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

[Amer 2,097]

I’ve actually had only 5 of the recordings separately:

 

By Request…

Out of This World

Thats Entertainment 

Pops Britannia 

America The Dream Goes On.

 

So it’s great to get this huge collection!
 

P.S. My order just arrived at my proxy UK address. Now, I just have to wait for anyone to drop by and bring the package to me. 

 

[TownerFan 4,983]

15 hours ago, Thor said:

It would be neat to have this box, but first I would have to rid myself of the individual CDs (and LPs) I already have, and then I'd need to find extra cash to buy the whole thing. Plus, isn't there also another set with his Sony recordings or whatever it is? (sorry, I'm not into all this Boston Pops stuff). I would need to get that too to have a complete BP/JW collection. Perhaps I'll get there some day, but it's too much hassle/too expensive for me at the moment.

 

I understand money concerns of course, bit why do you have to get rid of the original Philips pressings, if I may ask? Okay, it's the same content, but you can keep 'em in your collection and have the boxset as a nice addition (unless you're very tight on shelf space and that is an issue).

 

14 hours ago, WilliamsFan93 said:

I have absolutely no issue with someone with Hurwitz`s Knowledge and experience critiquing a collection of music that spans over 10 years and 21 albums as some are bound to be better than others but i cannot stand this dismissive "Who would want this?" attitude. I understand these CD`s contain music he`s heard a million times performed by multiple conductors so his opinion of these will be slightly more critical and it`s not like he`s some Williams hater as he seems to respond better to his movie material. But i just can`t make out if his negative reactions to reading the titles is due to the compositions or the performances? He gives you the impression he`s familiar with them but seems surprised at the titles as he reads on. This is an incredible release with some great performances and as a Williams fan as soon as i heard the announcement i was looking forward to owning it. His review loses all credibility when his snark takes over and instead of just saying look, this isn`t for me but i know there`s an audience for it and anything that turns people on to classical music and encourages people to seek out other performances etc is good with me. Instead we get this condescending attitude. 

 

There is no problem with people offering critique and of course there is no reason why everything about JW should always be a wash of unabashed love and admiration (I am the first culprit there). Anyway, the kind of critique offered by this individual truly hides the same old, same old argument of "movie music=lesser music" (unless it's Bernard Herrmann or Prokofiev or Shostakovich) and all that follows. There is still prejudice, albeit much less than in the past, but it's no surprise to still hear some people offering the usual snarky comments on JW, i.e. he steals from the classical masters, he just writes music for Hollywood fare, Pops repertoire is just a dog-and-pony show, etc., just because he is the most prominent and most successful bridge-builder between the classical and film worlds. The point is that this attitude is luckily a dying one. The concert hall/classical music elite isn't stuck in 1969, thanks heaven.

[Schilkeman 961]

Hurwitz is a known ass in the classical music community. He has a heavy bias against American orchestras and conductors, British too, for that matter. As far as I know, he's no more qualified than a paper sack to review albums.

 

Are every one of those albums amazing? No. Do I want them anyway because I'm a fan of the man? Yes I do.

[GerateWohl 4,357]

I listened to the review and found there nothing of that prejudice about Williams as a lesser composer. The reviewer distinguished explicitly between Williams as a composer and Williams the conducter. He is full of praise for Williams as a composer and does not even jump on that the BPO versions of Williams own pieces are not the best performances of these.

I must say, I can connect to the most points of criticism, not to all, but when do I agree to a critic in every point. And it is a matter of fact, that apart from Williams' own compositions and some exceptions like The Planets" the box contains rather light music not setting big challenges to a conducter. And this is a box explicitly presenting Williams as a conducter, not as a composer. So, I don't really see an issue with the review. I also think, that since these recordings Williams has grown a lot as a conducter.

And it is understandable that Williams, who has a career as a composer, a performer, a conducter of his own music and conducter of others music. That the last point does not reach up to the brillance of the other ones is only natural. And I found the review in no way disrespectful even though I might not agree in every point.

[Jurassic Shark 12,061]

I usually find Hurwitz written reviews quite illuminating, by being concise and candid. However, the little I've seen of his video reviews has not impressed me. He seems to be badly prepared and could have used much less time saying what he's got to say.

[Thor 7,493]

2 hours ago, TownerFan said:

I understand money concerns of course, bit why do you have to get rid of the original Philips pressings, if I may ask? Okay, it's the same content, but you can keep 'em in your collection and have the boxset as a nice addition (unless you're very tight on shelf space and that is an issue).

 

Yeah, I don't know, I have this weird, anal-retentive obsession about not owning duplicates. I like to have one -- just one -- representation of any given album in my collection. It's a purely irrational thing (or as Ash would say: "I admire its purity"). But the liner notes issue may tip the game for me. Alternatively, I could remove the duplicates, put them in a box and place them in my basement storage room. Out of sight, out of mind and all that.

[GerateWohl 4,357]

By the way. I just realised, that this box is out now for about a week and still no news on that on the JWFan main page. Same for the announcements of the upcoming birthday celebrations.

[Chewy 2,388]

It's here! 

 

 

This looks indeed much more impressive than the Sony boxset, I'm also liking more the design of this one.

 

Well I guess I've got a lot of things to listen to now!  Time to discover great stuff!!

[rough cut 1,714]

Great photo!

 

It’s only missing the cigar. 

[Jurassic Shark 12,061]

This isn't Bill Clinton's collected speeches.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

[nfjmgnhjdm 38]

On 26/01/2022 at 10:39 AM, GerateWohl said:

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

 

 

[Pawel P. 738]

My not very detailed review, in Polish.

 

https://kultura.onet.pl/muzyka/recenzje/plyty-tygodnia-recenzja-years-and-years-john-williams-hania-rani/xwvzxrq

 

The Google Translate link:

 

https://kultura-onet-pl.translate.goog/muzyka/recenzje/plyty-tygodnia-recenzja-years-and-years-john-williams-hania-rani/xwvzxrq?_x_tr_sl=pl&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=pl&_x_tr_pto=wapp

[Disco Stu 15,495]

 

OK, we got colors!  Sorry if I did this wrong, I have literally no idea what I'm doing.

 

On the top is the spectrogram of the Aisle Seat "Flying Theme" from the new boxset

On the bottom is the same track from the original 80s CD pressing

 

 

 

[Amer 2,097]

So these aren’t remastered at all.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

It at least finally confirms that there’s NO reason to buy the box if you own the original CDs unless you just really want that packaging.

[HunterTech 989]

Uh, are you able to switch to waveforms? Because I kind of suspect something was done to the audio for the new release if the spectogram images for it is just a bit brighter than the original.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

9 hours ago, HunterTech said:

Uh, are you able to switch to waveforms? Because I kind of suspect something was done to the audio for the new release if the spectogram images for it is just a bit brighter than the original.

 

Here ya go.  I think if you think you're spotting significant differences, your eyes are playing tricks on you  

 

New box on top, old pressing on bottom

 

[Jay 37,346]

Nice to get confirmation UMG once again put the minimal amount of effort into things

[Schilkeman 961]

Remasters are kind of over-represented in the soundtrack world. It's much less common for old classical releases that come out again, especially for albums like these, which were fairly well recorded to begin with.

[Disco Stu 15,495]

For sure, I'm not even necessarily saying these needed remasters.  It's just good to have confirmation that there's no difference for those of us who already own these albums.

[Bespin 8,480]

11 hours ago, Disco Stu said:

 

Here ya go.  I think if you think you're spotting significant differences, your eyes are playing tricks on you  

 

New box on top, old pressing on bottom

 

 

Show a track from The Planets album.

[lairdo 726]

Decca at least changed the CD ID or something, because so far, out of the first 10 CDs I've inserted and ripped via dBPoweramp none have been in AccurateRip. Not sure if that is due to any changes to the audio on the CD or just that the database is not matching them up with previous information. Again - this probably is just a data point but no conclusions can be drawn from it.

[Marian Schedenig 8,192]

I don't know for sure what information CD title databases use as IDs, but they queried before ripping the CD, so the actual audio data of the tracks cannot be part of it. It's certainly the number and duration of tracks, possibly the start index for each track, and perhaps CD Text if available. I don't think the TOC of a CDDA contains any more data than that.

[lairdo 726]

Well, it's possible that the database for AccurateRip is either too small for what is probably considered a niche CD release (given the age and audience of the appearance on CD) or the disc is still somehow different in some way.

 

Interestingly, when I got to disc 13 (Bernstein by Boston), I did not even get CD data. Of course, this disc is NOT the same as the original release as it does not contain the Candide Overture track. As reported elsewhere in this thread, that was a repeat track from Pops Around the World and in the box set, Decca did not repeat it. (The CD sleeve notes its position on the original release and directs the listener to Disc 4, Track 7.) This all makes sense that the CD databases do not yet have this "new" version of this album. I fully expect Disc 21 (By Request... / Pops Britannia) to similarly come up blank when I get there tonight or tomorrow. 

 

 

 

 

[lairdo 726]

@Bespin asked earlier about Holst the Planets. The original CD and the box set release appear (and sound) identical to me. Below is the waveform comparison with original CD on top and Box Set on the bottom (which I realize is the reverse of the earlier example - sorry!). They look the same in terms of volume and shape. In reality, the padding is slightly off. The Box set, at least on track 4 "Jupiter" that I selected, starts slightly later and has less blank time at the end. But once aligned, the tracks sync and stay in sync.

 

I am happy to run the spectrum analyzer if given direction on that.

 

Additionally: I now see that all the track lengths, at least on this disc, are slightly different. Up to 4 seconds shorter and 2 seconds longer depending on the track.

 

 

[ciarlese 248]

11 hours ago, lairdo said:

Decca at least changed the CD ID or something, because so far, out of the first 10 CDs I've inserted and ripped via dBPoweramp none have been in AccurateRip. Not sure if that is due to any changes to the audio on the CD or just that the database is not matching them up with previous information. Again - this probably is just a data point but no conclusions can be drawn from it.

 

Since a few months dBPoweramp hasn't been finding any info for any disc I put in.

I swapped to Windows Media Player and it's been working perfectly since, and found all the info of this set too.

[Bespin 8,480]

@lairdo And so there is the same track from the 2-CD 2015 Decca compilation "John Williams Conducts the music from Star Wars" where they at least added +-4,5 dB to The Planets album, to match the volume of the other tracks on the compilation.

 

 

So this new boxset is an optional buying for those who already own the original CDs. And the cover is not even nice!

 

If you want all the albums to play at the same relative volume, without compression (and serious clipping), here are the amount of dB you have to add to each of the Philips album. If not, then, have fun with your "volume" control!

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,192]

52 minutes ago, Bespin said:

If you want all the albums to play at the same relative volume, without compression (and serious clipping), here are the amount of dB you have to add to each of the Philips album. If not, then, have fun with your "volume" control!

 

Or if you use a software played to play your music and don't mind if it doesn't do exact 1:1 passthrough of the original audio data (I do, because otherwise playback of compressed surround files doesn't work, and I haven't figured out if I can configure that selectively), you can simply rely on ReplayGain to do that for you. It calculates normalisation factors for all your tracks and allows you to play back each track or album (!) at maximum volume without clipping. The album setting means that all tracks from the same album are played at the correct relative volume, but amplified so that the loudest moment of the album uses the full bit range without clipping. The per-track option is useful for mixed playlists (e.g. for parties). A good ripping software will allow you to automatically calculate the ReplayGain tags during ripping, but you can also calculate them for a set of existing files. And you can toggle between no gain/per-track/per-album in your player software, so the original audio data is unchanged (and is still played that way if you disable gain on playback).

[Bespin 8,480]

I don't trust "automatic" things...

[Marian Schedenig 8,192]

16 minutes ago, Bespin said:

I don't trust "automatic" things...

 

Why not? And how did you do your volume raising without "automatic things"?

[Jay 37,346]

2 hours ago, Bespin said:

@lairdo And so there is the same track from the 2-CD 2015 Decca compilation "John Williams Conducts the music from Star Wars" where they at least added +-4,5 dB to The Planets album, to match the volume of the other tracks on the compilation.

 

 

So this new boxset is an optional buying for those who already own the original CDs. And the cover is not even nice!

 

If you want all the albums to play at the same relative volume, without compression (and serious clipping), here are the amount of dB you have to add to each of the Philips album. If not, then, have fun with your "volume" control!

 

 

By Request goes in between The Planets and Digital Jukebox, not at the end

[Bespin 8,480]

1 minute ago, Jay said:

 

By Request goes in between The Planets and Digital Jukebox, not at the end

 

On my computer it goes there.

[Jay 37,346]

That makes no sense. 

[Bespin 8,480]

[Jurassic Shark 12,061]

Nobody's told Jay that things don't always have to make sense.

[GerateWohl 4,357]

1 hour ago, Marian Schedenig said:

Why not? And how did you do your volume raising without "automatic things"?

He turns the volume button at his stereo system accordingly when a track from the respective disk is played. 

[Bespin 8,480]

Hey, I just did'nt want you to have a fatal heart attack!

[ciarlese 248]

Going back to the query about remastering, should we not just assume that new masters had to be made at least for the CDs with a different track list than the original ones?

[Bespin 8,480]

Going by recording date would be stupid, those Boston Pops albums are thematic.

[Marian Schedenig 8,192]

3 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

He turns the volume button at his stereo system accordingly when a track from the respective disk is played. 

 

No, I think he amplified the ripped files. Didn't you, @Bespin? But if you did it with an audio editing tool, it was probably the exact same automatic process that ReplayGain uses.

[Jurassic Shark 12,061]

3 hours ago, GerateWohl said:

He turns the volume button at his stereo system accordingly when a track from the respective disk is played. 

 

Nah, he removes the ear plugs during the quiet parts.

[Bespin 8,480]

Yes I amplified my FLACs with Audacity.

[Marian Schedenig 8,192]

14 minutes ago, Bespin said:

Yes I amplified my FLACs with Audacity.

 

Good. But as I said, that's just what ReplayGain does as well.  But it allows you to keep the original audio data. The per-album/per-track feature is a really cool idea if you sometimes play full albums and sometimes mixed playlists.

[Bespin 8,480]

14 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

Good. But as I said, that's just what ReplayGain does as well.  But it allows you to keep the original audio data. The per-album/per-track feature is a really cool idea if you sometimes play full albums and sometimes mixed playlists.

 

I do. Hey, it's me!

[lairdo 726]

9 hours ago, Bespin said:

 

So this new boxset is an optional buying for those who already own the original CDs. And the cover is not even nice!

 

 

Yes, this is my conclusion too. For completionists like me, I am subject to double dipping (but without complaint).

 

Really, for those who have <50% of these albums that want the missing ones, it's a decent value. (Because really, you could buy each album for about $10 each delivered.)

 

Even the booklet, if Decca does what they say they will in the back of the book, can be downloaded from their PDF site. (It's not up there as of yesterday.) But while Emilio's essay is nice and informative, it's not given a lot of pages. And the booklet has no index of the works or composers (as often other box sets do). You just get the essay in multiple languages. (As a companion piece, read his latest published essay/book on the Pops, JW and film music in the concert hall. That's very enjoyable.)

 

And while the set is the "complete JW & Boston Pops," I can argue it is still missing a bit. Beyond the 3 albums that are not presented as released (Bernstein by Boston, Pops Britannia and By Request... due to the repeated tracks), there are three other flags if one really wanted to have everything released and make sense:

 

1. The 2nd Norman/Williams album is not at all related to the Boston Pops. It was not even recorded in Symphony Hall. (So, it's more of a bonus I guess.)

2. After Philips lost the Boston Pops rights to Sony, they continued to release compilations (Space-Taculars for example - a mash up of Pops in Space and Out of this World or even America the Beautiful which combines Fielder and Williams conducted material). While all tracks are repeats and thus no reason to include them physically, I would have appreciated the complete discography being listed in the booklet. (Yes, I know these are marketing releases and probably not even run by Williams or The Boston Pops before shipping.)

3. Finally, and this is really picking on them :), there are multiple versions of Peter and The Wolf with different narrators (Terry Wogan and Stephan Remmler). So, while the orchestral music is the same (I am pretty sure it is anyway), it would have been cool to get these versions too. A "bonus" disc 22 or something.

 

Maybe someday DG (which owns Decca/Philips) will release a fully complete Williams box set (as they do with a few big names every year), and they'll combine in all of the recent and forthcoming releases, plus the miscellaneous stuff too. For Williams' 100th?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bespin 8,480]

Hey, pssst... pssstt.... the complete discography... it's already been done you know...

 

All the Boston Pops compilations...

 

Note about Peter and the wolf: Personally I own the french version of it. I never listen to it, because it's perhaps the most annoying classic work I know.

[lairdo 726]

1 minute ago, Bespin said:

Hey, pssst... pssstt.... the complete discography... it's already been done you know...

 

All the Boston Pops compilations...

 

Well, I know of course - and they should have asked you to use it! 

[Bespin 8,480]

Just now, lairdo said:

 

Well, I know of course - and they should have asked you to use it! 

 

It's public.

[Dr. Rick 1,155]

Price has dropped about $10 on Amazon already to $82.48

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09DDWK2JM/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1