The resplendent playing from all sections of the orchestra will blow your mind: There’s magic in the air throughout John Williams In Vienna
John Williams In Vienna Deutsche Grammophon, Out now
This album, recorded in Vienna’s celebrated Golden Hall of the Musikverein, commemorates an ecstatically received visit by John Williams to the Austrian capital in January.
I’m familiar with all the albums he has made of his film music, for which he has, over the decades, received 52 Oscar nominations, and this one, for me, is the best.
Why? First, Williams is on cracking form throughout. The concert itself was a triumph for an event described by one Viennese newspaper as ‘A visit from God’. More than three hours of music was greeted with constant standing ovations.
There are outstanding pieces that don’t get out so much like a delightfully scored ten-minute suite from E.T. (one of Williams’s five Oscar winners)
Happily, that highly charged atmosphere transferred readily to the recording sessions, also in the Golden Hall, which has superb acoustics.
Second, Williams persuades the Vienna Philharmonic to give of their best. Not a given, I assure you. The orchestra is among the world’s finest, but not at everything. In the Austro-German classics, certainly, but elsewhere, on more unfamiliar territory, they are decidedly patchy.
And their experience of film music prior to Williams’s visit was negligible. Certainly as compared to the hundreds of hours our own London Symphony Orchestra have spent with him in the studios.
This 75-minute programme is a connoisseur’s choice. It includes the inevitable dollops of Star Wars, recently voted the greatest film score ever
The resplendent playing from all sections of the orchestra, especially the strings and brass, will blow your mind. No wonder Williams told the audience how wonderful it was for him to hear his music without the distraction of a film!
Third, this 75-minute programme is a connoisseur’s choice. As well as the inevitable dollops of Star Wars, recently voted the greatest film score ever, and including a brilliantly played Imperial March – Vienna is big on imperial – there are other outstanding pieces that don’t get out so much.
Like a delightfully scored ten-minute suite from E.T. (one of Williams’s five Oscar winners); and the main title from Jurassic Park with super-luxuriant string tone, what a truly under-rated piece this is; and Dartmoor, 1912, an engaging bit of very English fake Vaughan Williams from War Horse.
During his visit, the orchestra let it be known how delighted they were by ‘Williams’s professional rehearsal work and pinpoint baton technique’.
What’s the surprise, boys? He was rigorously trained at America’s foremost music school, the Juilliard, and as well as all his film music, has composed more than 100 concert pieces.
As a conductor, from an early age he worked in the Hollywood studios with orchestral musicians who in many instances are far more versatile than any player in the Vienna Philharmonic, because they had to be.
Then, when Arthur Fiedler, legendary conductor of the Boston Pops died in 1979, Williams was sent for. And his many public concerts since have been hugely popular.
There’s magic in the air throughout this album. Don’t miss it.
You can hear excerpts from John Williams In Vienna on David Mellor’s Classic FM show from 5pm tonight