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Posted: |
Aug 21, 2004 - 4:42 PM
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By: |
dogplant
(Member)
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Is anyone going to the John Williams concert at the Hollywood Bowl, August 27 and 28? I've left it 'til the last minute and some of the best seats are sold out, but after losing some of our heroes lately, I am finding myself filled with an urge to get a live fix of one of the greats, and Johnny always puts on a great show.
The theme of the concert is 'Olympic Fever,' and hence JW's 'Olympic Fanfare,' 'Olympic Spirit' and 'Call of the Champions' seem to be on the playlist, with Leonard Bernstein's 'Olympic Hymn' and Michael Torke's 'Javelin.' They are also promising a selection of JW's concert repertoire: 'Star Wars', 'Raiders,' 'Jaws,' 'Amistad,' 'Superman,' plus 'Hedwig's Theme,' 'Double Trouble' and 'Bridge to the Past' from 'Harry Potter' -- if I am interpreting the program notes correctly. I believe Alfred Newman's 'Wuthering Heights,' 'The Reivers' and 'The Cowboys' will 'be in there, too.
More details here:
http://www.hollywoodbowl.com/tix/performance_detail.cfm?id=1721
Anyone?
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olympic fever is an awful title. Boooooooo!
He should write an olympic theme that is completely Contrabassoon with Eb Clarinets playing the harmony as high as possible.
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Perhaps not as funny as it would have been in another time, but still very funny! Thanks, niklos.
Well, I thought it said Williams ON the Bowl and figured it was some kind of joke thread. Composing his own symphonies. . .
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Posted: |
Aug 29, 2004 - 5:09 PM
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By: |
dogplant
(Member)
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Let us know how the concert went guys!?
The concert was fantastic, and I have a little hangover to prove it. Being at the Hollywood Bowl, it was one of the few places you are legally allowed to drink in public in Los Angeles, so my friend and I brought a bottle of wine each and food, and we drank everything. Sorry, Hector, if you tried to find me!
The first half of the evening was Olympic in theme but, after 'The Star Spangled Banner,' Johnny opened with "The Cowboys" overture, which was a nice surprise. Also being at the Bowl we had the requisite couple of LAPD helicopters buzzing by once or twice, but it the LA Philharmonic mostly blasted them away and played well, accompanied in quite moments my several thousand crickets and, lining the back of the dome, the Cal State Fullerton singers, who provided the 'Spiritus, Speeditus' et cetera for Johnny's Olympic Anthem. A bunch of Olympian medal winners and a lady running around with a flaming torch made an appearance as Johnny played all of his own Olympic themes, plus Leonard Bernstein's and an interesting piece called 'Javelin' composed for the 1996 Olympics by the young composer Michael Torke, who was featured on the Boston Pops Olympic Album "Summon the Heroes" -- a typically eclectic and boisterous Williams touch, showing Johnny's love for 20th Century composers:
http://www.michaeltorke.com/
The second half opened with the Bowl going icy blue accompanying the opening bars the 'The Planet Krypton' from "Superman." I've seen Johnny play his Superman suite in concert before, but I've never heard him open with this arrangement and it gave me goosebumps. It was interesting that a smattering of aficionados (myself included) recognized it instantly and erupted in applause, followed by the rest of the audience a minute or so later as the colors in the Bowl changed to blue and red and Supey theme kicked in. I guess it takes some people a while to realize what they're listening to.
And there was a lot of spontaneous applause in the concert, particularly as Johnny announced his next suite, a selection of music from "Azkaban" -- three cues blended into one suite, which I am sure included music not in the commercially available release. There was 'Double Trouble' and 'A Window to the Past' as promised but another couple of cues I don't remember the names of. I was too entranced to take notes. 'A Window to the Past' had me floating above my body. All of this is from memory, so I may be getting the order of play mixed up here.
The Cal State singers next did a rendition of 'Dry Your Tears Afrika' from "Amistad," which I had not heard live before. They also played a beautiful rendition of 'Kathy's Theme' from Alfred Newman's "Wuthering Height" who Johnny referred to as his old boss. Without any introduction needed, the Bowl was then switched into golden light and they launched right into the 'End Title' cue from "Raiders," complete with a gorgeous rendition of 'Marion's Theme.' Needless to say, it did not take many notes for the audience to recognize this one.
It was then 10:30 p.m. and they wrapped it up after playing for nearly two hours. No "Reivers" or "Jaws," which I had thought the program notes implied (it was difficult to tell). But then Johnny came back for encores, as he always does, the great showman that he is. First up was 'Flying' from "E.T." -- because he knew I was going to be there, I think. We did not let him go that easily, so he then came back, the Bowl went green and he played a beautiful rendition of 'Yoda's Theme" dedicated to the little 800 year old Jedi. As soon as he announced this, there was a wild cheering and whooping from the cheap seats and everybody turned and laughed to see a forest of glowing lightsabers waving about in the crowd. They swung about through Yoda's theme, the place went wild, Johnny came back out again and then, without introduction, the Bowl went deep crimson RED and they blasted 'The Imperial March' from "Empire" -- it was FAN-TASTIC (and gave me shivers to think what we might be in for with "Revenge of the Sith"). Johnny walked off, then came back out for a FOURTH encore, hopped back onto the podium and let it rip with the "Star Wars" main theme, as we all knew or hoped he would. After this, he gave his 'time for bed' gesture with his hands pressed together on one side of his head, everybody laughed, exit maestro stage left and the lights came up.
It was a brilliant evening. I was so glad I went. I took a few pictures, just to grab a few blurry images of the stage lit up, but even though there were giant size video screens all around the auditorium, I could not take my eyes off that little figure in the white tux, center stage. It's such a privilege to see this guy performing live. He really knows how to put on a show and his music means more to me than any other composer. God bless Johnny Williams.
Yub Nub!
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Posted: |
Sep 9, 2004 - 1:25 AM
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By: |
Hector
(Member)
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My humble review :blush:
===============================================
This time with a chorus behind the orchestra, the concert began as John Williams entered the stage from the left side, as always, waves to the crowd, takes the podium and conducts the National Anthem. The chorus that accompanies the Los Angeles Philharmonic this time is the Cal State Fullerton University Singers.
Wasting no time, John Williams leads the orchestra in his own Cowboys Overture. This year, with the new shell that has improved acoustics and is noticeably bigger, they have also added four big video screens with cameras placed in strategic places so we can see the action up close, including a shot of Williams from the front side so you could see his facial expressions that included one of intense force directed at the chorus during Leonard Bernstein's "Olympic Hymn" which made people laugh.
After the Overture, Mr. Williams introduced 30 Olympians from southern California winners of medals ranging from Mexico City 1968 to as recent as a couple of days back in Athens. He then welcomed Bruce Jenner, a Decathlon gold medalist in the 1976 Montréal games and now a motivational speaker. Mr. Jenner introduced some of the Olympians and talk of his experience at the games. Then they had their own arrival of the Olympic flame and brought a woman who apart from being an Olympic medalist, is also a firefighter. As the flame came, Williams began conducting Arnaud's "Bugler's Dream" followed by his own Olympic Fanfare and Theme from the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984 as it appears on the Sony Classical album "Summon the Heroes", as the athletes made their way out. Also from this CD were the following three selections:
Michael Torke's "Javelin", Williams' own Olympic Spirit and Bernstein's "Olympic Hymn". Torke's piece sounded fantastic, though some parts sounded different, I couldn't say exactly what was different. "Olympic Spirit" was performed with film of clips from the summer games. This piece I have always liked, and always saw it as the march it is, one of action and lightheartedness, but when listening it live it sounded to me more like a beautiful hymn, which could have lyrics, really. Bernstein's piece, which is a hymn was wonderfully performed by both orchestra and chorus, I hope I can hear this piece with a live orchestra again.
To conclude the first part of the program, Mr. Williams conducted his own Call to the Champions written for the Salt Lake 2002 winter games. This was shown with video excerpts of winter games. This time the chorus didn't shine as brilliantly as they did in the Bernstein piece, nonetheless it was great to hear this piece live again.
The second half of the program opened with something that I have never even thought I would hear: the music of "The Planet Krypton". Basically, this was the march from Superman, but instead of the piece opening with the famous brass fanfare that the concert piece is famous for, Williams opened it with the whole part of the arrival to Krypton scene from the first movie, then moving to the section that follows the opening brass from the original concert piece. The opening trumpet that carries the Krypton motif was recieved with an enthusiastic applause, for me personally, a highlight of the whole concert.
Next we move to Potter country, in which four selections from the Harry Potter films we played. Actually, the selections were three from the recent Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which were played in this order: a piece called "Witches, Wands and Wizards" or something in that form, a wonderful piece with much action writing and a pizzicato section that reminded me of "Nocturnal Activities" from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Next was the choral "Double Trouble", the text based on a witches song from Shakespeare's "Macbeth" and "A Window to the Past", a sort of reflective
song from the third film also. To close the Potter section, Williams conducted "Harry's Wondrous World" from the first film. The concert version appears in the soundtrack from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
"Dry Your Tears, Afrika" from Steven Spielberg's Amistad was performed wonderfully and the chorus sounded great again. Williams made a gesture a couple of times of putting his left hand around his left ear as saying "I can't hear you", I guess, so the chorus would sing louder. Every year at the Bowl Williams displays the beautiful and delicate sound of Bing Wang's violin, the concertmistress for the summer concerts of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, this time Williams selected "Cathy's Theme" from "Wuthering Heights" by Alfred Newman. To end the concert Williams conducted a rousing rendition of his "Raiders March" from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Mr. Williams returned to conduct four encores, "Flying" from E.T., "Yoda's Theme", "The Imperial March" and the main theme from the original Star Wars trilogy. The concert which was titled "Olympic Fever" at the end left me feeling as I had come out of "Star Wars Fever". The one thing that left me puzzled was the fact that none of the selections before the Star Wars theme managed to get standing ovations as in previous years, but at last Williams did get one, but the night had been so long that everyone wanted to go and rest and that's the way Williams ends his concerts, with the "gotta go to sleep" sign, and with that another wonderful evening with John Williams and the Los Angeles Philharmonic ended.
===============================================
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