John Williams, Berlin Philharmonic. DG B0034852-02 (2-CD set).
By John J. Puccio
What we’ve got here is some of the most popular and most successful orchestral music of the late twentieth century and beyond, performed by one of the greatest orchestras in the world, the Berlin Philharmonic, and led by the composer himself, John Williams. What we’ve also got is a live concert performance with eruptions of applause after each selection and alternating tracks of music and the composer commenting on and reminiscing about each piece. So, this is not exactly an album for hi-fi enthusiasts or even music lovers simply to sit down and enjoy; it’s more of a memento album, a souvenir of an event you wish you could have attended. It’s sort of like one of those New Year’s Concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic, only this time it’s Berlin. For me, it could have been much more. For others, it may be just what they’re after.
Anyway, here’s a run-down of selections on the album’s two discs:
Olympic Fanfare and Theme
Excerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Suite from Far and Away
Selections from Harry Potter
Theme from Jurassic Park
Superman March
Selections from Indiana Jones
Elegy for Cello and Orchestra
Selections from Star Wars
“Flying Theme” from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
“The Imperial March” from Star Wars
And then there are the composer’s introductions, the encores, and the segments of applause, which seem to take up most of the discs’ space. I dunno. Maybe I just like good music and good sound, and I’m asking too much. I had a close friend, gone now, who wouldn’t have liked any of this. He hated the music of John Williams, saying the stuff was entirely hackneyed, commonplace, and derivative. Well, sure. What music isn’t derivative of something? So Williams can sometimes sound like Korngold. So what? Korngold can sound like Richard Strauss. Strauss probably borrowed from Franz Liszt, and so on back. Most people like the music of John Williams, and I’d wager that a hundred years from now Williams’s music may be as popular as ever while most other orchestral music of our day is forgotten. Who knows.
In any case, the program opens with the Olympic Fanfare, and Williams conducts it with great dignity; I might even say solemnity. One certainly cannot deny the composer’s interpretation of his own music, yet it comes off a tad less energetically than I’ve heard it done before. But then comes Close Encounters, the orchestra handling it as if they were doing Anton Bruckner, and the piece comes off with a thoughtfully burnished glow. It’s a remarkable feat that Mr. Williams, almost ninety when he recorded this material, is still as sprightly in his direction as he is here. There is a good deal of reflection in the music that I hadn’t noticed before. In fact, Close Encounters is probably the best thing on the album.
Everything else on the program is pretty much as we’ve come to know them, if very slightly more relaxed and sometimes more pensive. This is especially noticeable in the Harry Potter selections. The first disc ends with the themes from Jurassic Park and Superman, which could hardly be better choices to round out Mr. Williams’s musical output on a high note.
Disc two is more of the same, with a healthy dose of Indiana Jones and Star Wars, probably the composer’s most-famous works and ones that will live on forever. Here, while I would have liked more music and less talk, it was still a pleasure listening to Mr. Williams’s commentary on the scores, providing a few precious insights into his own feelings about the music and the films.
The only piece on the set that may possibly be unfamiliar to many listeners is the Elegy for Cello and Orchestra. It is, as the title suggests, a lament, which Williams explains works perfectly for the sound of the cello. Indeed, it is a most soulful yet not entirely melancholy work, well worth hearing. Then it’s on to a little E.T. and a whole lot of Star Wars. Oddly, we don’t get the Jaws theme in this collection at all, odd because it’s not only so well known but because it’s the music that established Mr. Williams as a household name among movie composers. Personally, I would have opened the first disc with Jaws and opened the second disc with the Olympic Fanfare, but, fortunately, no one ever asks me about these things.
Producer Christoph Franke and engineer Renee Moller recorded the concert live at the Philharmonie, Berlin in October 2021. The sound is about as one might expect from a live concert, with bursts of applause before, after, during, and in-between practically everything. The orchestral sound is not so close up as we sometimes hear live, but it’s rather one-dimensional all the same, with a touch of fuzz around the edges. Mr. Williams’s introductions, however, are much too close, giving his voice a somewhat boomy quality. The orchestra is also a bit softer than I would have anticipated although certainly easy on the ears. Turn it up and you’ll get more out of it.
JJP
To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below:
Anyway, here’s a run-down of selections on the album’s two discs:
Olympic Fanfare and Theme
Excerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Suite from Far and Away
Selections from Harry Potter
Theme from Jurassic Park
Superman March
Selections from Indiana Jones
Elegy for Cello and Orchestra
Selections from Star Wars
“Flying Theme” from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
“The Imperial March” from Star Wars
In any case, the program opens with the Olympic Fanfare, and Williams conducts it with great dignity; I might even say solemnity. One certainly cannot deny the composer’s interpretation of his own music, yet it comes off a tad less energetically than I’ve heard it done before. But then comes Close Encounters, the orchestra handling it as if they were doing Anton Bruckner, and the piece comes off with a thoughtfully burnished glow. It’s a remarkable feat that Mr. Williams, almost ninety when he recorded this material, is still as sprightly in his direction as he is here. There is a good deal of reflection in the music that I hadn’t noticed before. In fact, Close Encounters is probably the best thing on the album.
Everything else on the program is pretty much as we’ve come to know them, if very slightly more relaxed and sometimes more pensive. This is especially noticeable in the Harry Potter selections. The first disc ends with the themes from Jurassic Park and Superman, which could hardly be better choices to round out Mr. Williams’s musical output on a high note.
Disc two is more of the same, with a healthy dose of Indiana Jones and Star Wars, probably the composer’s most-famous works and ones that will live on forever. Here, while I would have liked more music and less talk, it was still a pleasure listening to Mr. Williams’s commentary on the scores, providing a few precious insights into his own feelings about the music and the films.
The only piece on the set that may possibly be unfamiliar to many listeners is the Elegy for Cello and Orchestra. It is, as the title suggests, a lament, which Williams explains works perfectly for the sound of the cello. Indeed, it is a most soulful yet not entirely melancholy work, well worth hearing. Then it’s on to a little E.T. and a whole lot of Star Wars. Oddly, we don’t get the Jaws theme in this collection at all, odd because it’s not only so well known but because it’s the music that established Mr. Williams as a household name among movie composers. Personally, I would have opened the first disc with Jaws and opened the second disc with the Olympic Fanfare, but, fortunately, no one ever asks me about these things.
Producer Christoph Franke and engineer Renee Moller recorded the concert live at the Philharmonie, Berlin in October 2021. The sound is about as one might expect from a live concert, with bursts of applause before, after, during, and in-between practically everything. The orchestral sound is not so close up as we sometimes hear live, but it’s rather one-dimensional all the same, with a touch of fuzz around the edges. Mr. Williams’s introductions, however, are much too close, giving his voice a somewhat boomy quality. The orchestra is also a bit softer than I would have anticipated although certainly easy on the ears. Turn it up and you’ll get more out of it.
JJP
To listen to a brief excerpt from this album, click below:
