DG's new live recording of classic themes by John Williams is excellent, both sonically and interpretively. A few thoughts:
The arrangement of SCHERZO FOR MOTORCYCLE AND ORCHESTRA has been revised with new accents and flourishes throughout. Not hugely different but the changes are noticeable.
FAWKES THE PHOENIX has also been very slightly revised it seems to me.
MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA: SAYURI'S THEME is the same arrangement as the one featured in the Sony release of "Music of America: John Williams" which contained the entire Memoirs Suite (with Yo Yo Ma) in a compilation of previously released John Williams Sony recordings.
THE FORCE AWAKENS gets an "Adagio" which, as has been noted elsewhere, is a reworking and expansion of "The Starkiller" from the soundtrack.
I'm sure it's excellent, but my interest in JW compilations with the same ol' 'greatest hits' has diminished radically over the years, even if the performance is excellent and there are new arrangements. I think at this point, only compilations that include unreleased stuff would interest me (remember back in the days, when labels like Silva would include things like a long THE RARE BREED suite among their selections?).
That being said, I did get (digital versions of) the two compilations a couple of years ago -- the Spielberg/Williams III and Keith Lockhart album.
Agreed it would be nice to have more new material in these compilations, but I suspect the LA Phil wanted a cd of their own musicians playing these pieces and Williams had a say in selecting them. Also, the super collectors represented on this board are clearly not the audience they were pursuing.
That review is spot on. I liked the album and performance very much but still generally prefer Williams recordings in his Spielberg-Williams albums (I and III, not a big fan of II).
My dream would be that after his reported retirement from film scoring after Episode IX, Williams would dedicate to arrange long (like 30 to 40 min.) symphonic suites of some of his main scores (like Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky Cantata or Leonard Bernstein’s On The Waterfront), as he great on preparing concert versions extending his themes and creating bridges between different themes as he has shown on numerous end credits pieces
