Anyone been to a John Williams Concert?

Last night we went to a John Williams concert with the Pgh Symphony. It was fabulous! (we wore our costumes!)

The conducter introduced each song in a friendly, casual manner. He did the themes from each of the "Spielberg" movies then the second half was devoted to Star Wars. The only slight disapointment was that there was no chorus for Duel of the Fates and the Battle of the Heroes. He started with TPM through ROTJ and ended with the Star Wars theme.
After the last applause, he came back out and talked briefly about Williams early start playing jazz piano which introduced the Cantina song.

 

I'm glad you had a fun time. The mood of those concerts isn't as serious as most classical concerts, so I enjoy them more. I've been to two John Williams concerts. One was with Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops on his Star Wars night after the release of AOTC.

That was fun, but even more fun is John Williams conducting, which I had the wonderful opportunity to do last summer to see his "Film Night at Tanglewood" concert where he did Sound the Bells (Concert piece, Memoirs of a Geisha, WOTW, and an entire star wars suite like you mentioned, but with little film clips to follow it.

If you get a chance too, do go see him live. There's nothing like it. I had to wake up and leave at 5 AM and drive all day to make it to Tanglewood in Massachusetts's from Cincinnati for the 7:00 concert. Definitely worth it.

~JW

 

A live John Williams concert is an incredible experience. I've seen him many times, the best of which have been at the Hollywood Bowl. Outside, on a nice night, listening to Williams conduct all his classic hits. Any SW fan must go when they have a chance.

I've seen him do SW only nights, and also nights with all of his movie themes. Both shows are amazing, but seeing him play E.T, Jurassic Park, Jaws, Close Encounters, and then closing with Star Wars, Raiders and then finally Superman.

 

I go yearly to the concert at the Hollywood Bowl with Williams conducting. It's always amazing and wonderful.

Though my favorite by far was when he had an entire Star Wars half, going through the 6 movies, and narrated by James Earl Jones on stage.

 

Han Han

 

Hoping to get tix to his wildly popular movie nights with the Boston Pops. This year they are doing an entire segment just on HP, which is great, next to SW, that is my fave of his scores.

 

Went to see JW conducting the LSO before TPM came out. A wonderful wonderful night. He finished off with the Raiders March, and he introduced everything before they played. Best concert I've ever been to.

 

I shall be as lucky as many of you come November. Should be a great experience!

 

Woo!!! Just ordered tix to the John Williams movie night at The Boston Symphony Orchestra! They are for my hubbys birthday, he is going to be so excited, and I already am! They are doing a huge portion of the night towards HP, which is great too. Yay!

 

We're season ticket holders at the hollywood bowl and he's always there for two nights each year. My favorite year was the premiere of the Saving Private Ryan backscore, but the Munich and music fom Episode I / IV are a close second / third. I saw the debut of "The Five Sacred Trees" with the New York Phil and then again with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra a while back and that was pretty incredible.
He's got such an incredible catalog that if you do see him live, you're going to get a great show. I was lucky enough to watch the scoring session pickups for Saving Private Ryan on the 20th Century Fox Scoring Stage a couple years ago which was pretty incredible too.

 

Just went to one here in Jax, FL Thursday night. It was first in a series of 3 nights of JW concerts. Had a wonderful time, and the Jax Symphony Orchestra was great, with only a few minor first night "oops" moments. The JSO was giving away gifts to people who showed up in costumes from JW-scored movies. I showed up in my Jedi Knight costume and a friend came as a Harry Potter wizard. The local 501st was on hand to provide stormtroopers, Vader, and assorted other characters. A few other Jedi showed up, and two teenage girls dressed as Supergirl. Lots of kids in store bought masks and such, they loved the 501st guys and all of the MR FX lightsabers the Jedi were showing off.

The program is listed below:

Olympic Fanfare (1994 LA Olympic theme)
The Cowboys
Jaws
Flying Theme from E.T.
Victor's Theme from The Terminal
Jurassic Park
1941 March
<intermission>
Olympic Spirit (2204 Olympic games)
NBC News "The Mission"
Harry Potter
Star Wars
Imperial March
Yoda's Theme
Throne Room/End Title
Schindler's List
Superman March

The JSO pulled off the Cowboys brilliantly, and the 1st violin chair nailed Schindler's List perfectly. During the Imperial March, Vader invaded the stage and forced the counductor off the podium, stealing the baton and conducting the JSO from then on. Stormies and other SW characters took the stage during the Throne Room/End Titles. Biggest "oops" was during Superman, when the first chair trumpet flubbed one of the high notes during the big opening fanfare. Other than that and a few quibbles, a very good performance. Had a wonderful time.

 

Oh, don't even get me started on this haha. My major complaint with living in Florida is the fact that they don't play live John Williams music here.

 

He hasn't come to Cincinnati and Dayton lately. I wish he would though.

 

Someday before I die, I Need to see john Williams, Live in concert conducting SW Music.

 

rodan70 -- I see that you're from Illinois. Just to let you know, John Williams will be conducting 3 concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in November. Living in eastern Indiana, there's no way that I'm going to miss it. It seems like you might get your wish before you die, haha.

We were discussing this concert here.

 

Im going to see John May 23 at the Boston Symphony Hall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Hey, I went to that on May 23rd too! It was wonderful wasn't it? He is like a rockstar, especially around Boston since he conducted the Pops for such a long time. It is one of the chapters in his storied career! And the fact that he came on for what, two encores? Or was it threee? I mean, yeah, just like a rockstar!

It was great to hear all of the music, I especially liked Fiddler On the Roof, the HP suite (he did three of them, all great) and of course the music/movie medley featuring SW, Indy and ET (some of the most inspiring music ever, of course SW got the biggest repsponse from the audience). But honestly, for me, the best was him coming out to do the surprise Stars and Stripes at the end, I never did get down to the Esplanade on the Fourth to see it, and I think that is the closest I will ever get to it! And the crowd of course loved it.

We are lucky that he comes here every May to do film week with the Pops, and then again in August at Tanglewood usually as well.

 

Just a reminder, July 13 and 14, John will be performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. If you've never gone, you should go. It's a great concert.

 

Last night I went to a great concert featuring film music. I was literally front row. The Auckland Philharmonia were generally excellent, expcept that the poor xylophonists screwed up in the killer xylophone solo in Hedwig's theme. I don't blame them, it's only the hardest solo i've ever heard. Also the conductor took the Imperial March too fast, and the poor strings couldn't get out the notes in the opening few bars fast enough. Still, no troubles with anything else, and they sounded terrific, if not a bit string dominated.

 

I participated in one held by one of the FanForce groups.

And I have also seen Mr. Williams himself in concert, I believe.

 

It kills me... I'm in high school and the bands at the middle school I went to went to see John Williams in Boston on the 23rd for their field trip (cause at the end of the year all the bands go on a field trip). We didn't go anywhere like that when I was in middle school! In fact... I think we ended up going to a Pawtucket Baseball game... As great as that was... it doesn't really compare to Williams...

 

I've been 3 times, they were great evenings!

 

I'm going to the 14th at the Bowl, can we bring our sabers or did they ban that?

 

I know they used to allow it or at least the last time I went to a John Williams conducted concert they did. I guess maybe if you sit in the back they'll allow it. It was frowned upon by the ushers when I had Garden seats.

 

Bring your lightsaber. It's great fun!