Music Album Review: 'By Request: The Best of John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra'
Over the last 31 years, By Request: The Best of John Williams
and the Boston Pops Orchestra has been in my music library in both
cassette and compact disc formats and a favorite "listening
experience." The cassette version, in fact, was one of five tapes I took
with me on my 88-day study-abroad stint in Seville, Spain. I had a very cheap
Walkman clone and I'd walk from my apartment to the College Consortium for
International Studies' Seville Center four times a week with John Williams'
music providing a bubble of the familiar amidst the very
Spanish atmosphere of that lovely and ancient city in Andalusia.
Considering how fond I became of that cassette tape (I still have it somewhere, even though it hasn't been played in over 20 years), it won't surprise anyone that By Request was among the first batch of compact discs that I bought after my first CD player and fledgling collection of CDs were stolen from my house.
Considering how fond I became of that cassette tape (I still have it somewhere, even though it hasn't been played in over 20 years), it won't surprise anyone that By Request was among the first batch of compact discs that I bought after my first CD player and fledgling collection of CDs were stolen from my house.
First, I bought only the replacements for the purloined
albums, but one day I was in the Camelot Music (now FYE) store at the Miami
International Mall and while looking for Out of This World, another
Philips-issued John Williams/Boston Pops recording, I stumbled upon a single
copy of By Request. Without looking at the track list on the
back cover, I purchased it and went home, eager to hear my favorite Boston Pops
album once again, but this time with the awesome clarity of the compact disc
format.
Having heard the cassette version constantly, again I did not look at the track list, expecting it to be exactly like the tape's program. I simply opened the jewel case packaging, inserted the disc into the CD player, closed the lid, and hit PLAY.
Sure enough, By Request started out with Williams' Olympic Fanfare and Theme (Track 1), which had been commissioned for the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 1984. I smiled as I sat back and listened to the heroic brasses and sweeping bridge that I had heard so many times on my way to class in Spain, and when it ended, I waited with anticipation to hear the Excerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Track 3), but that's when I received my first pleasant surprise as the very Elmer Bernstein-like The Cowboys Overture (Track 2) began with a glorious brass introduction, which segued into a series of themes from that 1972 John Wayne oater about some young boys who go on a dangerous cattle drive in 19th Century Texas.
Once I got over the initial "What the...?" surprise of hearing an unexpected track, I picked up the jewel case and looked at the track list closely. Yes, all the familiar Williams themes and marches from the cassette edition were there, but there were two additional tracks as well, The Cowboys Overture and the March from Raiders of the Lost Ark (Track 9).
In addition to such well-known themes as Luke and Leia from Return of the Jedi (Track 5) and the heart-poundingly scary Theme from Jaws (Track 12), By Request features less-familiar works, such as 1986's "special occasion" Liberty Fanfare (Track 8), which Williams composed for the Centennial of the Statue of Liberty that year, and the March from Midway (Track 4), possibly the only decent relic from that awful 1976 movie about the pivotal World War II naval battle.
Also new at the time but later reissued in other Williams/Boston Pops albums was the March from "1941" (Track 11), another fine example of musical material that outlived its film source; in this case, the cue is from one of Steven Spielberg's rare misfires, the ambitious and overly baroque "comedy" about American reaction to the Pearl Harbor attack. Reminiscent of Henry Mancini's march for What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?, the march is a wicked blend of militaristic material and comical whimsy.
Television viewers who watched NBC News programs in the late 1980s get a special treat in By Request when they listen to Track 14, which contains the complete orchestral version of The Mission Theme (Theme for NBC News), which is still heard in brief excerpts at the beginning and end of the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw newscasts. It's a dramatic composition that conveys the fast pace, the adrenaline rushes, and even the sense of purpose felt by journalists and anchormen as they gather the news all over the world. I especially like this piece, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I'd play it while writing my "foreign correspondent" columns for Catalyst, the college newspaper where I had been a staff writer and editor during my years at Miami Dade Community College.
Star Wars fans will be happy to know that in addition to Luke and Leia there are three cues from the Classic Trilogy: Yoda's Theme from The Empire Strikes Back (Track 10), The Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back (Track 13), and concluding the By Request experience on a triumphant note, the Main Theme from Star Wars (Track 15).
This is a very entertaining album, perfectly suited for fans of film and special occasion fanfares or lovers of light classical music. Sure, many of these tracks are available in other Boston Pops and/or John Williams compilations, but it's never dull or sleep-inducing.
By Request: The Best of John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra:
1. Olympic Fanfare and Theme
2. The Cowboys Overture
3. Excerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
4. March from Midway
5. Flying Theme from E.T.
6. Luke and Leia Theme from Return of the Jedi
7. March from Superman
8. Liberty Fanfare
9. March from Raiders of the Lost Ark
10. Yoda's Theme from The Empire Strikes Back
11. March from 1941
12. Theme from Jaws
13. Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back
14. Mission Theme (Theme for NBC News)
15. Main Theme From Star Wars
Having heard the cassette version constantly, again I did not look at the track list, expecting it to be exactly like the tape's program. I simply opened the jewel case packaging, inserted the disc into the CD player, closed the lid, and hit PLAY.
Sure enough, By Request started out with Williams' Olympic Fanfare and Theme (Track 1), which had been commissioned for the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 1984. I smiled as I sat back and listened to the heroic brasses and sweeping bridge that I had heard so many times on my way to class in Spain, and when it ended, I waited with anticipation to hear the Excerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Track 3), but that's when I received my first pleasant surprise as the very Elmer Bernstein-like The Cowboys Overture (Track 2) began with a glorious brass introduction, which segued into a series of themes from that 1972 John Wayne oater about some young boys who go on a dangerous cattle drive in 19th Century Texas.
Once I got over the initial "What the...?" surprise of hearing an unexpected track, I picked up the jewel case and looked at the track list closely. Yes, all the familiar Williams themes and marches from the cassette edition were there, but there were two additional tracks as well, The Cowboys Overture and the March from Raiders of the Lost Ark (Track 9).
In addition to such well-known themes as Luke and Leia from Return of the Jedi (Track 5) and the heart-poundingly scary Theme from Jaws (Track 12), By Request features less-familiar works, such as 1986's "special occasion" Liberty Fanfare (Track 8), which Williams composed for the Centennial of the Statue of Liberty that year, and the March from Midway (Track 4), possibly the only decent relic from that awful 1976 movie about the pivotal World War II naval battle.
Also new at the time but later reissued in other Williams/Boston Pops albums was the March from "1941" (Track 11), another fine example of musical material that outlived its film source; in this case, the cue is from one of Steven Spielberg's rare misfires, the ambitious and overly baroque "comedy" about American reaction to the Pearl Harbor attack. Reminiscent of Henry Mancini's march for What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?, the march is a wicked blend of militaristic material and comical whimsy.
Television viewers who watched NBC News programs in the late 1980s get a special treat in By Request when they listen to Track 14, which contains the complete orchestral version of The Mission Theme (Theme for NBC News), which is still heard in brief excerpts at the beginning and end of the NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw newscasts. It's a dramatic composition that conveys the fast pace, the adrenaline rushes, and even the sense of purpose felt by journalists and anchormen as they gather the news all over the world. I especially like this piece, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I'd play it while writing my "foreign correspondent" columns for Catalyst, the college newspaper where I had been a staff writer and editor during my years at Miami Dade Community College.
Star Wars fans will be happy to know that in addition to Luke and Leia there are three cues from the Classic Trilogy: Yoda's Theme from The Empire Strikes Back (Track 10), The Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back (Track 13), and concluding the By Request experience on a triumphant note, the Main Theme from Star Wars (Track 15).
This is a very entertaining album, perfectly suited for fans of film and special occasion fanfares or lovers of light classical music. Sure, many of these tracks are available in other Boston Pops and/or John Williams compilations, but it's never dull or sleep-inducing.
By Request: The Best of John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra:
1. Olympic Fanfare and Theme
2. The Cowboys Overture
3. Excerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind
4. March from Midway
5. Flying Theme from E.T.
6. Luke and Leia Theme from Return of the Jedi
7. March from Superman
8. Liberty Fanfare
9. March from Raiders of the Lost Ark
10. Yoda's Theme from The Empire Strikes Back
11. March from 1941
12. Theme from Jaws
13. Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back
14. Mission Theme (Theme for NBC News)
15. Main Theme From Star Wars
Comments
Post a Comment