Programmes

The Best of John Williams

Programme to include music from:

  • Raiders of the Lost Ark: Raiders March 
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: Motorcycle Scherzo 
  • Jurassic Park: Theme 
  • Schindler’s List: Theme 
  • Memoirs of a Geisha: Sayuri’s Theme 
  • Excerpts from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 
  • Catch Me If You Can: Theme 
  • Star Wars The Phantom Menace: Duel of the Fates 
  • Olympic Fanfare and Theme 
  • E.T.: Flying Theme 
  • Jaws: Shark Theme 
  • Excerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind 
  • Saving Private Ryan: Hymn to the Fallen 
  • Excerpts from Star Wars 

Performers

  • Stephen Bell

    Conductor

Introduction

I’m delighted to welcome you to this concert of cinema greats by the incomparable John Williams. Our journey takes us through several decades of blockbuster scores from Jaws and Superman to Harry Potter and, of course, Star Wars. The hardest part about putting this programme together was deciding what to include and what to leave out – there is so much great music to choose from!

His ability to turn his hand to such a wide variety of subject matters and also to engage so readily with his audience on such an emotional level is perhaps what sets him apart from just about every other composer for the cinema. His music also sits so comfortably in the concert hall away from the associated visuals and certainly helps to invoke so many memories.

Listen out for a totally different sound world when we play the music from Catch Me If You Can. Full of jazz influences, the music draws on John Williams’ time as a jazz pianist in his early career, a time when he was known as Johnny Williams!

The list of accolades is so impressive – perhaps the statistic that only Walt Disney ever achieved more Academy Award nominations than John Williams tells you everything you need to know about the man and his music.

I hope you enjoy our journey through some of the best-loved and most iconic film soundtracks ever written.

Stephen Bell
Conductor

Fun facts about the music of John Williams

US Air Force

In 1951 John Williams was drafted into the US Air Force and stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force base in Tuscon, Arizona. During his service he requested to join the music programme and was moved to St Johns in Newfoundland, Canada, where he soon began not only playing for the band but arranging pieces for them too. It was in this band that he arranged his first ever film score, You Are Welcome.

Academy Awards Record-Setter

John Williams has won five Academy Awards for Best Original Score. His most famous wins were for Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977), E.T. (1982), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and Schindler's List (1993). He also holds the record for the most Academy Award nominations for a living person (52 nominations). That includes a whopping 25 nominations for Best Original Score!

Collaborations with Spielberg

Director Steven Spielberg has collaborated with Williams on nearly every one of his films. Their partnership is one of the most successful in film history and includes the scoring for movies like Saving Private Ryan, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones and Catch Me If You Can.

More than a Composer

Williams trained as a classical pianist as well as studying composition at Julliard School in New York. He started out as a pianist for various Hollywood Studios before making his mark as a film composer. Williams is also an accomplished conductor and has worked with orchestras like the London Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops Orchestra.

Where else would you recognise his work?

Did you know John Williams also wrote the music for television shows, including Gilligan's Island, The Twilight Zone, and The Bensonhurst Spelling Bee. He also composed the music for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.