Was the 20th Anniversary Premiere of E.T. - The Extra-Terrestrial the only time John Williams conducted an entire score of his at a “concert”?

[Davis 3,957]

It must’ve been an amazing experience watching E.T. with Williams conducting the orchestra live to picture. I wonder if he ever did it before or after. I wish he had, just imagine watching Empire Strikes Back or Superman or Raiders like that. Wow. 

[Jay 45,837]

I think it is... nothing else is coming to mind at least.

[QuartalHarmony 992]

…and is the DVD SE the only commercially available recording of it? It has some audience noise, but otherwise sounds good.

 

Wasn’t it also the occasion when Ralph Grierson unfortunately injured himself at rehearsals?

[Holko 12,021]

Yep, that's when he had the career-ending wrist injury, I just got to that legacy of JW episode the other week.

[bollemanneke 4,321]

Huh, had no idea there was a recordingo f that. Must check it out.

[Edmilson 12,244]

Actually I think it was one of the only occasions where a composer conducted his own score in a live-to-picture concert start to finish. James Horner was supposed to conduct the premiere of Titanic LTP but it didn't happen so Ludwig Wicki took the baton.

 

I wonder what JW thought of the experience. Maybe he didn't like it so that's why it didn't happen again?

[Marian Schedenig 11,611]

18 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

I wonder what JW thought of the experience. Maybe he didn't like it so that's why it didn't happen again?

 

I doubt he outright disliked it - he has after all habitually conducted isolated scenes from various films in his concerts. But maybe he didn't feel like spending more full concerts on the concept at the expense of the other music standing on its own.

[Xander Harris 9,577]

8 hours ago, QuartalHarmony said:

…and is the DVD SE the only commercially available recording of it? It has some audience noise, but otherwise sounds good.

 

Yes, it was only an optional audio track on the DVD of the 20th Anniversary version, and can never be featured on any other hypothetical release that doesn't feature the 2002 edition. That's been all of them since. I'd like to see that version released, but Spielberg likes to be the anti-Lucas with Special Editions. I can understand him wanting to forget that version exists since the reissue was a flop and E.T. became culturally irrelevant. I watched it twice alone in empty theaters. Really? Nobody else wants to see this? I liked the CGI.

[Tom 6,677]

3 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Actually I think it was one of the only occasions where a composer conducted his own score in a live-to-picture concert start to finish. James Horner was supposed to conduct the premiere of Titanic LTP but it didn't happen so Ludwig Wicki took the baton.

 

I wonder what JW thought of the experience. Maybe he didn't like it so that's why it didn't happen again?

I think this was before the LTP (though I could be wrong).  Might this be the first time an entire score was played live like this?  

[mahler3 548]

After the full performance (bearing in mind there was no intermission) he was visibly exhausted if you watch the behind the scenes featurette.

[Rachael Foley 10,032]

2 hours ago, Tom said:

I think this was before the LTP (though I could be wrong).  Might this be the first time an entire score was played live like this?  

Uh... You mean besides the silent film era?

[mrbellamy 8,082]

In that case maybe one of the first "talkies" to do it lol. It was the first time for a John Williams score, yes?

 

Talking of silents, Carmine Coppola premiered a new score to Francis's restoration of Napoleon at Radio City Music Hall in 1981, and I think toured it.

[JWScores 128]

8 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Actually I think it was one of the only occasions where a composer conducted his own score in a live-to-picture concert start to finish. 

 

 

The only other occasion that comes to mind is when Don Davis conducted The Matrix. 

 

As far as I know, E.T. was the first LTP concert ever. Shortly afterwards, the concept was applied to one or two film scores by Prokofiev (I don't remember if the first one treated in this way was Ivan the Terrible, or Alexander Nevsky). Then, all the others followed. I think "The Matrix" was also among the first modern scores to be given the LTP treatment, but it was certainly a few years after E.T. .

 

 

 

 

[mrbellamy 8,082]

This article says the Ravinia Festival Orchestra performed Alexander Nevsky to picture in 1991, and City Lights in 1992. Might not have been the first performance for either. 

[Davis 3,957]

10 hours ago, Edmilson said:

 

I wonder what JW thought of the experience. Maybe he didn't like it so that's why it didn't happen again?

I think conducting a score in synch with the picture for two hours, even with intermission was too strenuous for him to do it regularly. The other, more important reason might be his other obligations for concerts where he could conduct excerpts from his entire oeuvre, not just one score. Why “waste” a concert for one score when you can conduct pieces from more than a dozen, I guess.

 

Too bad, because these LTP concerts would’ve been extraordinary events. 

[BachSkywalker 210]

I saw a performance of "Alexander Nevsky" LTP with the San Antonio Symphony and chorus in the early 90's. So it seems this kind of thing had been done a little bit before Williams' E.T. performance in 2002.  

[E-Wan 69]

According to this article the first live performance of a score to picture was in 1987 when the Andre Previn-conducted Los Angeles Philharmonic played Prokofiev’s music to 1938 classic Alexander Nevsky.

[JWScores 128]

2 hours ago, BachSkywalker said:

I saw a performance of "Alexander Nevsky" LTP with the San Antonio Symphony and chorus in the early 90's. So it seems this kind of thing had been done a little bit before Williams' E.T. performance in 2002.  

 

14 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

This article says the Ravinia Festival Orchestra performed Alexander Nevsky to picture in 1991, and City Lights in 1992. Might not have been the first performance for either. 

 

I stand corrected.

 

The reason why I thought Nevsky happened later is that I had in my mind the approximate date when the reconstruction by Frank Strobel (based on the original manuscripts) was made. Indeed, that one is from 2003. What was played LTP in the 1990s was probably William Brohn's reconstruction, which was based on the score of the cantata plus a transcription by ear from the film soundtrack. That one was recorded by Temirkanov in 1995, so the dates match.

 

 

[E-Wan 69]

8 minutes ago, E-Wan said:

According to this article the first live performance of a score to picture was in 1987 when the Andre Previn-conducted Los Angeles Philharmonic played Prokofiev’s music to 1938 classic Alexander Nevsky.

 

Here is even review of that performance.