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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.