John Williams & Boston Pops Orchestra - Complete Philips Recordings (NEW 2022 21-CD boxset)

[Jurassic Shark 12,052]

Let's hope Audissino made them aware of the missing album.

[TownerFan 4,983]

He didn't consult on the production, he just wrote the new essay.

[Jurassic Shark 12,052]

Of course, I'm just saying that if he saw an obvious omission I hope he'd let them know.

[ciarlese 248]

1 hour ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Of course, I'm just saying that if he saw an obvious omission I hope he'd let them know.

Especially when they are calling this collection "complete"....

[Amer 2,095]

Somebody needs to make a call to them but if they are cutting corners they better include the Liner notes. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,052]

Original liner notes are very rarely included in such reissue boxes.

[Matt S. 493]

That’s a really poor decision, to leave off That’s Entertainment.  This set is made for a true Williams collector, and that album is the only one that includes his (Oscar-winning!) adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof.  They should have left off On Stage, instead.

[Amer 2,095]

Luckily I have that title separately. 

[Bespin 8,480]

Well, about the compression, even Mike Matessino add a bit of it to "normalize" old recordings and reduce just a bit the difference between the very quiet and loud parts.

 

Then By Request contains only 5 previously unreleased tracks, the rest was released on previous albums. So to the last CD, they'll add only these 5, like Towner said.

 

[The Lost Folio 183]

6 hours ago, TownerFan said:

I can tell you that Emilio Audissino wrote a new introductory essay for this release.

 

I can also confirm this is going to be 20 discs, as That's Entertainment is not part of the collection (don't ask me why) and By Request has been shortened by the pieces that were culled from previous recordings (so you'll get just Olympic Fanfare, Liberty Fanfare, The Mission Theme, the 1941 March and the Jaws main theme) and coupled with selections from Pops Britannia (including the suite from Jane Eyre) on a single disc.

Why call it the "complete" Philips recordings then? That just doesn't make sense! Decca has released tons of boxes that claim to be complete and are complete. 

[Jay 37,337]

There were two smart ways UMG could have done this.

 

One is to make it a 22 disc box set that presents all 22 of the original albums in the same configuration they've always been in, newly remastered

 

Another way would be to slightly rejigger some of the albums, removing tracks that had already been on prior albums, etc... to get the set down to something like 12-15 or so CDs.  It could have contained every unique track recorded, and still kept most of the albums exactly as they've always been, but re-contextualized the order some of the music is presented in.

Instead... they did neither.... and cut one entire album.... and portions of another.... combined some of two albums together... and kept the rest on their own disc.... ok....

[TownerFan 4,983]

2 hours ago, The Lost Folio said:

Why call it the "complete" Philips recordings then? That just doesn't make sense! Decca has released tons of boxes that claim to be complete and are complete. 

🤷🏻‍♂️
 

I’m just referring what was told to me. I don’t know who supervised/curated this new edition. Direct your complaints to UMG.

[ricsim88 244]

After looking at the list of included CDs, I realized I was missing a couple. A quick search on the Presto music  download section and Amazon completed the collection. I also used that method to complete the Sony package. Cheaper than re buying everything. Especially if there’s no sound improvement. But if you don’t own any of these CDs, it’s a good way to get them. 

[Naïve Old Fart 9,512]

3 hours ago, Matt S. said:

...that album is the only one that includes his (Oscar-winning!) adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof.

Matt, I think you'll find that the OST of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF also contains "his (Oscar-winning!) adaptation" 

[PokeDocMatt 57]

This will be a pretty great set to pick up! I have a few of these from over the years. But to nab them all will be a treat to enjoy!

 

It has me thinking… Is there a resource here or elsewhere that lists the official JW arrangements and the recordings they appear on? Not limited to just conducted by Williams.  

[Jay 37,337]

Not yet but I'm working on one

[Bespin 8,480]

Anyway if we look on the credits of the Philips albums, it seems JW didn't have time to write his own arrangements for works written by others, and it's perfectly understandable.

 

Those years were crazy!!! Composing, conducting, recording albums, recording TV shows, he was everywhere!

[rough cut 1,714]

I have most of these but there are a couple I don’t have.

”Prokofieff/Tchaikovsky”, ”With a Song in my Heart” and ”Lucky to be me”…

 

None of which I feel a particular urgency to pick up, I have to confess. Any one care to fill me in on these albums?

[Jay 37,337]

Well, the first one is Peter and the Wolf and selections from The Nutcracker, which are two of the most famous compositions ever made by man so you're probably familiar with them

 

The other two are actually Jessye Norman song albums that JW plays piano on.  I found the first one to be painful to listen to, personally.

[rough cut 1,714]

4 minutes ago, Jay said:

Well, the first one is Peter and the Wolf and selections from The Nutcracker, which are two of the most famous compositions ever made by man so you're probably familiar with them

Lol

[Miguel Andrade 1,263]

11 minutes ago, Jay said:

The other two are actually Jessye Norman song albums that JW plays piano on.  I found the first one to be painful to listen to, personally.

 

On "With a Song In  My Heart" Williams is mostly featured as conductor. He plays piano in only one track. If memory serves, it includes one song arranged by Williams himself.

[Jay 37,337]

I believe the booklet said he played piano on all tracks, except one in which he played clavier instead.

[Miguel Andrade 1,263]

Clavier is piano in french.

 

[Bespin 8,480]

Clavier can mean many things in french, a keyboard (computer keyboard), indeed a piano, but also a harpsichord or a synth.

[Miguel Andrade 1,263]

In this case it's a piano. It's even mentioned in the liner notes as being the track where Williams accompanies Norman from the piano.

[Jay 37,337]

I stand corrected!

[Matt S. 493]

4 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Matt, I think you'll find that the OST of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF also contains "his (Oscar-winning!) adaptation" 

 

I hear Jay has several extra copies, maybe he can offer them to Decca so they can fill in the gaps!

[TownerFan 4,983]

13 hours ago, Bespin said:

Anyway if we look on the credits of the Philips albums, it seems JW didn't have time to write his own arrangements for works written by others, and it's perfectly understandable.

 

Those years were crazy!!! Composing, conducting, recording albums, recording TV shows, he was everywhere!

 

As Leonard Slatkin recollected in the Williams/Goldsmith tribute we did last February, one of the reasons the Pops picked JW as music director was his access to a slew of new arrangers (mostly from Hollywood) who could revive and update the Pops catalogue with new and fresh arrangements. One of the reasons why the orchestra had issues to perform with Fiedler was indeed the poor quality of the arrangements they were playing. While JW kept some of the standards made during the Fiedler years penned by Jack Mason, Glenn Osser, Joe Reisman and others, he commissioned many new ones to friends like Alexander Courage, Dick Hyman, Richard Hayman, Angela Morley, Sid Ramin. That was an absolutely crucial element of his tenure at the Pops. Of course he also crafted several by himself, but as you noted, those were incredibly busy years for him so it wouldn't have been possible to take all that arranging workload by himself.

[Josh500 1,615]

Wow. I have maybe half of these. Digital Jukebox is by far my favourite... Ah, Mack the Knife, Unchained Melody, The Pink Panther Theme. 

 

Seriously considering buying this giant set. 

[Miguel Andrade 1,263]

2 hours ago, TownerFan said:

 

As Leonard Slatkin recollected in the Williams/Goldsmith tribute we did last February, one of the reasons the Pops picked JW as music director was his access to a slew of new arrangers (mostly from Hollywood) who could revive and update the Pops catalogue with new and fresh arrangements. One of the reasons why the orchestra had issues to perform with Fiedler was indeed the poor quality of the arrangements they were playing. While JW kept some of the standards made during the Fiedler years penned by Jack Mason, Glenn Osser, Joe Reisman and others, he commissioned many new ones to friends like Alexander Courage, Dick Hyman, Richard Hayman, Angela Morley, Sid Ramin. That was an absolutely crucial element of his tenure at the Pops. Of course he also crafted several by himself, but as you noted, those were incredibly busy years for him so it wouldn't have been possible to take all that arranging workload by himself.

 

Actually, Richard Hayman was already a chief arranger for the Pops during the late Fiedler years.

[ricsim88 244]

2 hours ago, TownerFan said:

 

As Leonard Slatkin recollected in the Williams/Goldsmith tribute we did last February, one of the reasons the Pops picked JW as music director was his access to a slew of new arrangers (mostly from Hollywood) who could revive and update the Pops catalogue with new and fresh arrangements. One of the reasons why the orchestra had issues to perform with Fiedler was indeed the poor quality of the arrangements they were playing. While JW kept some of the standards made during the Fiedler years penned by Jack Mason, Glenn Osser, Joe Reisman and others, he commissioned many new ones to friends like Alexander Courage, Dick Hyman, Richard Hayman, Angela Morley, Sid Ramin. That was an absolutely crucial element of his tenure at the Pops. Of course he also crafted several by himself, but as you noted, those were incredibly busy years for him so it wouldn't have been possible to take all that arranging workload by himself.

Speaking as an orchestra musician, I can definitely confirm that good arrangements are a crucial part of playing “pops” concerts. Bad arrangements can ruin it for everyone, from players to audience members. 

[QuartalHarmony 542]

On 8/18/2021 at 2:16 PM, Bespin said:

Well, about the compression, even Mike Matessino add a bit of it to "normalize" old recordings and reduce just a bit the difference between the very quiet and loud parts.

Compression - used tastefully and sensibly - is a great tool in numerous situations. My post was specifically aimed at the use of compression on already-excellent orchestral recordings. Of course, if you’re listening in the car or on a train/plane you need quite a lot of compression to stop the quieter passages being lost in the background noise but, at the risk of repeating myself, adding compression is a one-way street: easy to add if you want it but impossible to remove once it’s there.
 

Adding a touch of judicious compression to older recordings which might be a little less than state-of-the-art (i.e. what MM does) is a different kettle of fish entirely - it can be a good way of masking annoying tape hiss, for example.

 

Mark

[Martinland 358]

9 hours ago, Miguel Andrade said:

Actually, Richard Hayman was already a chief arranger for the Pops during the late Fiedler years.

Here on the shelf I have Richard Hayman's album "The Best of John Williams" with the "Philharmonic Rock Orchestra".

 

I did purchase it because of some then unreleased Accidental Tourist excerpt I think. The "Raiders March" is especially ... hilarious in its last bars.

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,191]

I haven't listened to it in decades, but the "highlight" for me were always the geriatric Ewoks.

[lairdo 726]

Very nice to see this come out although almost all of the albums have been pretty findable over the years. I was so excited for each new release when they came out at the time. Even with having them all, I'll double dip.

 

The timing (January) feels like the beginning of a series of releases for JW's 90th Birthday (Feb 8, 2022). It will be interesting to see what the various labels beyond this. 

[Amer 2,095]

Japan has been reissuing these on their Decca lable as SHCM CDs which are basically high quality CD format. Sound is better noticed on good hi fi systems during playback but remains the same in digital quality.  Recently I got By 'Request...' and 'America, The Dreams Goes On'.. from them.

 

 

[artguy360 1,843]

I've been re-listening to some of JW's Boston Pops albums and it is interesting to hear these different arrangements of classic pieces. Right now I'm listening to his(?) arrangement of the love theme from Out of Africa. John Barry's original is exceedingly simple and I think that works in its favor. JW's version adds many new textures including a consistent bell chime sound and some background percussion elements. His arrangement gives it a little more of a sweeping quality as well. But, as I am discovering with many of these pieces, I'm not sure if the more orchestrally adorned arrangements highlight the strengths of the original compositions or unintentionally mute them a bit. I think the love theme from Out of Africa shines in its simplicity and dressing it up too much actually takes something away from the purity of its melody.

[Miguel Andrade 1,263]

5 hours ago, artguy360 said:

I've been re-listening to some of JW's Boston Pops albums and it is interesting to hear these different arrangements of classic pieces. Right now I'm listening to his(?) arrangement of the love theme from Out of Africa. John Barry's original is exceedingly simple and I think that works in its favor. JW's version adds many new textures including a consistent bell chime sound and some background percussion elements. His arrangement gives it a little more of a sweeping quality as well. But, as I am discovering with many of these pieces, I'm not sure if the more orchestrally adorned arrangements highlight the strengths of the original compositions or unintentionally mute them a bit. I think the love theme from Out of Africa shines in its simplicity and dressing it up too much actually takes something away from the purity of its melody.

 

Most of the arrangements weren't done by Williams himself. In this particular case, it was by Joe Reisman.

[TownerFan 4,983]

On 8/19/2021 at 12:12 PM, Miguel Andrade said:

 

Actually, Richard Hayman was already a chief arranger for the Pops during the late Fiedler years.

 

You're correct, I always makes confusion between Richard Hayman and Dick Hyman, they have almost identical names

 

Btw, Williams also commissioned arrangements to top Broadway orchestrator Jonathan Tunick and several Hollywood friends as Herb Spencer and Morton Stevens. Also, he nurtured young talents like Pat Hollenbeck, who also helped him out on Indy 3 and the Hymn to New England piece.

[Miguel Andrade 1,263]

5 hours ago, TownerFan said:

 

You're correct, I always makes confusion between Richard Hayman and Dick Hyman, they have almost identical names

 

Btw, Williams also commissioned arrangements to top Broadway orchestrator Jonathan Tunick and several Hollywood friends as Herb Spencer and Morton Stevens. Also, he nurtured young talents like Pat Hollenbeck, who also helped him out on Indy 3 and the Hymn to New England piece.

 

Yeah, Dick Hyman, a wonderful pianist too, wrote that amazing arrangement of Sing, Sing, Sing!

If memory serves, Tunick wrote most of the arrangements for the Gershwin Fantasy album, right?

[BB-8 3,466]

 

[Disco Stu 15,495]

11 minutes ago, BB-8 said:

 

 

[Bespin 8,480]

"Complete"...

[Jurassic Shark 12,052]

So Universal still thinks it's complete...

[Bespin 8,480]

Without the final content of each CD, we can't say much...

[Jurassic Shark 12,052]

Fixed.

 

[Holko 9,516]

The art designer knew it and signalled it to us secretly, that's why JW's missing his right arm.

[BB-8 3,466]

1 hour ago, Bespin said:

Without the final content of each CD, we can't say much...

1.CD Pops on the March
2.CD Pops in Space
3.CD We wish you a merry Christmas
4.CD Pops around the World
5.CD Aisle Seat - Great Film Music
6.CD Out of this World
7.CD Prokofieff: Peter und der Wolf; Tschaikowsky: Der Nussknacker (Auszüge)
8.CD Whith a Song in my Heart
9.CD Swing, swing, swing
10.CD America, the Dream goes on
11.CD On Stage
12.CD Bernstein by Boston
13.CD Pops in Love
14.CD Holst: The Planets
15.CD Digital Jukebox
16. CD Lucky to be me
17.CD Salute to Hollywood
18.CD Pops a la Russe
19.CD Pops by Gershwin
20.CD By Request / Pops Britannia

John Williams & Boston Pops Orchestra - Complete Philips Recordings (20 CDs) – jpc

[Jurassic Shark 12,052]

6 minutes ago, Holko said:

The art designer knew it and signalled it to us secretly, that's why JW's missing his right arm.

 

Rectifying the error and including the missing album is gonna cost an arm and a leg, they said.

[BB-8 3,466]

20 minutes ago, Holko said:

The art designer knew it and signalled it to us secretly, that's why JW's missing his right arm.