John Williams: The Berlin Concert

"Without John Williams, bikes don't really fly, nor do brooms in Quidditch matches, nor do men in red capes. There is no Force, dinosaurs do not walk the Earth, we do not wonder, we do not weep, we do not believe. You breathe belief in to every film we have made" - Steven Spielberg

Just watched for the first time the televised version (as well as listened to the CD version straight after) of John Williams Live at Berlin (which, funnily enough, I initially found almost by happy accident towards the tail-end of last year whilst browsing through the festive television schedules) and I have to say freaking wow! To say that this is the John Williams concert I never would've thought in a million years I always wanted to see and for it to turn out to be just simply nothing short of amazing and magical in every way you can possibly imagine and instantly gives you the fantastic feeling of being transported back to when you were a kid all over again and leaves you with the biggest, proudest smile on your face when it ends is a massive understatement and just even further cements John Williams as one of, if not, my absolute favourite film composer of all time.

It also feels like you're actually watching the man essentially thank the fans for taking his music completely into their hearts for all these years and rewarding them with such a musical experience that they will never, ever forget.

My only minor gripe is actually less to do with the concert itself and more to do with the televised version being so heavily edited by the BBC, who basically made the rather questionable decision to condense the full 2-hour concert into just an hour and 22 minutes (meaning roughly 40 minutes of extra footage was taken out of the final cut) clearly due to both its showing on BBC4 at the time as well as apparent time constraints. I mean, of course, it's enough of a shame that the main Jaws theme isn't even included in the full set anyway but it still makes it rather disappointing that we don't actually get to visually see the orchestra playing the Superman theme (one of my personal favourites) or Princess Leia's theme or heck even the Flying Theme from ET (another one of my personal favourites). But ultimately, what we DO get in the televised version (e.g. A few other personal favourites of mine being the Raiders March from Indiana Jones, the Throne Room/Finale suite, Yoda's Theme and the Imperial March from Star Wars, the Jurassic Park theme and even Hedwig's Theme as well as Harry's Wondrous World from Harry Potter) is just as magical that even one lesser decision by the higher-ups at the BBC does not at all detract or take away from how much I thoroughly enjoyed and loved this concert from the very bottom of my heart.

The Berlin Philharmonic itself is certainly one of the greatest European symphony orchestras in the world working today, right up there with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic and even the London Symphony Orchestra (just to name a select few) and this performance very much proves that point. You can clearly tell not just how much passion and talent went into putting this orchestra together but also how much of an especially cracking good time they had essentially being guided by one of their idols.

But of course the MVP and the true standout star of this entire production by far is John Towner Williams himself. I mean, coming from someone who has been a huge John Williams fan since early childhood, I could literally gush about the man nonstop but honestly, what else really is there for me to say about John Williams that hasn't already been said? He is literally right up there with some of the greatest Hollywood film composers of all time including Max Steiner, Miklos Rozsa, Leonard Bernstein, Ennio Morricone, James Horner, Jerry Goldsmith and Bernard Herrmann. He is a living legend. He is a film score god, a genius, the modern-day Beethoven, Bach, Leopold Stokowski or Mozart. He is basically the Yoda or Albus Dumbledore of film composers working today, an absolute master wizard of his craft who could literally do no wrong in my eyes. He is the proverbial genie out of the Hollywood lamp who, with just one wave of that baton, has the power to audibly transport you to places you've never been to before through his music. Speaking of which, his scores in particular (such as Jaws, Jurassic Park, Superman, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter (at least the first 3), ET, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, etc.) have very rightly gone down as some of the most legendary and iconic in film history. Seriously, if you don't find it inspirational enough that this man still continues to be at the top of his game at 92 years old and yet shows no sign of slowing down for the foreseeable future, then I don't know what is!

Plus, you can tell with the biggest smile on his face as well as his subtle use of body language, the odd twinkle in his eye, every slight nod of the head, every wave of his baton and every subtle hand gesture he makes that he was clearly enjoying every single second of this performance.

I also love the fact that in-between his introductions of some (but not all) the pieces, Williams basically gives us a little intellectual window into his personality and allows us to see the true kindness, the humility, the intelligence, the generosity, the worldly wisdom and above all the graciousness with which he commands an entire room and allows the orchestra to shine in his presence.

If ever you needed a quote that so perfectly sums up and encapsulates how deeply adored, respected and revered by both the Hollywood film industry and film fans in general John Williams truly is not just in terms of his massive contribution and influence within Hollywood and how he's basically changed the game when it comes to how the modern film score is supposed to sound, not just in terms of how much of an influence he has had on other great film composers working today such as Alexandre Desplat, Jonny Greenwood, James Newton Howard, Danny Elfman, Howard Shore, Alan Silvestri and Hans Zimmer (and I honestly would not be surprised if Murray Gold also took some direct inspiration from John Williams for the amazing scores he continues to do for Doctor Who) but also in terms of his magical ability to define your childhood by transporting you to the most fantastical of worlds as well as tug at your heartstrings and make you feel a wide range of human emotions through his music, the above quote from Steven Spielberg firmly hits the nail on the head and of course it is going to feel a much darker world when John Williams is eventually no longer with us but at the same token, his legacy is going to continue to enrich and inspire countless generations of film composers as well as classical composers in general to come long after he passes on.

In conclusion, if you're a major John Williams or film score fanatic in general and/or want to see the man himself in action conducting some of his most iconic film scores with a live symphony orchestra around him, I definitely highly recommend that you check out John Williams Live at Berlin as soon as you possibly can and/or buy the CD as well as the DVD.

My overall rating for John Williams Live at Berlin: 10/10.