John WILLIAMS (b. 1932)
John Williams in Vienna
The flight to Neverland (Hook) [5:15]
Close Encounters of the Third Kind - excerpts [7:47]
Devil's Dance* (The Witches of Eastwick) [5:51]
Adventures on Earth (E.T. - the Extra-terrestrial) [10:09]
Jurassic Park - Theme [6:03]
Dartmoor 1912 (Warhorse) [6:37]
Out to sea & The shark cage fugue (Jaws) [5:08]
Marion's Theme (Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark) [4:02]
Main Title (Star Wars: A New Hope) [6:25]
The rebellion is reborn (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) [4:34]
Luke & Leia (Star Wars: Return of the Jedi) [4:06]
The Imperial March (Star Wars: The Empire strikes back) [3:21]
Raider's March* ((Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark) [5:45]
Anne-Sophie Mutter* (violin)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/John Williams
rec. live, January 2020, Goldener Saal der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 483 6373 [75:01]
Although I am not a regular filmgoer, I have developed a taste for some film and TV Music, starting in my childhood many years ago with such scores as Legend of the Glass Mountain, Dream of Olwen, Exodus, Bonanza, The Magnificent Seven and the best of the lot, Rozsa’s Ben Hur. These all have at least two things in common: memorable themes and lush orchestration for a big orchestra.
For many years I lost interest, and it was only when RCA started to issue its famous film music series conducted by Charles Gerhardt, that I began to explore the genre. Coincidentally, I had just discovered Korngold via his Violin Concerto and Die Tote Stadt.
In 1977, Star Wars was released; soon John Williams’ striking music for it became widely known, and I recall being struck by its epic character. I also recall thinking that he was obviously familiar with Rozsa’s music for Ben Hur and also with the hyper-romantic orchestration techniques of Wagner, Richard Strauss and so on.
When you think about it, for the great bulk of the population who are not classical music devotees, their exposure to a full orchestra comes via TV adverts, series and films. Anyone who has listened to Classic FM whilst driving down a long motorway, will know that a significant number of people ask to hear “Lord of the Rings” or “The Hovis Bread Music”. The booklet notes remark that the audience in this concert was a motley bunch: dark suits and black evening dresses mingling with jeans and T-Shirts.
There has been a tendency for composers such as Korngold, who made the bulk of their living from film music, to have their compositions in more traditional genres such as symphonies and concertos dismissed by reviewers and concert promoters. This is now changing and one can hear Korngold quite regularly in the concert hall.
And so to this CD, in which John Williams himself conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in a live recording. I have often thought that one of Williams’ best melodies is the one that accompanies the first sight of a group of grazing brontosaurus in Jurassic Park. Here it is presented in a 7-minute extended sequence, and the Vienna Philharmonic play it sumptuously.
There are extended sequences from the Star Wars films: the famous main title from the first film, and selections from The Return of the Jedi, the Last Jedi and The Empire Strikes Back. All are performed with vigour and enthusiastic playing from the orchestra, who, I’m sure, are not at all familiar with these scores. The rather fulsome booklet enclosed in the gatefold sleeve describes how “the Philharmonic visibly and audibly enjoyed their foray into an unfamiliar genre”.
Most film-goers and concert-goers would probably not react particularly well to a piece described as sounding aleatoric or atonal, but we get something like that in the opening sequence of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, before the music transitions into the well-known theme.
I’m never very fond of fugues and Williams creates one for a sequence from Jaws, described as The Shark Cage Fugue. It is nervously aggressive, and, I suppose, serves the visual sequence well.
In what the booklet describes as a celebrity event, with fans assembling outside Williams’ hotel, star violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter performs an arrangement of The Devil’s Dance from The Witches of Eastwick, and also improvised along with the first violins in the final section of The Raiders March from Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The pieces played are extracted from a three-hour concert in the Musikverein and
for anyone interested in exploring these wide-ranging sequences from Williams’ music, this CD is excellent. Williams, just a few days from his 88th birthday, conducts with vigour, and must himself have decided upon the excerpts to be included. Interestingly, there is nothing from Harry Potter, and I recall reading that he considered the main theme from the first Potter film to be the most difficult film music for which he had had to find inspiration.
Jim Westhead
Previous review: Nick Barnard
