The Music of John Williams / John Williams: Sounds of Cinema (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra)

[Quppa 424]

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is following up their free outdoor concert from earlier this year with two performances celebrating the maestro at the Hamer Hall together with the MSO Chorus this Wednesday and Thursday.

 

The programme has mostly the usual greatest hits with a handful of rarer inclusions. I think I'm most excited about hearing Duel of the Fates live for the first time (still hoping we might see LTP concerts of the prequel trilogy one day - who cares about the quality of the movies themselves).

 

The Music of John Williams

A 90th Birthday Celebration
1 & 2 June / 7:30pm
Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall

 

Program

 

Superman: March
Fiddler on the Roof (excerpts) by Jerry Bock arr. Williams
Call of the Champions (the Official Theme of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games)
Jaws: The Shark Theme
Raiders of the Lost Ark: March
Star Wars: A New Hope: Princess Leia’s Theme
Home Alone: Somewhere In My Memory
Jurassic Park: Theme

 

Interval

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: Duel of the Fates
Schindler’s List: Theme
Saving Private Ryan: Hymn to the Fallen
Catch Me If You Can: Closing In
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The Knight Bus
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Double Trouble
Hook: Flight to Neverland
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: The Asteroid Field
Star Wars: A New Hope: Throne Room and Finale

 

Artists

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
Nicholas Buc conductor
Art of the Score hosts
MSO Chorus
Warren Trevelyan-Jones chorus director

[Bryant Burnette 782]

That'd be worth going to hear.

[crumbs 15,888]

Well this is annoying, it's sold out

[Quppa 424]

Last night's concert was wonderful - adroitly hosted by Andrew Pogson (@PoggoAOTS) and Dan Golding and conducted by Nicholas Buc (hosts of the Art of the Score podcast), I think it was the best standalone presentation of John Williams' music I've had the pleasure of attending thanks to the quality of playing and the varied repertoire. It was also great value, lasting almost 3 hours (including the interval). The hall was full - excellent turnout on a very cold first day of winter in Melbourne.

 

It would have been great to include a performance of the new Obi-Wan suite or TROS, but I guess that would be hoping for too much.

 

The full programme ended up being the following (additions in bold):

 

Superman: March

Peter Gunn (excerpt)
Fiddler on the Roof (excerpts) by Jerry Bock arr. Williams

The Mission (excerpt)

DreamWorks logo theme (harp replacing guitar)
Call of the Champions (the Official Theme of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games) (with chorus)

The Cowboys overture (excerpt)
Jaws: The Shark Theme

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (various 5 note permutations on different instruments)
Raiders of the Lost Ark: March

Love theme medley (arr. Nicholas Buc): Marion's Theme (excerpt, solo tuba), Princess Leia's Theme (excerpt, solo viola), Han Solo and the Princess (excerpt, solo timpani), Across the Stars (excerpt), Stars Wars (Main Title) (excerpt, brass section), The Imperial March (excerpt, brass section), The Raiders March (excerpt, brass section), Theme from Superman (excerpt, brass section), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (excerpt)
Star Wars: A New Hope: Princess Leia’s Theme
Home Alone: Somewhere In My Memory (with chorus)
Jurassic Park: Theme (with chorus)

 

Interval

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: Duel of the Fates (with chorus)
Schindler’s List: Theme (the anecdote delivered by Nicholas Buc)
Saving Private Ryan: Hymn to the Fallen (with chorus)
Catch Me If You Can: Closing In (solo saxophone, vibraphone, double bass)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: The Knight Bus
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Double Trouble (with chorus)

Flying themes medley: Hedwig's Theme (excerpt), Flying (E.T.) (excerpt), Buckbeak's Flight (excerpt)
Hook: Flight to Neverland
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: The Asteroid Field
Star Wars: A New Hope: Throne Room and Finale

 

Encore: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: The Imperial March

Encore: Star Wars: A New Hope: Cantina Band #1

[Tom 6,395]

How were the medleys?

 

Cantina Band--particularly the over the top concert arrangment, is a perfect way to end a celebratory concert.  

[Quppa 424]

The medleys were fun -  half 'meet the orchestra' and half illustrating how the same musical features appear across the various love themes and flying themes.

[crumbs 15,888]

Well I was on the standby list but never heard back, so guess I won't be attending this

 

My own fault for forgetting to buy tickets when they went on sale. Sounds like it was a great concert!

 

It was clearly successful, maybe they'll consider further concerts later in the year.

[Quppa 424]

It's very encouraging that they sold out 2 concerts and shows there's a market beyond the (also successful) LTP performances. As much as I'd personally enjoy seeing celebratory concerts for composers like Thomas Newman, Michael Giacchino, John Powell, Clint Mansell or Alexandre Desplat, I suspect only Williams and Zimmer (and Joe Hisaishi, who has toured here twice) have the popularity to shift ~5,000 (not cheap) tickets.

[crumbs 15,888]

Especially after the last few years, must be great for the MSO to be back performing concerts in front of a capacity crowd. Our city is alive again!

 

Here's hoping they can squeeze a few more performances in towards the end of the year. NGL, pretty gutted I missed this

[Jay 45,153]

14 hours ago, Quppa said:

Love theme medley

 

cool!

 

14 hours ago, Quppa said:

(arr. Nicholas Buc): Marion's Theme (excerpt, solo tuba), Princess Leia's Theme (excerpt, solo viola), Han Solo and the Princess (excerpt, solo timpani), Across the Stars (excerpt),

 

Nice!

 

14 hours ago, Quppa said:

Stars Wars (Main Title) (excerpt, brass section), The Imperial March (excerpt, brass section), The Raiders March (excerpt, brass section), Theme from Superman (excerpt, brass section), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (excerpt)

 

.... what?

[igger6 1,031]

This sounds amazing! @PoggoAOTS, any chance we'll get a follow-up podcast, with or without excerpts?  I've missed hearing you guys lately! 

[PoggoAOTS 94]

36 minutes ago, igger6 said:

This sounds amazing! @PoggoAOTS, any chance we'll get a follow-up podcast, with or without excerpts?  I've missed hearing you guys lately! 

We’re really trying to get our schedules to line up. Stay tuned (and sorry!)

[Quppa 424]

Re-purposing this thread - the MSO just announced John Williams: Sounds of Cinema with 4 performances in October, hosted again by the Art of the Score team.

Program

Act 1

• Superman: March
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Excerpts
• Schindler's List: Remembrances
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: Parade of the Slave Children
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra
• Far and Away: Suite

Act 2

• Jurassic Park: The Lost World: Theme
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Witches, Wands and Wizards
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: A Window to the Past
• Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: Anakin's Theme
• Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back: Imperial March
• E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial: Adventures on Earth

....and more surprises!

[crumbs 15,888]

The Lost World and Window to the Past, two of my all-time favourite JW concert suites! Fantastic set list!

 

Definitely checking this out, thanks for the heads up @Quppa!

[Quppa 424]

I went to this tonight (the second of four performances) and it was of course excellent. In addition to the above set list - already fairly deep cuts as far as these things go - there were various other rarities and arrangements included:

• Lost in Space theme (followed by a quick mash-up with that hyperspace cue with the descending trumpet lines from Return of the Jedi).
• Amazing Stories theme.
• Some excerpts of the A and B themes from the Raiders March (I think cues directly from the score - the MSO is doing LTP concerts of Raiders again in January).
• A few cues from A New Hope showcasing Luke's Theme in different contexts.
• An arrangement with various villain themes illustrating different keys, including the droid march from TPM (now I want an LTP of the prequels even more), Smee's Plan (@PoggoAOTS I think called this Hook's theme, tsk tsk) and the major key version of the Imperial March from Solo.
• Anakin's Theme and the Imperial March were joined together in a single performance with a bit of Anakin's Betrayal from ROTS in between - really well done.
• Amblin Entertainment logo (leading into Adventures on Earth).
• Star Wars Main Title as the only encore.

 

I must admit I wasn't familiar with the concert arrangements of The Lost World and A Window to the Past - both were somewhat different to the OST recordings (already concert arrangements, I thought).

[igger6 1,031]

Sounds like an amazing show. My first instinct is to be jealous of the Aussies for getting something like this, but as the odds of JW himself making it down to Australia for a concert are fairly remote, having these erudite and dynamic Williams-lovers as hometown boys Down Under seems like a fair deal. Keep up the great work!

[The Score Cleaner 9,525]

On 18/10/2024 at 7:23 AM, Quppa said:

 A Window to the Past - both were somewhat different to the OST recordings (already concert arrangements, I thought).

Window to the Past on the OST is just construct from film cues edited together IIRC.

[Holko 11,897]

Only partly! The intro is unique, then it goes into the Credits, then Woods Walk, then Lupin's Transformation Overlay.

[The Score Cleaner 9,525]

8 minutes ago, Holko said:

Only partly! The intro is unique, then it goes into the Credits, then Woods Walk, then Lupin's Transformation Overlay.

The intro is just an isolated version of the recorder from one of the film cues is it not?

 

[Holko 11,897]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that part of the investigation. But I can't remember what we ended up on or find the bit that sounds like it.

[Jay 45,153]

On 18/10/2024 at 7:23 AM, Quppa said:

I must admit I wasn't familiar with the concert arrangements of The Lost World and A Window to the Past - both were somewhat different to the OST recordings (already concert arrangements, I thought).

 

The track called "The Lost World" on the Lost World OST or LLL edition(s) is indeed a concert arrangement of the theme, though technically its both that and what he wrote for the end credits.

 

 

After recording it, he updated the opening of it THREE more times, so there's a total of FOUR versions!

 

The first revised opening happened almost right away, while they were still recording cues for the film, so it was recorded then.  It was put into the end credits of the film itself, and also opens the track "The Lost World (Alternate)" on the LLL edition(s).

 

 

The next revised opening also happened only a short time later.  It is what got published as the official "The Lost World" track that can be played by orchestras, and Williams himself debuted it in concert in London in 1998.  This version is what Erich Kunzel used for his recording:

 

 

Some years later, Williams revised the opening again.  This 4th opening can be heard in the FSO recording:

 

 

I would assume this is the opening you heard at your concert -- I haven't heard of a fifth opening existing, at least!

 

~

 

The track called "A Window To The Past" on the Azkaban OST album is actually an assembly of various different recordings from the Azkaban film scoring sessions.  It's this, specifically:

• 0:00-1:04 (1:04) = (unknown number and name) - A unique recorder solo, potentially recorded specifically for the album
• 1:04-2:28 (1:24) = 7M12 End Credits - just a portion of the full cue (which can be heard in its entirely in the OST track "Mischief Managed")
• 2:28-3:26 (0:58) = 4M3-4NN Woods Walk and Birds Flight - just a portion of the full cue (which can be heard in its entirety in the LLL track "A Walk in the Woods and Bird’s Flight")
• 3:26-end (0:32) = 7M2 Insert - this presents the Insert on its own (you can hear the insert integrated into the 7M2 cue as intended in the OST/LLL track "Lupin’s Transformation")

 

Williams did eventually compose a proper concert arrangement of this theme, but it wasn't recorded at the Azkaban scoring sessions so probably only came about later when prepping the Azkaban suite for concerts.  This arrangement has been recorded by the City of Prague orchestra, and probably others.

 

 

I'd assume that arrangement is what you heard at your concert.

 

~

 

Incidentally, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull went through the same exact thing as both of these scores.  The track "Irina's Theme" on the soundtrack album is actually just bits of 3 cues edited together.

• 0:00-0:41 is from 1M4NR Irina Spalko
• 0:41-2:00 is from 7M56 End Credit
• 2:00-end is from 3M28 Russians Reappear

He later wrote out a proper arrangement of her theme, also titled "Irina's Theme", and debuted it live in concert that summer.

 

 

Luckily, that finally got a good recording released earlier this year

 

 

~

 

Also incidentally, this process of making a de facto concert arrangement by editing bits of film cues together is something Williams' has done for most of his career.  For Superman, for example, the track titled "Theme From Superman (Main Title)" on the OST album is actually bits of 3 film cues edited together

• 0:00-0:25 is from New 1M1 Main Title Part 1
• 0:25-4:13 is from End Title
• 4:13-end is from New 1M1 Pt 2 Main Title Pt. 2

 

This edit was so popular it was immediately written down and published as "Theme From Superman" to be played in concerts, and Williams himself recorded it in 1980 with the Boston Pops for his first Philips/Pops album

 

 

And of course the year prior, the track "Main Title" on the Star Wars album is really the main title cue combined with the end credits, and that combo was immediately recreated on paper and performed in concerts that way too...

[Once 1,042]

Quality post, @Jay!

[crumbs 15,888]

4 hours ago, Jay said:

I'd assume that arrangement is what you heard at your concert.

 

4 hours ago, Jay said:

I would assume this is the opening you heard at your concert; I haven't heard of a fifth opening existing, at least!

 

Correct and correct!

 

Incidentally, The Lost World sounds absolutely brilliant live! What a shame (especially for the percussionists!) that it never gets performed, because that rumbling bass is fantastic in the concert hall!

 

Doubly disheartening that they didn't bother including it on the last Spielberg compilation album, either.

 

So to whoever had the brilliant idea of including this in the latest concert  @PoggoAOTS, my sincere thanks!