John Williams' Piano Concerto for Emmanuel Ax - Premieres Saturday, July 26, 2025

[BB-8 6,228]

"He looked at me!"

 

JW themed desk at the Berlin Phil shop...

[Mr. Hooper 8,932]

Did he slip a performance of 'Sabrina' in? 

[BB-8 6,228]

27 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

Did he slip a performance of 'Sabrina' in? 

Yep, Sabrina for solo piano - played from a flip display.

 

Ax announced the encore in German.

[Tom 6,857]

Did the performance affect your testosterone level in any way?   

[Mr. Hooper 8,932]

And did your lowered testosterone level (and consumption of schnapps) affect your performance in any way?

[Tom 6,857]

51 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

And did your lowered testosterone level (and consumption of schnapps) affect your performance in any way?

Physically, yes, but rumor has it, he was more present emotionally than he has ever been.  

[GerateWohl 6,492]

9 hours ago, BB-8 said:

 

 

Oh! And an edition of the book with larger fonts for people with bad eyes.

[Henry Janislaus Feigensand 621]

really nice show. Piano concerto reminded me of some Coruscant material in TPM. I loved how the piano mixed so well at times with certain instrument groups – not just doubling their parts but blending in perfectly.

Interestingly enough first part of the program was a ballet suite by Mieczysław Weinberg, apparently colleague/student of Shostakovich and it reminded me of Indy and Tintin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mieczysław_Weinberg#Music
 

[Smeltington 2,006]

19 hours ago, BB-8 said:

"He looked at me!"

 

Did you make a weird noise?

 

1 hour ago, Henry Janislaus Feigensand said:

Piano concerto reminded me of some Coruscant material in TPM. I loved how the piano mixed so well at times with certain instrument groups – not just doubling their parts but blending in perfectly.

 

That's awesome, an extended piece with TPM vibes sounds exciting. (haven't heard it yet) And good to hear Johnny's orchestrational skills were on display.

 

[Tom Guernsey 3,859]

1 hour ago, Henry Janislaus Feigensand said:

Interestingly enough first part of the program was a ballet suite by Mieczysław Weinberg, apparently colleague/student of Shostakovich and it reminded me of Indy and Tintin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mieczysław_Weinberg#Music
 

I assume this was from the Golden Key? I have a recording of Suite 4 from his on Naxos, paired with the 12th Symphony (in memory of one D Shostakovich). Oddly, the only other recording of music from this ballet I can find is the same Suite 4, but on Chandos paired with the 3rd symphony (added to wishlist...). I would typically describe Weinberg as like slightly less memorable Shostakovich... which probably sounds more harsh than it's meant. However, if you do like Shostakovich's brand of Russian music, there's plenty to enjoy in Weinberg's music. Most of his 20 something symphonies have been recorded between Naxos and Chandos in fine performances and sound.

[Henry Janislaus Feigensand 621]

45 minutes ago, Tom Guernsey said:

I assume this was from the Golden Key?

yes!

https://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/programme-notes/mieczyslaw-weinberg-buratino-and-the-golden-key-orchestra-suite-no-4-op-55d/

[Marian Schedenig 11,693]

I haven't yet heard anything by Weinberg myself. But he seems to be a favourite of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, or at least someone she specialises in, because she has recorded some of his works and for quite a while (several years, I would say) most of her concerts that were advertised seemed to include at least one piece by him.

[BB-8 6,228]

2 hours ago, Smeltington said:

 

Did you make a weird noise?

 

Yes, a testosterone-driven "Bravo"...

[BB-8 6,228]

On 19/04/2026 at 8:51 AM, GerateWohl said:

Oh! And an edition of the book with larger fonts for people with bad eyes.

[Tom 6,857]

On 14/04/2026 at 10:01 PM, Mr. Hooper said:

 

He'd fit in well here. 

 

The difference is that we know that we are idiots.  

[Mr. Hooper 8,932]

8 hours ago, BB-8 said:

"All pianos are my friends—even the miniature ones at the Berlin Phil gift shop."

 

– Emanuel "Pocket Manny" Ax

[BB-8 6,228]

Ax Rebo

[MusicUnite 4]

Per chance has anyone recorded the January,2026 JW concert with the BSO?

[BB-8 6,228]

3 hours ago, MusicUnite said:

Per chance has anyone recorded the January,2026 JW concert with the BSO?

Yes, DG have.

[Mr. Hooper 8,932]

On 21/4/2026 at 7:48 AM, BB-8 said:

Ax Rebo

I can't see the image. 

[BB-8 6,228]

[Marian Schedenig 11,693]

Williams should add a fourth movement based on Max Rebo's playing style.

[Smeltington 2,006]

An extended meditation on Jedi Rocks? Brilliant!

[Rachael Foley 10,162]

1 hour ago, Smeltington said:

An extended meditation on Jedi Rocks? Brilliant!

John Williams on Jerry Hey

[Mr. Hooper 8,932]

2 hours ago, BB-8 said:

Aw, I was expecting a Photoshopped picture of Ax as Max. 

[Rachael Foley 10,162]

46 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

Aw, I was expecting a Photoshopped picture of Ax as Max. 

Naw, if it shows that blank image screen, it's most likely from a wikia/fandom page. And those generally don't contain photoshop manips.

 

This was the image BTW. (if you take everything after ".jpg/webp" off of the url you get this)

 

 

[Smeltington 2,006]

54 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

Aw, I was expecting a Photoshopped picture of Ax as Max. 

 

Kinda feels like someone should make that now.

[Mr. Hooper 8,932]

7 hours ago, Smeltington said:

 

Kinda feels like someone should make that now.

I'm confident that BB-8's hard at work on it and will give us something nightmarish.

[Tom 6,857]

41 minutes ago, Mr. Hooper said:

I'm confident that BB-8's hard at work on it and will give us something nightmarish.

Nightmarish, you say?

[Rachael Foley 10,162]

Eeeyoah, oh, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh

[Mr. Hooper 8,932]

6 hours ago, Tom said:

Coming up on the 30th anniversary of this. It's enough to make you say:

 

4 hours ago, Rachael Foley said:

Ah, ah, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!

 

[Ricard 2,669]

Full concert now available online:
https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/weinberg-williams-prokofjew-berlinphilhs-mirga-grazinyte-tyla-emanuel-ax-100.html

 

Williams' Piano Concerto starts at 23:00.

[Miguel Andrade 1,725]

The encore is a Chopin waltz, but in the Saturday performance, Ax played Sabrina as an encore (available on Digital Concert Hall).

[BB-8 6,228]

On 25/04/2026 at 4:42 AM, Mr. Hooper said:

I'm confident that BB-8's hard at work on it and will give us something nightmarish.

“The Sensuous Potato”

 

Free interview here:

Emanuel Ax in conversation with Matthew Hunter

 

[BB-8 6,228]

On 25/04/2026 at 8:24 PM, Ricard said:

Full concert now available online:
https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/weinberg-williams-prokofjew-berlinphilhs-mirga-grazinyte-tyla-emanuel-ax-100.html

 

Williams' Piano Concerto starts at 23:00.

Btw, the cymbals/timps/conductor in "Tybalt's Death" mess up...

[Smeltington 2,006]

1 hour ago, BB-8 said:

 

This did not disappoint!

[Jurassic Shark 16,428]

1 hour ago, BB-8 said:

“The Sensuous Potato”

 

Free interview here:

Emanuel Ax in conversation with Matthew Hunter

 

 

Max Ax.

[Mr. Hooper 8,932]

1 hour ago, BB-8 said:

"All nalargons are my friends."

 

– Ax Rebo

 

(Yes, I consulted Wookieepedia.)

[BB-8 6,228]

"All Mandalorians are my friends."

 

 

[Mr. Hooper 8,932]

"All women are my friends."

 

– Axe body spray user

 

 

[BB-8 6,228]

2025...

 

 

[Gurkensalat 385]

Probably everybody here knows that, but to be sure: The concert can be seen on digitalconcerthall, and they offer a coupon for 7 days access free of charge. 

[Jesse 303]

ChatGPT’s best try at enhancing a blurry image of the first page of Emanuel Ax’s sheet music. All the details are not to be trusted, so please don’t use it as an actual reference, but it gives a pretty good rough impression of what the first page looks like. This is just something I tried for fun, not to use as actual sheet music.


This is the reference image i used:

[Marian Schedenig 11,693]

7 hours ago, Jesse said:

All the details are not to be trusted

 

Indeed. Just look at the beginning of the second system. 

[Jesse 303]

1 hour ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

Indeed. Just look at the beginning of the second system. 

This is already the second version of the image in which I corrected some mistakes manually which it made. In the first one it dedicated the piece to J. Lawrence and wrote some other nonsense instructions above. The notes themselves are pretty much all entirely wrong anyways.
 

It was really just for fun. I originally just wanted to post the original image of the sheet music on Ax’s piano during the Berlin concert, but I thought it would be interesting and perhaps more visually pleasing to have an AI enhanced image.

[Rachael Foley 10,162]

1 hour ago, Jesse said:

but I thought it would be interesting and perhaps more visually pleasing to have an AI enhanced image.

We would have been fine, without AI junk. (Not criticizing you)

[ChrisAfonso 237]

This tickled my fancy, so I tried to actually transcribe the page from the photo. This is what I got after an hour:

 

 

Of course there's an amount of educated guesswork involved, as a lot of things in the photo are hard to make out with actual certainty (some text markup I couldn't decipher at all I just left out). Next step for an actual takedown intended for playing would be to check it against the recording chord by chord...

 

Again, no ill will against the original post intended, but I find it interesting how stuff like this keeps popping up more and more. And not always with the proper caveat attached. There's a real temptation for people to "enhance" things and then pass them on in a form that sure looks "more visually pleasing" (sorry for the direct quote ;)), but at the same time deceptively definite (same problem as with chatbots making up fake details instead of admitting what they don't know). I'd almost always prefer the original image.

[Jesse 303]

22 minutes ago, ChrisAfonso said:

Again, no ill will against the original post intended, but I find it interesting how stuff like this keeps popping up more and more. And not always with the proper caveat attached. There's a real temptation for people to "enhance" things and then pass them on in a form that sure looks "more visually pleasing" (sorry for the direct quote ;)), but at the same time deceptively definite (same problem as with chatbots making up fake details instead of admitting what they don't know). I'd almost always prefer the original image.

think I attached enough of a caveat though. I was specifically careful to do so. The AI version I really just added for fun as a bonus to the actual image, and I think I made that clear enough.

Good job on deciphering and transcribing the sheets. I am tempted to, and may try to, check against the recording, not sure my ears are good enough though.

 

 

 

 

[ChrisAfonso 237]

5 hours ago, Jesse said:

think I attached enough of a caveat though. I was specifically careful to do so. The AI version I really just added for fun as a bonus to the actual image, and I think I made that clear enough.

 

Sure, that's what I meant - you absolutely made the origin of the picture clear! My comment was about lots of other places that don't. Sorry if that came across wrong.