Whirlwind Adventure

Scratched Off The "To-Do Before You Die List"...

Die Frau and I just got back from Chicago this morning.

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

We saw John Williams conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra last night!

This was the program:

The Cowboys Overture
Excerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
War of the Worlds: "Escape from the city" and "Epilogue"
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Goldsmith)
Laura (David Raksin)
The Magnificent Seven Suite (Elmer Bernstein)
"Conquest" from Captain from Castile (Alfred Newman)

intermission

"Tribute to the Film Composer" arr. Williams
March from 1941
"Out to Sea/Shark Cage Fugue" from Jaws

Harry Potter Suite:
"Hedwig's Theme"
"Aunt Marge's Waltz"
"Harry's Wondrous World"

Star Wars Suite:
"The Imperial March"
"Anakin's Theme"
"Throne Room and End Title"

Encores (3):
"Luke and Leia"
The Mission Theme (for NBC Nightly News)
"Raiders March" from Raiders of the Lost Ark

Overall the performance was dynamite! The characteristic sound that has been cultivated in Chicago for the last 50 years is well-suited to play this particular music (read: gutsy and brassy). One of the real treats of the performance was the "Tribute to the Film Composer". I'm not sure if this is the same suite that he conducted at the Oscars though. It was entertaining because you would literally get snippets of pieces and by the time you figured it out (or your wife says, "It's Exodus you idiot") you're on to another theme. These are what I remember (I know there were more): Warner Bros. Logo Fanfare (Max Steiner), Casablanca ("As Time Goes By", though Steiner wrote the score), 20th Century Fox Fanfare (Alfred Newman), Star Wars (Williams), Patton (Goldsmith), Titanic (Horner), Psycho (Herrmann), Exodus (Ernest Gold), The Magnificent Seven (Elmer Bernstein), E.T. (Williams), Jaws (Williams), The Sea Hawk (Korngold), Dr. Zhivago (Maurice Jarre), Bridge on the River Kwai ("Colonel Bogey March - Kenneth J Alford, though the film's score was written by Malcolm Arnold), Gone with the Wind (Steiner), The Natural (Randy Newman), Out of Africa (John Barry), The Pink Panther (Henry Mancini). Conspicuously missing, I thought, were any works by Miklos Rozsa. It would have been nice to have a snippet of the "Parade of the Charioteers" from Ben-Hur.

One of the interesting things was tempo. Ordinarily, at least on his recordings of suites, themes, etc. Johnny is known for taking tempos a little on the slower side (just listen to "O fortuna" from Carmina Burana on the 1996 Olympics album or the Second movement of Hovhaness' Mysterious Mountain Symphony). But at this performance he took things at a bit more of a briskly. This was particularly true of the suite from The Magnificent Seven which he took at tempo di tear-ass. Faster, I think, than Bernstein's original score recording.

One of the really fun things for me was to "see" Johnny's orchestration at work for real. This was especially true in Close Encounters where there's a lot of modernist orchestral technique at play. To see/hear that in action was tremendous!

One of the most disappointing aspects of the performance was the celeste playing on "Hedwig's Theme". It was not as smooth as what we're accustomed to hearing on the recordings but the orchestra's performance of the theme was great. Also Dale Clevenger, who has been the principle horn with the CSO since the 1840s, nearly missed an entrance altogether in The Cowboys Overture and his solo sound on other peices was really stuffy. Come to think of it, I didn't like his sound back in 2000 when I saw Penderecki conduct his Seven Gates of Jerusalem symphony (which is an incredible piece) with the CSO. I guess the other disappointment was that Superman was conspicuously absent as well. That would have been nice to hear.

By the end of the performance it was clear that the brass players were becoming tired because there were wrong notes (but only to those of who are nerdy enough to know). There were a lot of clams in the Raiders March but it was the third encore(!) so I guess I'll cut the brass section a little slack.

For those that have never seen Mr. Williams conduct it's, um, interesting. It's kind of distracting at times to watch but it does, nevertheless, get the job done. Actually there were several gestures I was quite fond of and will probably attempt to incorporate into my own conducting vocabulary. I also liked the fact that he didn't cue every little entrance but gave attention to where he thought it was needed regardless of what was going on elsewhere in the orchestra.

It was also good to see the Pikey there and we compared a few notes about the individual performances. (Thanks for dessert at Bennigan's, too!)

Overall the performance was terrific and the one of the great experiences of a what really is a charmed life (I am, in fact, a really lucky guy). Ultimately it will be a great story for die Frau and I to tell our grandchildren. "That's right kids. We flew to Chicago and camped out in the airport overnight just so we could see John Williams (one of your granddad's heroes) conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra!" How's that for devotion? My wife is one of the most awesome people I know to do this with/for me.

Happy Birthday!

Other famous people born on this date include (besides me of course!):

Krzyzstof Penderecki (composer)
Johan de Meij (composer)
Oded Fehr (actor)
Charles Schumer (Senator - D - NY)
Manuel de Falla (composer)
Boris Karloff (actor)
Harpo Marx (brilliant)
Johnny Mandel (composer)

and of course...

My good friend Jedd Schneider (who is half the man he used to be!)

Jerry Fischer In Memoriam

Jerry Fischer was a friend of mine in grad school. He had just begun composition studies in my second year at Truman State. Jerry was a non-trad. He had made his living in software sales of a system that he had devised that took him all over the world. He was a family man who cared for his wife, children and elderly mother deeply. He was an organ player who rarely missed mass. He had decided, though, that it was time to return to school and study composition. So he drove in to Kirksville from Quincy, Illinois every Friday for his lessons and the composers master class. He was quiet, thoughtful, kind and always thoroughly engaged.

On this date two years ago Jerry was gunned down in his driveway by his business partner over a business disagreement. Later that year we performed his set for flute and piano based on his three cats on one of our composers concerts. It was an extremely emotional day as his family was there, too.

You're remembered Jerry.

The Goblet of Fire...

Well it's not John Williams (no one is) but Pat Doyle's score for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is pretty awesome. The score is energetic, exciting, dramatic (nearly to a fault...nearly) and brilliantly scored (kudos to his orchestrators). The most unbelieveable cue is "Voldemort" clocking in at just over 9 1/2 minutes and is an orchestral tour-de-force which covers, I assume, the entirety of Harry's confrontation with Voldemort during the competition. He only uses preexisting themes of John Williams' twice (at least on the album) and mercifully the three pop songs are at the end of the album and only consume 11 minutes of the CD's 76-minute running time. There's this quintessential British-ness about the score (which you would expect since JW was about the only non-British cast/crew member in the first three; the exceptions being the directors).

The Pikey and I have had conversations where the following has been the focal point: John Williams on a bad day is better than every other film composer on a good (or even great) day. That being said this is a terrific effort from Patrick Doyle (whose music I've admired all the way back to Henry V). Kudos to Mr. Doyle, this is a great score!

SNOW!!!

The first snow of the year has come and gone. Gigantic flakes. It was awesome. I don't really care for winter, but there's always something magical about the first snow of the year. Plus my office is in the corner on the top floor of the building. It was fun to watch.

Playlist 11/11/2005

Die Frau is out this evening. She's doing the school musical thing (no I'm not a terrible husband, I'm going Saturday night). Of course she's been doing this for about a month now so it's been a little rough not having her around in the evening.

So I thought I'd create myself a little playlist for the evening and sit down with a New Belgium Brewery Trippel (thanks to McIntire for introducing this one to me) and just do some listening.

So on the playlist

Kelly-Marie Murphy: Give Me Phoneix Wings to Fly for piano trio, 12'55
Henryk Gorecki: Totus Tuus for mixed chorus, 8'55
Peteris Vasks: Lauda for orchestra, 17'38
Henri Dutilleux: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, 27'00
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Wing on Wing for orchestra and 2 coloratura sopranos, 25'45
Alfred Schnittke: Concerto Grosso no 1 for 2 violins, harpsichord, prepared piano and strings, 28'00
Einojuhani Rautavaara: Symphony no. 7, 35'00

That should do quite nicely.

Come home soon, dear wife, I miss you!!!

The 200 Year Shadow

I found this article in the LA Times today. I thought it was interesting given some of the things that we've been discussing here lately. I also find it interesting that they actually include the thoughts of living composers. How refreshing.

Film Composers In The Opera House

I don't know if there are any opera fans here but these might be of interest.

Don Davis, whose scores for The Matrix films are brilliant and unparalleled, is composing an opera. It was just given its concert premiere by the Los Angeles Master Chorale in oratorio form last night. I haven't been able to find any reviews of the performance yet but you can read about the opera here.

Elliot Goldenthal has composed an opera based on the Beowulf legend called Grendel. It will be receiving its premiere next spring by the Los Angeles Opera. Check it out here.

And finally, our beloved Howard Shore has decided to turn his attention to opera as well. He will be working on an adaptation of his score for David Cronenberg's The Fly. I haven't been able to find any other information except that the Los Angeles Opera is slated to premiere the work in their 2007-08 season. I'm sure more information will be available eventually at Howard Shore's website.

For a guy like me who is always looking for concert works ("classical music" - gaaaawd I hate that term) by film composers this is very exciting.