London after the concert.  It was fun to hear a couple of them singing the Superman theme out loud and proclaiming it to be "so good" as they walked along the platform at St. Pancras station before descending into the Underground, as football supporters do when returning from having seen their team win away from home.

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this one. A friend of mine was there but didn't get a programme and, aside from really enjoying it, didn't remember much about it. I certainly didn't realise it was such a fine orchestra or well known conductor! Gotta love Carl Davis.