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From 1977 to 1983 John Williams worked the London Symphony Orchestra a LOT - Star Wars IV-VI, Superman, Dracula, Raiders, etc.
So when I saw The Temple of Doom I was surprised Williams did not re-team with the LSO. I get that Williams’ next few movies were American subjects (The River, Spacecamp, Witches Of Eastwick) so it was natural to record them in America. But he recorded Empire Of The Sun in America too (despite its epic dimensions which would seem an obvious project for big world class orchestra).
Subsequent Spielberg movies with "overseas" settings, like Last Crusade and Schindler’s List - also done in America. Maybe Spielberg likes to keep things "local", but Williams recorded Far And Away and Seven Years In Tibet in LA too. Even Angela’s Ashes - made in Ireland by an English director - had its score recorded in LA.
Of course the LSO recorded the Star Wars prequels - but this was obviously George Lucas’ decision, not Williams - and he recorded episodes 7-9 in LA. Williams recorded Harry Potter in London - but not with the LSO . And the LSO did record Chamber of Secrets - which was conducted by William Ross, not John Williams.
So was there some kind of “falling out” between Williams and the LSO, which made him, or them (or both) reluctant to work together? It's just always seemed odd to me, that Williams had this very fruitful relationship with one of the world’s greatest orchestras (whose work he praised in the liner notes for Monsignor) - then abruptly stopped after Jedi.
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This subject of what appears to be a random usage of the LSO really has nothing to do with personal preferences, this all boils down to MONEY.
For a long time it was much more economical to do virtually everything in film production in the UK. But there's also something that is often forgotten or thoroughly discounted: The requirements of the UK's Eady Levy. The Eady Levy gave production companies substantial payouts (up to $500,000US) for film productions that were “substantially British.” And until 1985, when Thatcher did away with the Eady Levy, there were strict qualification requirements on using workers from the UK in ALL aspects of film production. (side-note: one of the last Eady films was NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN which received $363,000)
Exceptions were made for Americans working on qualifying “British” films, but recording a score outside the UK was out of the question. This is where the LSO and the NPO come in.
I did a bunch of research on this subject in my book Simians & Serialism because PLANET OF THE APES was originally approved on the basis of a large chunk of money they were to receive from producing the film in the UK (which would have left both director Franklin J. Schaffner and composer Goldsmith out of the mix). Since they did it here in the US instead, they sacrificed the $$$ they would have gotten from the British Government. (It worked out okay in the end for Apes, Schaffner and Goldsmith).
The Goldsmith scored film THE CHAIRMAN (1969) was an Eady Levy film and originally Richard Rodney Bennett was recommended by Goldsmith to do the job. When he proved unavailable and there wound up being enough leeway in their Eady percentage, Goldsmith was brought on to do the job (and taken off a major Warner Brothers film he was “lent” out to do and someone else wrote a Oscar nominated score). However, not only was THE CHAIRMAN recorded in the UK with British musicians, all the orchestrators and copyists were also British—so as not to jeopardize their Eady $$$.
Pictures like STAR WARS, SUPERMAN-THE MOVIE, ALIEN and a bunch of others scored by John Williams & Jerry Goldsmith were performed and recorded in the UK to stay within the parameters of the Eady Levy. Beyond 1985, it was just a matter of economics for the production company producing a film as to where it was recorded.
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As far as Williams' preferences, seeing as he began in Hollywood as a session player (and his brother Don is still a session player) he probably feels a loyalty to the musicians in Los Angeles (for whom overseas recording is detrimental to their livelihood). Beyond that, Williams may also simply find it inconvenient to travel all the way to London to record a score (when the LA players do just as good a job).
Williams has also expressed his enormous fondness for the acoustics of the old MGM (now Sony) scoring stage, and it is clearly his preferred venue.
A lot of composers were recording overseas during the mid-late 80s (remember how every Goldsmith score seemed be recorded in Budapest -- even Hoosiers!) but Williams appeared to have been exempt from this. Spielberg's clout was likely a factor.
Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman both live in America (and traveling is more difficult for Perlman) so recording Schindler's List, Seven Years in Tibet and Memoirs of a Geisha in the US was easier for the soloists.
As far as his later work with the London Symphony, as Elmo mentioned, Williams no doubt acquiesced to George Lucas' wish to use the LSO for the Star Wars prequels, owing to "tradition". In the case of Harry Potter, I recall that JK Rowling stipulated the Potter films had to be produced in the UK when she sold Warner Bros. the film rights.
I admit though, it is curious that of Williams' three Harry Potter scores, the only one the LSO recorded was the one that Williams didn't conduct.
Oh, and Williams recorded his Bassoon concerto, "The Five Sacred Trees" with the LSO in 2006.
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Oh, and Williams recorded his Bassoon concerto, "The Five Sacred Trees" with the LSO in 2006.
it was 1996
Oh, 1996. Decades start to blur after a while for us immortals. 
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