RSNO John Williams at the Oscars Usher Hall Edinburgh 24th March 2023 Review
RSNO John Williams at The Oscars was a welcome return to the Usher Hall Edinburgh of a celebration of the work of perhaps the most famous and successful composer of music for films of all time. With 53 Oscar nominations to date in a career spanning some sixty plus years, John Williams has received more Oscar nominations than any other living person. In fact, only Walt Disney with 59 has more Oscar nominations to his credit, and even now at 91 years of age it would still be unwise to bet against John Williams beating this too, as only this year there was another nomination for music from Steven Spielberg’s new 2022 film, “The Fabelmans”. These Oscar nominations with five winning the award are only part of the many other nominations and awards in his amazing career.
When I think of films from the 1970s onwards, there is no one that has dominated the music of the big blockbuster film more than John Williams, and tonight we got to hear music from just a few of these including “Superman: The Movie”, “Jurassic Park”, “War Horse”, “Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets”, “Jaws”, “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial”, “Raiders of The Lost Ark” and of course “Star Wars”. The only other film composer I can think of that has left such an impact on contemporary films is Hans Zimmer.
This concert has become a regular feature on the RSNO programme and tonight with Robert Baxter (conductor) and Tommy Pearson (presenter), the very relaxed, almost informal nature of these concerts gave a slightly different feel to the evening than more formal classical concerts often achieve and the popularity of these concerts is easy to see – a full house at The Usher Hall tonight.
It is not just the sheer volume of work that John Williams has composed for films over the decades that is amazing, it is the variety of different music that he has created and perfectly tailored to whatever film he is working on. Amidst all of the instantly recognisable music from iconic films, it was good to hear a short piece of music from “Catch Me If You Can” (2003) – “Closing In”, Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra. With this music, we are taken perhaps closer to John Williams than any other music as Jazz was an important part of his early music; his father was a jazz drummer/percussionist and John Williams himself released several well received Jazz albums as a Jazz pianist under the name Johnny Williams.
In the music of John Williams there is every mood, emotion, colour and genre of music that you could imagine, but still nothing really prepares you for the sheer power and creative genius of it all when you hear it performed by an orchestra like the RSNO and in a specially built classic concert hall like the Usher Hall. From the Tweets being read out in the second half, we know that for some people (including children) this was their first visit to a concert hall to hear a large orchestra perform music live, and this is perhaps more important than even the music performed tonight as this introduction could be the doorway into people discovering a whole new world of music through the RSNO and other orchestras.
Another important factor in this concert is that with films that are now often interwoven into cultural history and the lives of so many people, this music has also interwoven itself into people’s lives in a way that few composers are ever able to do. With the film music of John Williams, millions of people worldwide have become familiar with an instrumental film score and the emotions that this music is capable of expressing.
Listening to this incredible diversity of music brought to life in this concert by the RSNO it is still at times difficult to imagine that often John Williams would be composing music for an already created scene in a film and not only having to compose music to perfectly fit the dynamics of that scene, but to compose it to the exact running time required.
It is a small side-step now to hearing the RSNO (or any other orchestra) performing music by classical composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, Bach (and many more) as I am sure that if they were alive today many of music’s great names of the past would be composing music for films, television, video games, theatre and whatever other avenues were open to their creativity.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
When I think of films from the 1970s onwards, there is no one that has dominated the music of the big blockbuster film more than John Williams, and tonight we got to hear music from just a few of these including “Superman: The Movie”, “Jurassic Park”, “War Horse”, “Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets”, “Jaws”, “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial”, “Raiders of The Lost Ark” and of course “Star Wars”. The only other film composer I can think of that has left such an impact on contemporary films is Hans Zimmer.
This concert has become a regular feature on the RSNO programme and tonight with Robert Baxter (conductor) and Tommy Pearson (presenter), the very relaxed, almost informal nature of these concerts gave a slightly different feel to the evening than more formal classical concerts often achieve and the popularity of these concerts is easy to see – a full house at The Usher Hall tonight.
It is not just the sheer volume of work that John Williams has composed for films over the decades that is amazing, it is the variety of different music that he has created and perfectly tailored to whatever film he is working on. Amidst all of the instantly recognisable music from iconic films, it was good to hear a short piece of music from “Catch Me If You Can” (2003) – “Closing In”, Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra. With this music, we are taken perhaps closer to John Williams than any other music as Jazz was an important part of his early music; his father was a jazz drummer/percussionist and John Williams himself released several well received Jazz albums as a Jazz pianist under the name Johnny Williams.
In the music of John Williams there is every mood, emotion, colour and genre of music that you could imagine, but still nothing really prepares you for the sheer power and creative genius of it all when you hear it performed by an orchestra like the RSNO and in a specially built classic concert hall like the Usher Hall. From the Tweets being read out in the second half, we know that for some people (including children) this was their first visit to a concert hall to hear a large orchestra perform music live, and this is perhaps more important than even the music performed tonight as this introduction could be the doorway into people discovering a whole new world of music through the RSNO and other orchestras.
Another important factor in this concert is that with films that are now often interwoven into cultural history and the lives of so many people, this music has also interwoven itself into people’s lives in a way that few composers are ever able to do. With the film music of John Williams, millions of people worldwide have become familiar with an instrumental film score and the emotions that this music is capable of expressing.
Listening to this incredible diversity of music brought to life in this concert by the RSNO it is still at times difficult to imagine that often John Williams would be composing music for an already created scene in a film and not only having to compose music to perfectly fit the dynamics of that scene, but to compose it to the exact running time required.
It is a small side-step now to hearing the RSNO (or any other orchestra) performing music by classical composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, Bach (and many more) as I am sure that if they were alive today many of music’s great names of the past would be composing music for films, television, video games, theatre and whatever other avenues were open to their creativity.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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