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Tanglewood 2021 season includes several Williams concerts


Miguel Andrade

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Everyone who will be there: have a great evening!

German/French TV station arte will show the concert tomorrow evening, 8pm CEST.

 

https://www.arte.tv/de/videos/104491-000-A/anne-sophie-mutter-und-john-williams-mit-einer-urauffuehrung/

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7 minutes ago, Jay said:

You have dinner plans? I sent you a FB message yesterday

We are going to eat there, but have no solid plans beyond that. PM me? I almost never check Facebook these days. 

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Greetings!

 

I'm here at Tanglewoood for the premiere of Johnny's 2nd Violin Concerto. I'm hearing that the performance will be broadcast and streamed. Just wondering if anyone has plans to record it. I would, but obviously I'm here, so I don't have that luxury 😀

 

If anyone else is also here, enjoy the performance! 

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Hope you are enjoying, Jay! (And not reading this.) Rebecca and I are watching from Hawaii on BSO Now!

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2 hours ago, Jay said:

Guys, John Williams looked great. I swear he's in the better shape now any time I've seen him. What a legend 

 

Always great to hear, though not the slightest bit surprised. God bless him.

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From the video broadcast, it was also apparent that he was in great shape. Perhaps a bit trimmer? Certainly, he was very, very engaged with the orchestra and focused on a lot of performance pieces as best I could tell. He only sat back when ASM had a true solo. Then he just listened. At one point though, he showed some sort of surprise or something. Have to watch it again to know!

 

From both the BSO Now broadcast as well as the radio one, I felt the audience applause was somewhat mutated. So, @Jay, I am curious what it seemed like live. I can imagine the concertgoers not knowing what exactly to make of the piece and hence not being thunderous. I think I heard the radio commentator mention there was a standing ovation for them. 

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12 hours ago, lairdo said:

From the video broadcast, it was also apparent that he was in great shape. Perhaps a bit trimmer?

 

I think so, perhaps; Of course when a man wears nothing but black turtlenecks under suit coats everytime he's in the public, it's hard to really know :p

 

Quote

Certainly, he was very, very engaged with the orchestra and focused on a lot of performance pieces as best I could tell. He only sat back when ASM had a true solo. Then he just listened. At one point though, he showed some sort of surprise or something. Have to watch it again to know!

 

Oh man, I wanted to bring this up; At Tanglewood, they have a bunch of large screens where they broadcast closeups of the musicians, since if you're on the lawn you can't see the stage at all.  They are inside the shed, too, and my absolute favorite thing I saw on it was at one point when Mutter was deep into her performance during a part when the rest of the orchestra wasn't playing, so JW didn't have to conduct, and just watched her; the closeup of him on the screen during this caught him at one point mouthing "wow" which was fantastic, and caused me to audibly chuckle.  I hope the official video used the same shots as what we saw live there, because that moment was great.

 

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From both the BSO Now broadcast as well as the radio one, I felt the audience applause was somewhat mutated. So, @Jay, I am curious what it seemed like live. I can imagine the concertgoers not knowing what exactly to make of the piece and hence not being thunderous. I think I heard the radio commentator mention there was a standing ovation for them. 

 

Do you mean muted or mutated?  If the latter, from what to what?

 

Doug also asked me about the audience, since this was his first time in Tanglewood and had no comparison.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I'm the best judge of this, because I have only been to Tanglewood for Film Night events and Live to Projection concerts, never a night of classical music.  As such, I can't say how this audience compared to an average night of classical music, only how it compares against a night of film music - and also things were different because of covid, too.  Also, I did not arrive early and wander around and get a good feel for how full things were; Once I found Doug and Jill, we chatted in one spot then went to our seats, so I never really got to see how full the lawn really was before the sun set.


So long story short, I would say in general, yes, it felt like there was less people there than any other time I've been to Tanglewood.  Whether this is due to covid, the program, or other factors, I dunno.

 

As for their response to the music, yea, I kind of suspect something like what you say was probably the case.  Again I didn't get a good chance to walk around a lot and observe too much the types of people who were there and what they were wearing, but my general understanding is that a night of classical music tends to draw a different audience than a night of film music, and I think I saw a decent amount of people there more for Williams than anything else.  And yes, the people who only really know Williams through his film music and not his concert works, probably really struggled with this piece, I would imagine.  Heck, I did!

 

I would say in general, there wasn't a lot of murmurring of chatter during any of the pieces, which does happen frequently at film music concerts.  But on the other hand, the guy next to me clearly was losing interest in the concert after a while.  I can't remember if this was during the Violin Concerto or one of the later pieces, but he shifted around a lot, then loudly got out his blanket to wrap himself up in, then turned on his bright cell phone and dug out his program and started loudly flipping through that, etc.  It was annoying.

 

So in general, maybe the Tanglewood audience didn't react to this piece the same way the Dallas audience will in September or the Boston audience after that... we'll see!

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1 minute ago, Henry Sítrónu said:

DC857E33-2485-45C8-AEFD-C40C5B7B6CEB.jpeg

Can't wait to watch this and hunt for some GIF's lol

Has anyone here ever attended a concert on the lawn? I wonder what that's like. How does the orchestra sound?

I would really love to visit Tanglewood someday - it seems like a truly beautiful spot. Shame I'm on a different continent...

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Yea, he made that shush notion a bunch of times!

 

I have gone to Tanglewood with just lawn seats, yes!  You have to bring your own blanket / chair / whatever, unless you want to rent a folding chair from Tanglewood (not sure how much that costs).  One time I went and just sat on the grass.  One time I went and it was pouring rain, but luckily my friend/coworker was there with a crew who had a whole setup with an extra chair for me and umbrella, and we shared some nice wine.

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7 hours ago, Jay said:

 

 

"Here is Anne Sophie playing Across the Stars, which is a theme from one of the Star Wars films - I haven't the vaguest memory of which one.  One of the nine"


😂😂😂😂 Even Williams wants to forget this film exists. 😉

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  • 3 weeks later...
1 hour ago, Lindsey77 said:

Anyone look at the program note and know what overture to the oscars is?


My guess would be it’s a new name for Tribute to the Film Composer.

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4 hours ago, Matt S. said:


My guess would be it’s a new name for Tribute to the Film Composer.

That is most likely correct.  He would not premiere the Hollywood Bowl overture here, so it is not that.  One would love a new piece, but, all in all, I think I like the new name of the piece better, for whatever that is worth.  

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8 minutes ago, SilverTrumpet said:

Didn't they just publish a Hal Leonard of Tribute to the Film Composer under the old name? 

Yes, but I would still not count on a new piece.  One would think such would be accompanied by "world premiere."  Perhaps Williams decided the name sounded too self-serving.  

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Thanks for the tip, I didn't realize these things were available online before the show

 

http://bso.http.internapcdn.net/bso/images/program-notes/2021-full-notes/20210813.pdf

 

Unfortunately Williams is not conducting anything I haven't already seen him conduct life, BUT the Lockheart section features the Theme from Sabrina, which is cool because my wife and I watched that movie earlier this year and I liked the score in it very much, and we're attending the concert together Friday night.  Cool.

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2 hours ago, Bayesian said:

The program notes indicate—again—that JW wrote two symphonies. What is this second symphony they keep referring to?


Most likely it’s the Sinfonietta for Wind Ensemble.

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Maybe one day he'll play the first one at Tanglewood :P

 

So is anyone going tomorrow? I'm wearing that Music by John Williams shirt my wife got me years ago that I believe someone here said they were selling online?

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On 8/10/2021 at 8:20 PM, Lindsey77 said:

Anyone look at the program note and know what overture to the oscars is?

 

On 8/10/2021 at 9:37 PM, Matt S. said:


My guess would be it’s a new name for Tribute to the Film Composer.

 

That, or maybe a new arrangement on "Arts and Sports" movement from American Journey. That one wasn't part of An Unfinished Journey, back in December 31 1999, and I recall it being played on the 2002 Oscar Ceremony, as attendees were getting seated. That was the same ceremony were Williams premiered his Tribute to the Film Composer.

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7 hours ago, SilverTrumpet said:

So is anyone going tomorrow? I'm wearing that Music by John Williams shirt my wife got me years ago that I believe someone here said they were selling online?

 

I had it up for a day or two, but the shop took it down as a copyright violation. I've never found out if that reasoning is sound.

 

Where you the guy running around with the shirt at Tanglewood Film Night two years ago?

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7 hours ago, Miguel Andrade said:

 

 

 

That, or maybe a new arrangement on "Arts and Sports" movement from American Journey. That one wasn't part of An Unfinished Journey, back in December 31 1999, and I recall it being played on the 2002 Oscar Ceremony, as attendees were getting seated. That was the same ceremony were Williams premiered his Tribute to the Film Composer.

Cool speculation.  Given that we know a new signature edition of American Journey is in the works, maybe this is part of it.  We will know soon enough.  

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3 hours ago, rpvee said:

I still have two extra lawn tickets if anyone is interested!

I'd love to get one from you rpvee! Got two tickets but need one more so this is perfect. Not sure how PMing works here but I'll check back here tomorrow and work something out. Cheers! Also would love to say hello to whoever's attending tomorrow's show. Again we can work something out tomorrow.

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4 hours ago, artus_grayboot said:

I'd love to get one from you rpvee! Got two tickets but need one more so this is perfect. Not sure how PMing works here but I'll check back here tomorrow and work something out. Cheers! Also would love to say hello to whoever's attending tomorrow's show. Again we can work something out tomorrow.


Just PM’d you!

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Not sure when I’ll get to the venue as we’re driving there now - I’m going with my folks. We’ll probably get there at 6:30 and eat at the restaurant there. If there’s some sort of recognizable indentifier or something in the restaurant that we’re sitting by before the concert (or after we could stand somewhere or whatnot to meet up with people either in the grounds or outside the gate), we could do something like that for the people going! I’ve never been to Tanglewood but we can figure it out as we go. Excited to be there and I hope to meet y’all!

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Looking like my folks and I will get there at 6:45 by the time we park. Haven’t left Pittsfield yet but about to. Gonna meet up with @rpvee at the gate as he’s got a ticket for us - those tickets like to refresh if you take a pic so that’s why. I’ll be in a light blue bow tie with glasses, brown hair, navy blazer, light blue jeans. My dad looks just like me but older, so if you see two similar pastey fools and a blonde woman with glasses you’ll know it’s us!

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