Music CD Review: 'John Williams/Steven Spielberg: The Ultimate Collection'

In 1991, Sony Classical released The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration, a 13-track album that features music composed by John Williams for the movies by director Steven Spielberg. Those compositions - marches, main title themes, and scene-specific cues - covered the first 15 years or so of what is one of the longest artistic partnerships in film history.

As Variety's film music writer Jon Burlingame states in the liner notes to Sony Classical's John Williams/Steven Spielberg: The Ultimate Collection that there have been other famous director-composer duos: "Film historians often cite Alfred Hitchcock and Bernard Herrmann, for example, or Federico Fellini and Nino Rota; others might name Sergio Leone and Ennio Morricone, or Blake Edwards and Henry Mancini."

But, as Burlingame points out:

None, however, have been as long or as fruitful as the forty-three-year collaboration of Steven Spielberg and John Williams. None have encompassed such a wide range of subject matter or, more significantly, have had such an enormous impact on worldwide popular culture.

Sony Classical's The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration was recorded in Boston's Symphony Hall in the spring of 1990. Maestro Williams was conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra then, and Spielberg was in the pre-production stage of his upcoming fantasy film Hook. The 13 tracks of this CD feature music from the first 10 films that Williams had scored for Spielberg:

• Sugarland Express
• Jaws
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind
• 1941
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
• Empire of the Sun
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• Always

The album not only had great cover art by Drew Struzan, one of the most prolific movie poster and book cover illustrators in the business, but also a warm tribute by Steven Spielberg. The filmmaker, who was still in his 40s at the time, had this to say about his friend and collaborator:

I want to salute John Williams - the quintessential film composer. John has transformed and uplifted every movie that we've made together. As his works are performed on this recording with the artistry of the Boston Pops Orchestra, I think you'll hear what I mean. For instance, who would have imagined the mood that two simple notes, in a heartbeat rhythm, could create. To this day, just hearing those two notes from Jaws (1975) immediately conjures shark, adrenaline, and second thoughts about swimming. John's music became the character. But the magic of John's music supporting the picture is one thing: the other is the loveliness and power of the music itself.

The original 1991 album sold well, but the Spielberg/Williams collaboration was not over. Not by a long shot. The former wunderkind was 48 years old in 1995 and still making such films as Hook, Jurassic Park, and Schindler's List when Sony Classical released The Classic Spielberg Scores.

Like The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration, the second disc in the series features a mix of cues and themes from older movies in Spielberg's filmography (Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1941, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Empire of the Sun) and the three newer films that Spielberg had done up to then: Hook, Schindler's List, and Jurassic Park.   

Although Williams and producer Shawn Murphy selected music from Spielberg's hit movies of the 1970s and 1980s, five tracks (one third of the album's total content) are from Hook. These selections are perhaps less familiar to Spielberg (and/or Williams) aficionados because Hook wasn't as warmly received by movie-goers or film critics. The music (Flight to Neverland, Smee's Plan, The Lost Boys' Ballet, The Face of Pan, and The Banquet) is still lovely and powerful, though. 

As the anonymous liner note author writes in The Classic Spielberg Scores regarding Bernard Herrmann's observation that film music "is the communicating link between the screen and the audience, reaching out and enveloping all into one single experience.": 

This is certainly true of the Spielberg/Williams collaborations, but Williams' scores have an added power: while in no way an obtrusive partner in the film, they somehow stick in the audience's subconscious so that, no matter where you hear the music again, you immediately envision the moment when you first heard the theme in the picture. No one who has seen Jurassic Park, for example, will ever forget the theme's initial appearance when the scientists, with awe and wonder, first behold the majesty of the dinosaurs. 

In 2017, Sony Classical released The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration - Part III, a 16-track compilation of Williams' scores for most of Spielberg's post-1993 films. This time around, only one selection from a 1980s hit (Marion's Theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark) is to be heard; all of the other themes hail from the following movies:

• Amistad
• Saving Private Ryan
• The Unfinished Journey
• Minority Report
• Catch Me If You Can
• The Terminal
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
• War Horse
• The Adventures of Tintin
• Lincoln
• The BFG

Although John Williams, who produced the new album, didn't include themes from A.I.: Artificial Intelligence or War of the Worlds, the third album of the series still covers a lot of ground.  10 21st Century-era feature films and a film/concert project released between 1994 and 2016 are represented, as well as 1981's Raiders of the Lost Ark, 

Not surprisingly, this eclectic selection means that the listener will be treated to a smorgasbord of musical styles and the emotions they evoke. There's the spirit of youthful derring-do in The Adventures of Mutt from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and the stately dignity of America's 16th President in Malice Toward None from Lincoln. There's childlike wonder in Heather Clark's flute solo The BFG from 2016's The BFG, playful jazzy riffs in Catch Me If You Can's Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra, and a solemn Prayer for Peace from 2005's Munich. 

As Jon Burlingame writes in his liner notes:

The present disc revisits - via new concert arrangements - Williams' music for eleven films and a film/concert project, all composed over the past two decades. "It's a rollercoaster ride of different idioms of music," notes Spielberg, "from the jazz in Catch Me If You Can to the noble sobriety of Saving Private Ryan and Lincoln. It's a very interesting walk down memory lane. The burden of the movie is no longer with us. The music will take you places through your imagination."

John Williams retired as the Boston Pops' Principal Conductor in the mid-1990s (he is the Pops' Laureate Conductor and still performs with the orchestra several times each year), so for this recording he and executive producer Steven Spielberg chose to work with the Recording Arts Orchestra of Los Angeles. This was the ensemble that performed the music for The BFG, and the composer/conductor was so pleased with their work that he chose them for the first new recording of themes from Spielberg movies in over 20 years. 

The orchestra was joined in UCLA.'s Royce Hall by the University of California, Fullerton, University Singers and the Los Angeles Children's Chorus for The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration, Part III.  The result: a wonderful blend of musical styles and moods that reflect the talents of two great American artists, as well as the friendship they have forged over the past 43 years.

John Williams/Steven Spielberg: The Ultimate Collection includes a DVD titled Steven Spielberg & John Williams: The Adventure Continues. This is a short (less than one hour-long) documentary by Laurent Bouzerau. It is a behind-the-scenes look at the long collaboration between the filmmaker and the composer, plus it shows a still-spry Williams (who just turned 85 in February) leading the Recording Arts Orchestra in the recording sessions for The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration - Part III. It's a watchable look at the two friends and their long collaboration, but I wish it had been a deeper exploration of their many works together. 

All in all, this 2017 box set is a must-have for film music buffs, and especially for listeners who enjoy John Williams' magical scores for the films of Steven Spielberg.