Classic Ross Amico

Tag: John Williams

Olympic Music Annoyances Jim McKay and More

In my memory, Jim McKay will always be the voice of the Olympics, but I wish he and Peter Jennings would shut the hell up during this performance of John Williams’ now-iconic “Olympic Fanfare and Theme,” presented for the first time at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games.

What is wrong with television commentators? They do this kind of thing all the time. As if the network is terrified that anyone watching might be bored or understimulated if they aren’t subjected to constant chatter.

I’ve been trying to find information on who might have contributed music to the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, but all I’m coming up with is a lot of brouhaha about a new Olympic song featuring actor-singer Zeng Shunxi, journalist Lu Binqi, and Chinese rap group CD Rev. If you find this inspiring, more power to you. I doubt very much it’s what they’ll be listening to on Mount Olympus.

February 4, 2022
Dale Clevenger Legendary Hornist Dies at 81

Legendary hornist Dale Clevenger has died. Clevenger played for the American Symphony Orchestra (under Leopold Stokowski) and the Kansas City Philharmonic (where he was principal), before finding a permanent roost with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He served as principal there from 1966 to 2013. Music directors and principal conductors during that time included Jean Martinon, Sir Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim, Bernard Haitink (who died in October), and Riccardo Muti.

Clevenger shared a Grammy Award with his colleagues in the brass sections of the Chicago Symphony and Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, for their now-classic 1968 collaboration “The Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli.”

In 2003, he gave the world premiere of John Williams’ Horn Concerto. He was also acclaimed for his performances of Mozart and Richard Strauss.

Clevenger died yesterday in Italy. He was 81 years old.

In Strauss’ “Till Eulenspiegel”

From Mahler’s Fifth Symphony

Playing Haydn

Benjamin Britten’s “Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings”

Grammy-winning Gabrieli

An interview with Bruce Duffie

http://www.bruceduffie.com/clevenger.html

January 6, 2022
John Williams on PBS Tonight Star Wars Throwback

To get you in the mood for tonight’s broadcast of John Williams’ Violin Concerto No. 2, on PBS’ “Great Performances,” here’s a throwback to Williams conducting selections from “Star Wars,” on “Previn and the Pittsburgh” (aired on March 26, 1978) – back when “Star Wars” was still fresh, and back when PBS was still PBS.

Interesting to find that Williams had already done considerable tinkering in his concert arrangement of the “Throne Room and End Title” music. It was perfect in the movie, John! A lot of vim in the performance, though. The diptych opens with “Princess Leia’s Theme.”

Anne-Sophie Mutter – the former Mrs. Previn – will be the soloist on tonight’s broadcast of the Violin Concerto No. 2, again with Williams conducting. The concert was filmed at Tanglewood in July. The program will also feature Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, performing music by Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, and Jesse Montgomery.

The show airs here at 9:00 PM EST. Consult your local listings. You’ll find an interview and promos here:

Anne-Sophie Mutter Performs John Williams’ Violin Concerto

*** BONUS! ***

Previn interviews Williams in 1988 (pictured), and Williams is in an unusually candid mood. The two were old friends, of course, who had already known one another for 30 years. I’d never actually never seen it before, and it’s terrific. Maybe Williams’ best interview.

November 12, 2021
John Williams at 90 No Retirement Yet

John Williams will be 90 in February. He hasn’t composed a new film score since “Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker” in 2019. In fact, he kind of intimated at the time that he would be retiring, leaving the window open to future Spielberg projects, perhaps, and the odd opportunity that would be too good to refuse. Essentially, that’s the position he’s been in now for years anyway. When you’re John Williams, you can pretty much do what you want.

The lack of film projects certainly doesn’t mean he hasn’t kept busy. In fact, Williams seems to be as active as ever, with a full schedule of conducting engagements and recordings. In particular, he’s being seen everywhere with Anne-Sophie Mutter, touring his new Violin Concerto (No. 2) and assorted film themes arranged for violin and orchestra. The audio for the concerto, in its Tanglewood debut (which took place on July 24), was available briefly on YouTube – long enough for me to share the link and listen to it a couple of times – but, alas, it has since been taken down. Thankfully, it’s been recorded for commercial release on compact disc, which still has not been the case for too many of Williams’ other concert works.

If you’re interested and you haven’t heard it yet, PBS will be broadcasting the concert on “Great Performances” THIS FRIDAY EVENING AT 9:00 EST. Williams’ concerto will form the centerpiece of a program that will include Aaron Copland’s “Quiet City,” Igor Stravinsky’s “The Firebird Suite,” and Jesse Montgomery’s “Starburst,” with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons. Williams will conduct the concerto with Mutter as soloist. Check your local listings. You’ll find an interview and promos here:

Anne-Sophie Mutter Performs John Williams’ Violin Concerto

In other recording news, Williams has been in the studio with Yo-Yo Ma and guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas (for whom he composed his concert piece “Rounds”). I’m hoping it will result in an album of more concert music. I know new arrangements of the film themes are popular, but I always find those types of records to be a little kitschy. (Sorry, Morricone.) Why do I need movie themes arranged for cello or violin, when I can already enjoy them as written? Regardless of my preferences, the orchestra on the new recording, whatever it contains, will be the New York Philharmonic.

Williams was supposed to have begun scoring the latest Indiana Jones film – still being referred to simply as “Indy 5” – in the coming weeks, but now Disney has pushed the release date back a year, to 2023, to accommodate the crush of superhero movies that have been piling up, presumably, since the start of the pandemic. This means Williams may actually be scoring the film at the age of 90 or 91? Harrison Ford will be 81 at the time of the film’s new projected release date of June 30, 2023.

On the bright side, that will take some of the pressure off Williams’ commitment to score Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama, “The Fabelmans,” which will be released next year.

So, as he nears the end of his eighth decade, Williams is not just resting on his throne of gold, tabulating his mountains of royalties. It must be very rewarding indeed to be able to show up to packed houses all over the world and perform one’s own music to engaged listeners, paying top dollar to hear one conduct it. Well, he earned it. Have a great “retirement,” John Williams.

November 9, 2021
Howard Hanson Romantic Composer in Hollywood

Howard Hanson, you incurable Romantic, you.

For 40 years, you were director of the Eastman School of Music. You were the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in 1944, for your Symphony No. 4, “Requiem,” dedicated to the memory of your father.

You championed innumerable American composers, as conductor of the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra, an ensemble you founded. The lucky ones made it onto your now highly-collectible recordings for the Mercury label.

Undoubtedly, your best-known music is the Symphony No. 2, “Romantic,” composed in 1930. The trademark “Hanson sound” is one of heart-on-the-sleeve lyricism, with wistful melodies arrayed in lambent orchestration.

The Symphony No. 2 has been a great favorite in Hollywood, at least since the 1970s. How else would you have turned up in the end credits of “Alien” (1979), or been evoked in the bicycle chase and finale of “E.T.” (1982), or, most recently, been cribbed for “The Boss Baby” (2017)?

Romantic Hanson in “Alien”:

Hans Zimmer borrows for “The Boss Baby”:

John Williams’ most glorious music, for the last 15 minutes of “E.T.,” would not have been the same without your influence.

As it’s heard in the original:

“E.T.” is a brilliant score, but clearly Williams was a fan of your “Romantic Symphony.”

Happy birthday, Howard Hanson!

Romantic Symphony (complete)

Piano Concerto

“Elegy in Memory of Serge Koussevitzky”

Koussevitzky conducts Hanson’s Symphony No. 3

“Pastorale” for Oboe, Harp and Strings

Hanson conducts Henry Cowell’s Symphony No. 4, a recording that never made it to compact disc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOz9aAMFXI8

October 28, 2021

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