John Williams: BBC Proms - What a disappointment

I watched it on iPlayer about 20 minutes behind the broadcast and ended up skipping the less known music and caught up to the live feed!

Why have a full orchestra for the rare chance to hear some great music played live and miss some well-known themes? An odd one!

I went to the Royal Albert Hall premiere of a live orchestra playing Danny Elfman's music for Tim Burton's films. Elfman sang, Burton and family were present and all the major themes were played. Now that was a night that should have been recorded for broadcast!

Depends on who the audience is, if your targetting people that appreciate music as part of their culture, for the memories and the fun, then yes, by and large ignore the lessor known pieces.  If your target audience is those that appreciate the skills and artistry of the composers and musicians, people that understand musical jokes, then you probably want to be finding a whole bunch of new stuff they have not heard before.

I would suggest this prom was aimed at the former group far more than the later.

But there was hardly a lot of obscure work in this show. The odd lesser known piece...is that an issue? People may as well just listen to a Best Of CD if they only want the big hitters. I don't really get it - there's music on BBC4 all the time, I don't think people complain if there's the odd b-side on one of the Bowie concerts they've shown do they? There were LOADS of famous tunes on the broadcast. Absolutely loads. Something for everybody.

So? Go see Bruce Springsteen and he won't have time to play all his hits. You won't get some of his biggest songs even though you will get a few obscurities along the way. This is pretty much how live music works. It wasn't billed as "John William's Most Famous And Memorable Works". Here's the description: "Celebrate the 85th birthday of one of the world’s favourite film composers in an evening of big emotions and even bigger melodies". I'd say it fulfilled the promise!

There's no way to quantify it but I bet there were very, very few people leaving the show saying "Well, I would have liked it....but they didn't play the Home Alone theme so it was a letdown". Any artist with such a vast back catalogue can't have all their work showcased in under two hours. Keith Lockhart who conducted is a friend and collaborator of John's....I think it's just possible he knew how to pay tribute to the man AND please an audience better than we could. He would know not just what pieces are iconic - which, sure, we all know - but the lesser pieces that maybe mean something to JW himself. It was a tribute t him after all. I can't grudge a few personal faves making the setlist.

See if they'd only played the Star Wars theme, there'd only be "Why no Imperial March theme?" "Where was Duel Of The Fates?" "Why didn't they play Binary Sunset?" bitches and moans.

Almost like they can't win.....

It was a celebration of his 85th birthday and his film work that stretches back 50 years, one of those 50 year pieces was from the well-known 1967 musical, Goodbye, Mr Chips at the very beginning of his career and what better way to start, at the beginning.
Just because you've never heard of the film, which doesn't surprise me in the slightest, as you're hardly the best person to champion most films and television programmes due to your very narrow preferences, plenty of people have and just as many people would have appreciated going back to his humble beginnings and a film that more than likely means a lot more to him, as we've all got to start somewhere. Don't forget, John has to approve this concert, he has the pick and last say of what goes in and if that's the way he chooses to celebrate his birthday and 50 years of music, then you can't really argue. Yes, it's not one his most famous, recognisable pieces but I and many appreciated it just because we've all got to start from somewhere and this was explained or touched upon in the commentary if you chose to listen properly instead of foaming at the mouth in anticipation and focusing too much for those first few bars of Jurassic Park to play in.
There were always going to be some pieces that would have not made the celebration as his work spanning 50 years is lengthy. I watched it on broadcast and was hoping for something from the unforgettable Schindler's List, one he won an Oscar for and something considerably more powerful than a 'Tom & Jerry' homage that was Home Alone but unfortunately it wasn't included yet I felt fulfilled due to the other plethora of works included on the night.
As for the Star Wars numbers, I'm not sure why you've chosen to put the word 'ridiculous', twice when describing them when they're anything but ridiculous, yet don't for any of the ones you wanted? Why is that?
Eight films and soon to be a ninth, with each film having at least three iconic musical themes or motifs, that's a huge chunk out of 50 years.
Play The Imperial March, Binary Sunset, Cantina Band, Yoda's Theme, Leia's Theme, The Asteroid Field, Ewok Celebration, Duel of the Fates, Rey's Theme, etc. to anyone and they'll know them far more than the actual main theme to Home Alone, making that HA piece the most obscure to them, so what's obscure to you doesn't necessarily mean it's obscure to everyone.
Have you actually watched Mr Chips, War Horse or The BFG? I thoroughly recommend each one, then you'd know and appreciate each note within each piece as the films are terrific, especially The War Horse, if you can personally get past the 'boring' history of men laying down their lives for our freedom in 1917.

Pretty much this and especially the highlighted part.