John Williams in Boston

[Datameister 2,282]

Good stuff, yup. I've heard "Liberty Fanfare" before, but I don't actually own any recordings of it, so it's good to hear it again.

[John Dutton 7,430]

There was the Boston accent again.

"Li-buhty Fanfare."

[Datameister 2,282]

Yup.

Superman's sounding great!

[King Mark 3,729]

that must be so cool to hear live

[John Dutton 7,430]

Tell the audience to wait until the end of the piece to applaud! This isn't a rock show!

[King Mark 3,729]

Is he going to make an announcement?

[Datameister 2,282]

What else is new? I couldn't even hear Giacchino's final crescendo at LOST Live: The Final Celebration, the other night.

[John Dutton 7,430]

Nope...

True story. A couple years ago at a bar I picked up this really hot young number by claiming to be a member of the Boston Pops. I pulled out my Pops friends member card to help sell the lie. Then I told her I played celeste and harpsichord. It worked! Thanks, JW!

[King Mark 3,729]

"with 2 movies to go,or so I hear"

Was there a hidden message??

[Datameister 2,282]

Wishful thinking, I'm sure...unfortunately. =/

In other news, this celeste has too much attack and not enough "ring" to it. I'm glad they went with synth celeste for the films...having more control over the timbre was a good thing for these scores.

[John Dutton 7,430]

I agree. Somehow lacked that dreamy magical lullaby sound.

I still don't get the hate for the HP scores. This ending part of Hedwig's Theme was the first music I ever heard from the trailer and it made me want to see the movie.

[Datameister 2,282]

Got my Signature Edition score out.

[King Mark 3,729]

HWW is one of JW's best all around pieces

[Datameister 2,282]

I like it quite a bit, but I don't know if I'd say that. Actually, it was one of my least favorite parts of the HP:SS OST the first time I heard it, way back when. Luckily, it grew on me. But I think Hedwig's Theme is still quite a few notches above it, as are many of Williams' other fantastic works. Actually, in terms of organizations and actual content, Hedwig's Theme is one of my favorite concert suites from Williams' whole oeuvre.

Anyway, these fight songs are fun, eh?

[King Mark 3,729]

Well I guess we won;t hear Williams "new" piece

oh..oh...maybe

[John Dutton 7,430]

I got that Hallmark card for my birthday. I'll always save it.

This is the new piece.

Edit: Nevermind. There is no new piece.

[Datameister 2,282]

Ooooooh, I like. How in the world does he come up with these chords and voicings?!

What piece is it, then?

[King Mark 3,729]

I wonder what's on the screen

This is A hymn to New England.

[Datameister 2,282]

Oh, right. Yeah, good stuff.

[Foxfan 134]

Hymn to New England...

Now Raider's March, NBC News, or Stars and Stripes.

[King Mark 3,729]

never gets old

[Datameister 2,282]

Haha, an excellent choice for an encore.

The snares are still too loud, or closely-miked, or something, though. You don't get that sound listening to an orchestra live and without amplification.

[John Dutton 7,430]

Shorty! Quit fooling around with that kid! Get down in the cart NOW!

[King Mark 3,729]

aw,the KotCS ending would have been awesome

[Datameister 2,282]

That's okay. And I give a similar thumbs-up to the second encore!

Bravo to John Williams and the Boston Pops, indeed!

[Foxfan 134]

So was someone able to record the concert?

This performance of Stars and Stripes was perfect! Lockhart slows it down too much at the end...

[King Mark 3,729]

I recorded some bits and pieces . I didn't record the last encore

nothing I'll ever listen to again since there was no new pieces and we have better sounding recordings

[Datameister 2,282]

I recorded the last two hours of it. There's a very slight degradation in sound quality, since my sound card has a tendency to just slightly mono-ify things when I record, but it sounds very close to the broadcast. Unfortunately, there are a few extraneous sounds at one point during Jane Eyre because my computer started freaking out...you'll hear a system beep and a bit of a YouTube video, but I got those under control as fast as I could. Once I've got the volume levels right and I've edited out the commercials and so forth, I'll, ah...be in touch.

[josefsuma 9]

Hi there, I have been in Boston for all 5 shows :] ... got many signatures, and photos with him - I will never forget it. Can someone of you guys provide me recording of tonight show? ... I will be very appreciate for this.

[TownerFan 5,238]

Can you provide the exact breakdown of the concert programme? Thanks!

[Miguel Andrade 1,375]

Can you provide the exact breakdown of the concert programme? Thanks!

JOHN WILLIAMS

Star Wars Main Title

Jane Eyre suite

(I. At Lowood ~ II. To Thornfield ~ III. The Return)

The Imperial March

Sound the Bells!

Close Encounters of the Third Kind suite

Liberty Fanfare

Love Theme («Can You Read My Mind») and

March from Superman

Hedwig’s Theme

Harry’s Wondrous World

Brenton C. Patterson

«Clarissima» (Boston University Anthem)

RANDY WEEKS

«Go B U!» (Boston University Fight Song)

JOHN WILLIAMS

Hymn to New England

The Raiders March

JOHN PHILIP SOUSA

The Star and Stripes Forever

Beethoven's final movement from the Emperor concerto wasn't conducted by Williams, but by regular Pops guest conductor James Orent, and was performed after Close Encounters of the Third Kind suite.

[TownerFan 5,238]

Thanks Miguel, you're great as usual

[rpvee 856]

I was actually at last night's show! So weird reading your discussion about stuff I was hearing in person! I had no clue the concert was being broadcast. I actually recorded the concert myself there, though it's certainly not quality listening by any means (it's more just for my own personal nostalgia), but if anyone did record ANYTHING from the broadcast, I'd love to hear it! I also got some nice pictures and a couple video clips during the performance. None of the staff seemed to have any problems with people taking pictures and what-not.

For the first third, I was miserable, because my seats were right by the door to the kitchen, so it was more like Grand Central Station with waiters/waitresses than anything else. During the intermission after the Imperial March, I politely complained, and they moved me across the aisle to a closer and not-as-busy spot, which was wonderful. Afterwards, outside by the stage door, myself and 20-30 other fans waited for Williams. The Pops people actually put up yellow "CAUTION" tape to keep us back, which I didn't think was necessary, everyone seemed perfectly in control of themselves. I got a picture with Williams and an autograph, he's still as nice as ever! We weren't ready for the picture when my mom took it, and he was willing to take another one, but because my mom didn't get a good look at the little preview on the camera and thought the first one looked fine, we didn't take another picture. Luckily, another guy nearby had snapped a picture of Williams and I actually talking, and he's going to email that to me. Nevertheless, here's me and John looking really confused. haha!

[Luke Skywalker 1,941]

mr williams should get a haircut.

hippie!

[rpvee 856]

that must be so cool to hear live

It was!

I wonder what's on the screen

This is A hymn to New England.

During the tribute to him, there were just various images and video clips of his past performances at various places.

Also, during "Stars and Stripes Forever", a huge American flag was projected across the entire wall, and one was also hanging down above Williams. I'll post a picture of it later.

[Jacob 0]

Great picture.

[rpvee 856]

This was the Hall at the concert's end. They also dropped red and white balloons over the crowd (which you can see a bit), which people started to pop. Every. Single. One. It was very loud, but with the patriotic spirit, it actually reminded me of the sound of fireworks, so I was OK with it (though the closer popping ones sounded more like gunshots). There was an elderly man in a wheelchair playing with one, which was amusing.

[Jay 39,596]

I was at Friday's concert.

It was a gorgeous day in Massachusetts on Friday, and my girlfriend and I enjoyed a nice ride into the city around 6:00 to go to the show. We had a reservation at Betty's Wok and Noodle for 6:30, which I had never been to. We decided to check out the street parking on the chance there'd be a spot before paying $20ish for a garage... and low and behold, we found a street spot RIGHT next to Symphony Hall, also RIGHT across the street from Betty's! That was our first bit of good fortune for the evening... Betty's was excellent, definitely recommended to anyone going to see a show there.

I found an usher to ask if Mr. Williams would be signing after, because I wasn't sure if I should bring my Hook LP in with me or not. He said that Mr Williams wouldn't be signing, but that it was outside when he usually does it, so I left my Hook LP in the car. Our tickets were waiting for us in the Will Call booth (thank you Craigs List!) and an usher showed us to our table inside. Our seats were on the floor, about a dozen tables back from the stage. It was a good view for seeing the musicians up front, but we couldn't see beyond. So we basically watched the string players all night and never saw any brass and hardly any woodwinds. I now realized that the best place to be at Symphony Hall is in the First Balcony, as close to the front as possible.

The show started a few minutes after 8oclock. Williams came out to a quick smattering of applause and launched right into the first piece. The set list of was as follows:

• Sound The Bells!
• March from 1941
• Excerpts from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
• Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
• Harry's Wondrous World from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
• Adventures On Earth from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

INTERMISSION

• Liberty Fanfare
• Love Theme from Superman
• March from Superman
• Love Theme from Cinema Paradiso (Ennio Moricone)
• The Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back
• Princess Leia's Theme from Star Wars
• Throne Room and Finale from Star Wars

MAIN PROGRAM END

• Hymm To New England (Encore 1)
• The Raiders March from Raiders of the Lost Ark (Encore 2)

Here are my recollections of the individual pieces...

Sound The Bells! was very nice, I had never heard it before to my recollection (though I realize now it's on the American Journey CD)

March from 1941 was the same arrangement we've heard a million times, but I had certainly never heard it performed live (I hear its somewhat rare for Mr Williams to perform it, actually). I would say the performance lacked the "punch" that some recordings I have of it, though I was grateful no cannon sound effects were added

At this point a screen came down and played images from Close Encounters while the orchestra performed the excerpts (which I believe is the same suite that's been recorded several times). The images were not necessarily the same ones tied to the sections of music being played, just a kind of overall summation of the movie (starting with most of Barry's Abduction before segueing to some shots of the UFOs flying around before jumping to the end of the movie). My appreciation for CE3K music has grown considerably of late, and the full finale leading into the beginning of the end credits is one of Mr. Williams' most accomplished works in my opinion. Sadly that part was not performed

At this point Williams spoke, for 1 of only 2 times the whole night. I actually recorded what he said, though I didn't start recording right away, so I missed the first sentence or two. But, what I did get was:

...to celebrate with the orchestra this... 125th anniversary of the Boston Pops. *applause*

Also it's a treat for me to come before a live audience and in front of a great orchestra and play some music from the films - I always say without the distraction of all the dialogue and sound effects that come with it. *audience laughter* And it also is an opportunity at a venue such as this to demonstrate the virtuosity that our orchestras provide and contribute to the movies that we make which without the music and without the orchestras that score them, the movies would be without much life, and we can illustrate this here with our great orchestra here in Boston so well.

Harry Potter... *audience applause* The application of any literary judgment of any standard would have to conclude with J.K. Rowlings' achievement of Harry Potter. The books have been a phenomenal thing in the history of literature. I'm told that the books have been translated into 67 languages - I didn't know there WERE 67 languages... I'm still struggling with the first one. *laughter* And that the books have sold over 400 millions copies around the world. And the six films already have grossed over 5 billion dolllars for Warner Brothers films and we have two more to go. Um, it's been said that perhaps Harry Potter is the greatest British cultural export since The Beatles. May be true!

Here are two little pieces from the score of Harry Potter - Hedwig's Theme, which is presented initially on the celeste, which is a little keyboard instrument capable of brilliant magical sounds of great deft, quick passages. And then a theme that I call Harry's Wondrous World, which is a theme associated with Harry and his group of friends. So first Hedwig's Theme, then Harry's Wondrous World

Hedwig's Theme and Harry's Wondrous World both sounded as you'd expect them too. During Hedwig's Theme, cool blue lights were shined around the hall. During Harry's Wondrous World, the screen came down again and showed a montage of scenes from all 6 Harry Potter movies.

Adventures On Earth from E.T. came next, and it was the usual shortened 9 minute concert arrangement, not the full 15 minute piece. I have grown to dislike this arrangement the more I get into the full version, but hearing all the great themes performed live is really quite a treat regardless.

During intermission we were finally able to track down a waitress and order a bottle of Pinot Grigio that was quite delicious! John Williams came back out to a quick round of applause again and immediately launched into the next piece.

The Liberty Fanfare I really enjoyed, and to my knowledge I had never heard it before. He then took the microphone for the second time. I recorded that one in its entirety so can transcribe for you now:

Thank you very much! Here would have the Love Theme and March from Superman. And um, for me Superman was always something about nostalgic experience in my memory. We'll show you a film set to the march, the second piece that we play with some really great shots of Christopher Reeve, and the recent Superman and Batman, and some crazy pictures of Jack Nicholson.

But what I remember is the summer we spent in London when we were making the first Superman film. And Christopher Reeves was a casting director's dream because he actually seemed to break the whole thing off in his funny red suit. And he was a very young man, in his early twenties, and was brilliant, and wonderfully handsome, and charming, and filled with great promise. And we used to tease him - Not tease HIM but talk amongst ourselves - that someday Christopher would not be an actor, he would be a senator, or a president of a university, or president of the country, whatever. Enormously promising wonderful man. And um, so I think of him always in connection to Superman. Here then are Love Theme, and March, from Superman.

The Love Theme from Superman sounded great. Truly one of his most wonderful themes (though I always felt the concert arrangement went on for a little too long - I prefer to just listen to the Flying Sequence track)

March from Superman was also great, and Emily perked up a bit at some point since she recognized it more than a lot of the other pieces that weren't Harry Potter related

Next he performed the Love Theme from Ennio Moricone's Cinema Paradiso, which I was completely unfamiliar with and cannot recollect anything about now.

He ended the main set with 3 pieces in a row from the original Star Wars trilogy - The Imperial March, Princess Leia's Theme, and The Throne Room and Finale. The Throne Room was the lengthy concert arrangement version, as heard on the Sony "Star Wars Trilogy" CD, or the Revenge Of The Sith original soundtrack. All 3 sounded spectacular. After a standing ovation, a member of the orchestra (Bob Ross) came out and talked about how John had been with the Pops for 30 years, and then asked for his permission to talk to the audience, which was cute. He then sent a lot of praise Williams' way, how he was one of the greatest composers of all time, etc. And how despite all his talent, he is still kind and generous. Then how he knew Mr Williams would be embarassed about all the adulation and attention, but that they had to him a present in the form of a film, that is set to Hymm To New England... and that he would have to work for his present - he'd have to conduct, as he's the only one with a baton on stage. hehe

Hymm To New England was nice, though I was honestly paying more attention to the video wall. It was a very nice montage of John conducting and the bops playing, magazine articles, other pictures, other footage, etc. Some of the footage was just soooo 80s

He then left but came almost right back in, and for an encore played The Raiders March. I was hoping for the revised ending written for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but it was the same old arrangement as always. I wonder if the orchestra members even needed their sheet music for this This was followed by a very lengthy round of applause. Williams eventually did his now traditional "sleepy" motion (both hands to the side of his head) and exited. What a fabulous concert!

Our next task was to spot him outside and hopefully get his signature! We found the exit door near our car which turned out to be a blessing - it was now POURING RAIN outside! I got COMPLETELY SOAKED in a 10 second run to the car to get an umbrella and my Hook LP. Back inside, an usher told us where to go. We eventually found the little door on the opposite side of the building where he would be exiting from. There were already several people waiting and a security guard. We joined the crowd and waited under the umbrella. Luckily it stopped raining after a little bit. At some point the guard let us know that Williams WOULD be signing!! After maybe 15-20 minutes of waiting, Mr. Williams came outside! He started on the left side, which is were we were standing. He signed my Hook LP! I was so speechless I wasn't able to stammer anything out other than a "thank you so much" when he was done. Sadly, due to the rain, the signature got smudged, but what can you do? The only thing I had for him to use was a gold paint pen that Emily had at her house because I had forgotten to go buy a silver sharpie like I had wanted to before the concert. And the worst part was, she found one in her house the next morning! Haha.

Anyway, that evening I had given Emily my Hook OST CD as a gift - she had been bugging me for a few weeks to burn her a copy of it - she originally told me because she loves the movie so much and had started to really notice the music when we watched it together a few months ago - but now I know it was because she wanted to listen to it while painting me a painting. I thought it would be a good gift because it was a special CD to me, being one of the first OSTs I ever bought and my favorite film score of all time. Anyway long story short - we brought it too in hopes that she would be able to get him to sign it for her, but she ended up preferring to just take camera duty, which ended up being great because she got a great shot of him signing it!

After the left side he spent a while on the right side. A few fans spoke to him for a bit of length, and some seemed to hand him things (not sure what they were, looked like something hand written? Maybe a letter or a web address for original work? I dunno). The most touching moment of the night, though, was when a fan shook his hand and thanked him deeply for his music, and how his music had inspired him so much and helped him figure out his life path, etc - Mr Williams looked so honestly touched, he was speechless for a second and then gave the fan a very honest hug. It was great and very touching. After signing things for another 5 minutes or so he got into the BSO car and drove off. What a night!

[fommes 155]

Don't know about what I should congratulate more, Jay, on your awesome signed LP or on your incredible girlfriend

Sounds like it was a great concert!

[TownerFan 5,238]

Thanks for the report Jay! Awesome you were able to corner him after the gig.

I think it's somewhat amazing that a 78-year old man still finds some time to greet his fans after a concert that probably drains a lot of energies and that he's always so gracious and kind with everyone who approaches him.

JW is really a man from another time.

[Ollie 1,140]

Thanks for posting that Jason. Williams is so down to earth, it's somewhat amusing that he seems so astonished at the love and admiration from his fans after all these years.

I admit I was in somewhat in awe, standing in front of him. I had so much I wanted to say to him but wasn't sure I could get it out. But just standing there and watching him, you just know he's genuine with his reactions.

I have to chuckle because his Harry Potter comments are almost identical to what he said in Ft. Worth.

[Jay 39,596]

I find it odd that he says Harry's Wondrous World is the theme for harry and his friends, when in reality its a suite of pretty much all the major themes from the movie, even down the Gryffindor theme and quidditch fanfare. It even opens with the B section of Hedwig's Theme!

[John Dutton 7,430]

Those pictures are great!

[Jay 39,596]

I have a few more pictures I can post. I also took 7 videos, which I'll be posting to youtube as soon as I can:

-March from 1941

-pre-Harry Potter talk

-pre-Superman talk

-Love Theme from Superman

-Throne Room and Finale

-pre-Hymm To New England talk

-Williams signing and talking to fans outside

Actually if you have a google account, you can view them all now on Picasa here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jayleblanc/0514JohnWilliamsConcert#

[josefsuma 9]

Hi, I am already back in Czech Republic. I have recorded 2 shows (12 & 13 May) so I will make some camera mix ... Can someone send me please the recording of the radio show?

and signed version

He also signed my baton and music sheets with his music .

[Jay 39,596]

Hey Josef,

Looks like I caught you on camera after Friday's performance!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jayleblanc/0514JohnWilliamsConcert#5472161307587719314

http://picasaweb.google.com/jayleblanc/0514JohnWilliamsConcert#5472166518198365650

[indy4 155]

...well that's creepy.

[josefsuma 9]

Oh Jason, any chance to send me this video via email? I would like to have it ... I am there little bit nervous, but I think it is acceptable

[Jay 39,596]

I'll upload the video to megaupload for you when I get home

All the videos will be going on youtube as well

[Jacob 0]

Awesome report Jason.

Thanks for sharing.