John Williams (b. 1932)
Reimagined
Sara Andon (flute)
Cécilia Tsan (cello)
Simone Pedroni (piano)
Transcriptions by Simone Pedroni, except for Memoirs of a Geisha, Elegy & Schindler’s List (arranged by John Williams)
rec. 2022, The Village, Los Angeles, USA
Reviewed as WAV download
Warner Classics 5419 794233 [2 CDs: 167]
John Williams has had a great career as composer of film music and concert music since the 1950s and is still going strong. The Fabelmans was premiered in 2022, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in 2023, and both were nominated for an Academy Award, the 53rd and 54th during his star-studded career. To the general public he is best known for blockbusters like Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, but he has a wider palate than that. A lot of his music is soft and melodious, and for the present chamber music album focus is very much on that side of his creativity. Producer Robert Townson, whose comprehensive and fact-peppered liner notes is an invaluable guide-book to this programme, wanted to pay attention to the many beautiful flute solos that can be found in Williams’ scores, so the choice of the versatile Sara Andon was natural. Likewise, her longtime duo partner, Italian pianist Simone Pedroni was the natural choice as accompanist. Moreover, Pedroni was an excellent arranger, and he provided most of the transcriptions. Cellist Cécilia Tsan was for many years a studio musician in Williams’ recordings and was also a childhood friend of Yo-Yo Ma, for whom Williams composed the Elegy for Cello and Piano as well as the cello solos in Memoirs of a Geisha. Before going further with this project, it was important to get Williams’ support, which he did, and he even arranged several pieces, including the Geisha triptych.
Townson decided to open the programme with one of the most well-known melodies, Princess Leia’s Theme from Star Wars. It is one of those melodies that immediately sticks, but as we progress through the two hours and forty-seven minutes long programme, one lovely tune after the other entices the listener, and the richness of his invention is amazing. Many of the melodies are slow and soft, quite often melancholy, but there is no sense of monotony. At intervals, we hear a lively piece with some entertaining twist. Just a few examples: To Thornfield, from the rather early Jane Eyre is refreshingly sprightly; The Pony Ride in The River is a charming illustration of the little horse energetically trotting forward; in the medley from Far and Away, we are taken on a speedy railway trip in Blowing off Steam, Honegger-like.
The excerpts from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban are jolly and humoristic, and the end is a veritable vitamin injection, but in between there is slow and beautiful piece for flute and piano, A Window to the Past, is certainly one of the high spots here. A similar high spot is The Patriot, also for flute and piano, with a virtuoso finale. From The Witches of Eastwick we can enjoy The Tennis Game, a mercurial scherzo, and a Devil’s Dance, played furioso.
Simone Pedroni has a couple of piano solos, and Cécilia Tsan is also featured on her own in Memoirs of a Geisha. She also has what probably is the best known number in the whole collection: the Theme from Schindler’s List. On the sound track it was played by Itzhak Perlman, but here Williams has transposed it for the cello, which works excellently. It should also be mentioned that the Elegy for Cello and Piano is the original of the better-known Elegy for Cello and Orchestra, recorded by Jo-Jo Ma in 2002.
The playing throughout is committed and technically impeccable, and the programme is a cornucopia of wonderful, melodious music that need not necessarily be played from beginning to end but be dipped into at will. For chamber music lovers, this is a dream come true, and admirers of John Williams will be fascinated to explore his music from a new perspective.
Göran Forsling
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Contents
1 Princess Leia’s Theme from Star Wars 5.01
from Jane Eyre
2 To Thornfield 2.07
3 Reunion 6.20
from Memoirs of a Geisha
4 Sayuri’s Theme 4.05
5 A Dream Discarded 2.39
6 Going to School 3.04
7 In Search of Unicorns from Images 4.27
from The River
8 Growing Up 3.52
9 The Pony Ride 3.23
10 Love Theme 5.53
11 Young Friend’s Farewell 3.31
12 Theme from The Sugarland Express 6.28
13 Elegy for Cello and Piano 7.21
14 The Reunion from A.I. Artificial Intelligence 10.14
15 Han Solo and the Princess from The Empire Strikes Back 6.14
from Far and Away
16 County Galway
Joseph and Shannon
Blowing off Steam
Finale 8.04
17 The Fabelmans 2.28
18 Seven Years in Tibet 7.35
19 A Tree for My Bed from Jurassic Park 3.03
20 The Face of Pan from Hook 5.14
21 The Accidental Tourist 4.55
22 Theme from Schindler’s List 4.05
from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
23 Double Trouble 1.35
24 A Window to the Past 4.38
25 Hagrid the Professor 1.53
26 Chasing Scabbers –
Hagrid’s Friendly Bird –
The Snowball Fight 2.09
27 End Credits from Dracula 4.02
from War Horse
28 Dartmoor 1912
Bringing Joey Home and Bonding
The Death of Topthorn
Finale and The Homecoming 15.24
29 The Patriot 6.53
30 How Can I Remember? from Sabrina 3.01
from The Witches of Eastwick
31 The Tennis Game 2.57
32 The Seduction of Suki and The Ballroom Sequence 7.19
33 Devil’s Dance 4.54
34 Over the Moon from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 2.15
