Steven Reineke, conductor
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) is generally regarded as the most prolific composer in history. Bach and Handel were no slouches, but Telemann, who was largely self-taught, wrote a lofty cantata for every Sunday like I make a soggy frittata for brunch. There were additional religious services for every imaginable festival and holy day, more than 40 settings of the Passion, 40 operas, and more than 600 orchestral suites and hundreds of concertos. Quantity and quality rarely go in hand, but in Telemann's case they certainly did.
Perhaps the only serious composer of our time whose output matches the great baroque composers in sheer quantity, quality, and in craftsmanship is John Williams. Let's not even start the age-old discussion of whether film music is good or important or serious as music written for the concert hall. You can be absolutely sure that Copland, Honegger, Khachaturian, Korngold, Shostakovish, Prokofiev, Saint-Saens, or Ralph Vaughan Williams, all of whom wrote wonderful film scores, wouldn't sneer at Max Steiner, Elmer Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann, Franz Waxman, or Miklos Rozsa, all of whom wrote wonderful works for the concert hall. And all of them would greet Williams with awe. And perhaps not a little jealousy: in addition to being a prolific and talented, Williams is undoubtedly the most financially successful composer of all time. His royalties from Star Wars ringtones alone probably exceed the lifetime income of Mozart.
Williams may not need our affirmation- he has plenty of honors and medals, and he leaves Meryl Streep in the dust as far as Academy Award nominations- but he is always serving of our admiration. Not just for the abundant scores we hear tonight, but for all the jazz, pop, television, concert, conducting, and performing achievements we won't. And there is a heck of a lot.
Surely you know he wrote the scores for the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, and Superman series, but did you know he studied piano at Juilliard with the empress of all piano teachers, Rosina Lhevinne? That he was an arranger for the Air Force Band, a jazz pianist in New York nightclubs, and fondly known as "Little Johnny Love" when he was the bandleaders for Frankie Laine? You certainly know the leitmotifs from Jaw, E.T. and Close Encounters, but what about Gilligan's Island, Bachelor Father and Lost in Space? The man who scored the holy trinity of disaster films (The Poseidon Adventure, Towering Inferno, Earthquake) would go on to inspire us with music for the real-life tragedies portrayed in Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, and Empire of the Sun. And he did all this without giving up his day job (leading the Boston Pops for 15 Years) or his hobbies (writing symphonic works for major orchestras and concertos for major soloists).
The church may no longer be the primary employer of our greatest living composers, our movite theatres may not longer be the gran cathedrals of yore, and pops conductors may not always get the respect of a baroque capellmeister, but John Williams is unquestionably a renaissance artist to be admired in any era. And tonight as well.
Williams may not need our affirmation- he has plenty of honors and medals, and he leaves Meryl Streep in the dust as far as Academy Award nominations- but he is always serving of our admiration. Not just for the abundant scores we hear tonight, but for all the jazz, pop, television, concert, conducting, and performing achievements we won't. And there is a heck of a lot.
Surely you know he wrote the scores for the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, and Superman series, but did you know he studied piano at Juilliard with the empress of all piano teachers, Rosina Lhevinne? That he was an arranger for the Air Force Band, a jazz pianist in New York nightclubs, and fondly known as "Little Johnny Love" when he was the bandleaders for Frankie Laine? You certainly know the leitmotifs from Jaw, E.T. and Close Encounters, but what about Gilligan's Island, Bachelor Father and Lost in Space? The man who scored the holy trinity of disaster films (The Poseidon Adventure, Towering Inferno, Earthquake) would go on to inspire us with music for the real-life tragedies portrayed in Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, and Empire of the Sun. And he did all this without giving up his day job (leading the Boston Pops for 15 Years) or his hobbies (writing symphonic works for major orchestras and concertos for major soloists).
The church may no longer be the primary employer of our greatest living composers, our movite theatres may not longer be the gran cathedrals of yore, and pops conductors may not always get the respect of a baroque capellmeister, but John Williams is unquestionably a renaissance artist to be admired in any era. And tonight as well.
The Music of John Williams
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Steven Reineke, conductor
Alexandra Osborne, violinist
Mark Evans, cellist
Olympic Fanfare and Theme
Main Theme from Jaws
Highlights from Jurassic Park
Memoirs of A Geisha: Sayuri's Theme
"Adventures on Earth" from E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
Theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Theme from Schindler's List
"Superman March" from Superman
"Call of the Champions" (Theme of the 2002 Winter Olympics)
"Hymn to the Fallen" from Saving Private Ryan
"Harry's Wondrous World" from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
"Double Trouble" from Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban
Suite for Orchestra, Star Wars
Main Title
"The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme)"
"Across the Stars (Love Theme)" from Star Wards Episode II
"Dual of the Fates" from The Phantom Menace
Throne Room & End TItle
501st Legion
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