John Williams 80th Birthday Show at Tanglewood!

[chewbaccadoll]

Boy, I was excited for this for a while, and last night the day finally came! John Williams 80th Birthday Show at Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, MA.

Myself, Doug, (westies14), his wife, son and brother-in-law Josh all went last night and what a turnout!

Outside of an outstanding musical experience the the BPO (accompanied by Yo-YoMa and others for certain pieces, special guests and birthday greetings were part of the show including:

• Brian Williams (with a mock news report about the celebration)
• Steven Spielberg (in person, and quite the moving and well deserved speech)
• Boston Red Sox
• President Barack Obama
• George Lucas (who, if you ask me gave a very weak and disappointing greeting/birthday wish considering what John's means in his body of work.)
• James Taylor (who came out and performed "You've Got A Friend")
• President Bill Clinton

For me the highlights were hearing "E.T. Adventures On Earth" and of course the "Star Wars Maine Theme Title", but it was all incredible.

I've been reading articles this morning and the general consensus seems to be people being a little disappointed that we didn't hear his "hits" like Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders, etc. but like any other musical performance, you can never make all of the people happy all of the time.

I was extremely glad to be there and I will always remember the night.

Did anyone else make it out to the show from the area?

And of course, being a shirt guy myself I got a t-shirt in case my memory does start to fade!

 

[Wes R]

Lucas doesn't seem to have much enthusiasm about anything anymore. I thought Williams was way older than this, he's done enough work for 2 lifetimes.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Wish I could have been there although the exclusion of Raiders is pretty bad.

 

[PotionMistress]

Wow, that must have been a wonderful event. No one deserves significant recognition more than John Williams; his work is nothing short of genius and breaths true life into everything he scores for.

 

[chewbaccadoll]

Lucas doesn't seem to have much enthusiasm about anything anymore. I thought Williams was way older than this, he's done enough work for 2 lifetimes.

True. Discouraging to witness as a fan, though.

Spielberg made the point that this marked his working with John exactly half of John's life! 40 years! And a little tidbit I learned, John worked on all of Spielberg's films EXCEPT for two.

I need to hit Google and find out which two!

 

[binkleywalker]

The Color Purple and maybe Duel??

Great trivia question!

 

[chewbaccadoll]

This is courtesy of Wikipedia:

The 1985 film The Color Purple is the only theatrical feature directed by Steven Spielberg for which John Williams did not serve as composer. The film's producer, Quincy Jones, wanted to personally arrange and compose the music for the project. Williams also did not score Twilight Zone: The Movie, but Spielberg had directed only one of the four segments in that film; the lead director and producer of the film, John Landis, selected Jerry Goldsmith as composer.

 

[chewbaccadoll]

The Color Purple and maybe Duel??

Great trivia question!

And you're correct about "Duel", but being as it was a TV movie and not a theatrical release, I guess it doesn't count.

 

[El Duderino]

I seen him with my girlfriend back in the beginning of June in Boston. It was such a fantastic show. Wish I could of made this one.