Hello MA!

My husband and I are going to be in MA for Memorial Day weekend for our wedding anniversary. We'll be in Salem, Boston, and up and down the state. We were curious if anyone else was going to be at the Boston Pops John William's concert on May 24? We didn't see anything posted here, the NEG, or Alderaan Base. We LOVE Johnny Boy and take every opportunity we can to see him live

Looking forward to maybe seeing a few people there

 

JOHN WILLIAMS IS COMMING TO BOSTON?!

 

First I've heard of it, certainly. And rpvee, it won't necessarily be John Williams conducting the orchestra...just a concert of John Williams' music.

 

What a way to spend your anniversary!

I was blessed to see JW at the 4th of July Concert the year he passed the baton to Keith Lockhart. What an experience!

I didn't know that the Pops were putting on a show dedicated to his music on the 24th... I am going to have to check that out!

 

It's Williams himself. The official orchestra site says so!

 

LOL I guess it's a good thing I posted

 

It was news to me, too. I popped over to [link=http://jwfan.net]jwfan.net[/link] to see if John Williams would be in New York this year when I saw the Memorial day weekend concert in the tour listing. This was after we had already planned our weekend in MA, so it's icing on the cake. We've seen him conduct the NY Philharmonic as well as concerts at Tanglewood and the Hollywood Bowl (twice).

I'm from MA (I lived in Arlington and Sharon, but moved to the NYC area when I was 5) and I love going up now and then.

 

I had no idea. If I had known sooner I might have tried to make it to one of the performances.

 

I'm going! As a huge Williams fan, I can't wait! And I'm going to the Sox game on Monday... heck of a week for me coming up!

 

Hey all!

Have a great time at the concert tonight. I heard on the radio this morning that he is premiering all the new music for the new Indy Movie tonight!

Be sure to post and let us know how it goes!

 

FIVE HOURS IN BOSTON.

THREE ENCORES.

TWO AUTOGRAPHS.

ONE PHOTO.

UNLIMITED FUN.

DETAILS TOMORROW (TECHNICALLY TODAY - 12:19 AM!)

GOOD NIGHT/MORNING!

BRIAN

 

2 autographs?

Can't wait for the details.

 

I'm breathless with anticipation, Brian!

Glad you had a great time...

 

OK, so after a night of... well... not much sleep, and after a day of... well... a lot of school, I'm ready to give the details of last night's spectacular event. But be warned... concert spoilers will obviously be here!

First off, let me just say that there was NO STAR WARS AT ALL. Not one piece. There was also no Jaws or Superman, and several other hits were missing. This is what was was on the page for the event in the program itself, including the list of pieces. Also, please note that:

-Things in bold are added by me except for "INTERMISSION"
-Text of piece names are slightly larger than their description
-A * means that clips from the film were shown

---------------------
KEITH LOCKHART | Conductor (did not conduct)
JOHN WILLIAMS | Laureate Conductor

(LARGE text): THE BOSTON POPS ORCHESTRA

Tuesday evening, May 20, 2008, at 8

JOHN WILLIAMS conducting

SEASON SPONSORED BY FIDELITY INVESTMENTS

FILM NIGHT SERIES SPONSORED BY ARABELLA INSURANCE GROUP CHARITABLE FOUNDATION


Sound the Bells! (long space to other side of page) Williams
Written to celebrate with the Japanese people the 1993 wedding of
Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako Owada

Excerpts from Far and Away (long space to other side of page) Williams
County Galway, June 1892 - The Fighting Donellys - (new line)
Joseph and Shannon - Blowin' Off Steam (The Flight) - Finale

Cathy's Theme from Wuthering Heights (long space to other side of page) Newman-Morley
TAMARA SMIRONOVA, violin

(centered) A Tribute to David Lean

(following not centered)

Excerpts from Dr. Zhivago* (long space to other side of page) Jarre - Karam

Three Pieces from Oliver Twist (long space to other side of page) Bax
Fagin's Romp - Sleepless Night - The Chase

Excerpts from Lawrence of Arabia* (long space to other side of page) Jarre - Karam

INTERMISSION

(centered all the way to the end)

The Magic of Harry Potter

A Grand Suite from Harry Potter
Music by John Williams

with LYNN REDGRAVE, narrator

Hedwig's Theme (space) Nimbus 2000
Aunt Marge's Waltz (space) Quidditch
Diagon Alley (space) The Chamber of Secrets
The Knight Bus (space) A Bridge to the Past
Fawkes the Phoenix (space) Harry's Wondrous World

(played in order of going down list, ex: Hedwig's Theme, Aunt Marge's Waltz, etc.)

---------------------

The first encore was a track from the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, possibly its first live performance. The track was The Adventures Of Mutt, played after John gave a quick summary of who Mutt was. The second encore was the main Indiana Jones theme, followed by something from ET, I guess the main theme.

Anyways, after all of that next on the page, it's just more info about sponsors in small text, and it says what record companies produce Pops CDs.

Post about the actual experience coming later.

 

So nothing from SW?

 

Nope... nothing.

 

Still sounds fantastic and just to be in the same area as Mr. Williams... fantastic!

Who did you get signatures from?

 

What do you mean who? From whom else than Williams himself?

 

i thought indy4 soundtrack was also performed

 

So you're going to be donating that to our raffle basket this year, right?





Congratulations on the autograph. That's a fantastic addition to anyone's collection.

 

Damn, Mike, I didn't even think of that! The othes autograph was for an autograph-holic friend of mine! Crap, now I feel bad.

 

Don't. You have no reason to. You have yourself an awesome memento to remember the concert by.

 

Yeah, but to not think of SMF and the charity... ugh, how could've I forgoten?!

Oh, and if anyone is interested, I wrote a massive review of the concert, and it was 'published' on jwfan.com (with a couple other smaller reviews from other nights)! It's one of the biggest John Williams sites on the web (I think). Anyways, if anyone wants to read it, just go to jwfan.com, and click the news headline that says something like "Film Night Boston".

 

Also, being a bit of a writer, any comments/feedback/questions are welcome! Though you have to share them here, since they can't be posted om jwfan.

 

We waited for Mr. Williams after the Saturday show. He was very gracious, but was in a hurry to leave. He signed a child's playbill and got into his car. I would have liked an autograph (a nice anniversary present it would have been), but being able to thank him for his music was satisfying enough.

As Mr. Williams finished the concert, some people behind us got up and left before the encores! Several more left after the first encore. If you've ever been to a John Williams concert, you know it's not truly finished until Mr. Williams does the "sleepy head" sign.

I hope he comes back to NYC in 2009!