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John Williams in Rochester!
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Topic: John Williams in Rochester!
BobaMike
Oscar® Winner
Hi all! This is my little review of the John Williams conert on sunday. Its late, so bear with me
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I had not seen John Williams in concert since the early nineties, when I saw him conduct the Pittsburgh Symphony twice. I had wanted to see him earlier this year there, and was disappointed when I could not. I was very excited when I discovered that he was conducting at the Eastman School of music on the 29th of April. The school is very close to my college, and tickets were only 8 dollars!
The Eastman Theater is very nice, although the waiting lobby is very small. I assume they don’t usually have such a big turnout, as my girlfriend and me were there an hour early and the lobby was packed! Seating was first come first served, and we were fortunate to find seats about 10-12 rows back. The Eastman Theater was bigger than I expected, with 2 balconies and a huge chandelier. By the time Williams came out, the theater was packed.
The list of pieces for the performance was not long, but they were all wonderful selections.
- First was “Sound the Bells”, written for the royal wedding of the Crown Princess Massako of Japan. I don’t believe there are any recordings of this piece, and I had never heard it before. It was short, but very energetic. It was similar in feel to the Liberty Fanfare and the NBC News Mission Theme I thought.
- The Reivers Suite. This was narrated by Senator Alan Simpson. I am not familiar with this score, but it was lovely and felt similar to the Silva Screen The Rare Breed suite. It had a very “Americana” feel to it. The student players sounded great in this piece.
- Theme from “Angela’s Ashes”. This had a wonderful cello solo by a young student, Keiko Forrey.
- The Flight to Neverland from “hook”. Wow! Although I still enjoy Hook’s theme more, I have never heard this piece sound so good. The timpani, the brass, strings, they all soared and played it perfectly.Intermission
After the intermission, the president of the Eastman School of music and the president of the University of Rochester presented John Williams with an honorary doctorate in music. They started to list the films he has scored, and the audience erupted with applause after each one!
Williams gave a short little speech. He mentioned that at all the orchestras he has conducted across the nation, many directors and first chairs have come from Eastman and that he was thrilled to get such an honor. He was very gracious and complimented the students many times. Then he began the 2nd part of the concert:- March from 1941. This was one of the highlights of the concert. The students and Williams gave a very rousing performance,
- Theme from “Schindler’s List”. This had a solo by Alexandria Cutler-Fetewicz. It was a very emotional performance, and Williams shared a little joke about scoring the film. He said that when Spielberg asked him to score the movie, he replied “you know, there might be people more suitable for this film.” Speilberg answered, “Yes, but they’re all dead!”
- Excerpts from “Far and Away”. I had heard this piece before, but this version started out differently, with a smaller intro. Again, a superb performance.
- Flying Theme from “ET” . This one was dead on..as close to the original recording as I have heard.After a long-standing ovation, Williams came out for an encore- the main title from Star Wars! This was by far the most well performed piece of the evening. It seemed as if the students had the most fun with it…and so did the audience, who cheered wildly.
After another standing ovation, Williams came out and asked if we wanted one more encore. We all cheered and he flexed his muscles to show he was still up for it!
The second encore was the Raiders march, which again brought loud applause.
After this, another standing ovation. Williams came out again, thanked the students and motioned that he wanted to go to sleep. We all laughed and clapped as he walked off the stage for the final time.I had a great time, and so did everyone else it seemed. Even my girlfriend, who is not really into scores had a good time. The students were the equals of any orchestra I have heard, and the pieces they played sounded just as good as on the real soundtracks. The Eastman school should be thankful for the talent they have, and I know I was grateful for the chance to hear them play under Williams baton.
posted 04-29-2001 08:53 PM PT (US) Scott
Oscar® Winner
Thank you man,reading your report was the next best thing from being there (did I say that right?)
Scott posted 04-30-2001 09:39 PM PT (US) Gae
Oscar® Winner
I second that. I enjoyed reading it too...felt like I was there. I've really got to try and make an effort to see John Williams live if he visits the U.K. Gae
posted 05-01-2001 02:00 PM PT (US) jonathan_little
Oscar® Winner
Fantastic!I can't wait to see my first film music concert!
posted 05-01-2001 05:00 PM PT (US) Old Infopop Software by UBB