John Williams

A few weeks ago when Thomas and I went to the symphony we saw a upcoming concert advertised with John Williams conducting his own film scores, accompanied by footage of some of his films. We both thought, we just have to see that, but our hopes were dashed to find out that tickets were completely sold out.

Just last week though I wandered in to the Chicago Symphony Centre (downtown) to ask if there were any tickets which had become available. There were! In the upper balcony, without a guarantee that we would see the screen, but tickets nonetheless! Thomas said that seeing John Williams would be like seeing Mozart conduct his own compositions in his day. I think that people who got to tell their grandkids that they saw Mozart wouldn't have complained "but I couldn't see the painting on the back wall".

Today we went to that concert. It was beyond awesome. One of the greatest things I have seen / heard / done / been to in my life.

Williams has written the scores for so many of the most popular films of a generation, that most of the tunes were instantly familiar - Superman, Jaws, Born on the 4th of July, Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and of course, Star Wars and ET.

There was such a range of styles - from the triumphant fanfares of many of the above, to the celtic lilt of Far and Away, to the smooth jazz of Catch Me If You Can, to the exquisite beauty of Memoirs of a Geisha.

Bonus 1: A venerable old senator, Alan Simpson came on stage to narrate a passage from the novel The Reivers, while Williams conducted music from the film. I'd not heard of the book nor seen the film, but it was just delightful, and with the music I could imagine each scene as it was narrated.

Bonus 2: Music is such huge part of evoking mood in film. In Yr 11 at school we watched a section of Psycho without the music, and then with it, to see what a difference music makes (imagine the shower scene without the "eek eek eek"! Williams showed a chase scene from Indiana Jones without the soundtrack, narrating what musical devices he employed to emphasise the action, then replayed the film with the orchestra playing the score.

Bonus 3: We could see the screen (but we had cheap tickets anyway!). So we watched the finale - sections of Jaws, Star Wars, Raiders and ET accompanied by film clips.

There were repeated standing ovations - and 3 encores, including the CBS news theme which he wrote, which in Australia is the Channel 7 news theme, and The Empire Strikes Back theme.

It was such magic - to see Williams himself conduct, knowing that he himself dreamt up the music which has moved me and millions of people to delight and to tears. I may never have the chance to see such an accomplished composer live again.