John Williams Goes Serious

ClassicsToday

Artistic Quality:

Sound Quality:

It seems that we are supposed to take John Williams, one of the greatest and most successful film composers, seriously. This disc has two examples, both of which are skillfully played (and all-but-defended) by violinist Gil Shaham. The substantial liner notes only mention Williams’ compositions for film because the two concertos are on the same disc as music from the movie Schindler’s List. The notes go on about the great Chinese dawn redwood tree (found in the Boston Public Garden) as the source of inspiration for the violin concerto Treesong. Photographs of Williams and Shaham aside said tree, with Williams looking dashing in his dotage, seem an attempt to cast this composer as the Charles Ives of the new millennium and to lend him “classical” currency. Sadly, he lacks the creativity or vision of an Ives, and while his film music is stunning and evocative, his concert music is oddly recherché and not terribly interesting.

The pre-Star Wars Violin Concerto has some interesting twists and turns, aping the angularity of a homegrown neo-Romantic like Samuel Barber. But where Barber had a sense of large-scale form, and inside that a wealth of interesting ideas, both the Violin Concerto and Treesong seem like cheap imitations rather than pieces that say something in a past (and arguably dead) language. There are wonderful moments–such as the Fugato entrance of the clarinet after a violin cadenza near the end of the Concerto’s first movement–but rather than make up for the music’s deficiencies, these only add expectations that don’t pan out. Even the “subtly orchestrated” (according to the booklet) chords that are the main attraction in the first movement of Treesong–and they certainly are striking–fail to lead to any interesting musical conclusions. The pieces feel like more of a wash than musical experiences.

But then there is the Three Pieces from Schindler’s List: atmospheric, languorous, perfectly styled, ingeniously orchestrated, there to remind us that Williams is a composer of breathtaking capacity. Hearing Shaham play these passionate melodies could break the strongest heart, and not simply because of their association with the crushing film for which they were composed. This is some of the strongest film music since Bernard Herrmann wrote the score for Citizen Kane.

The sound on this disc is excellent, and Shaham plays each piece with individual consistency and care. He makes as much as possible out of the seemingly endless cadenzas, giving way to the orchestra when required. The orchestra, led by the composer, is crystalline and pure, almost excessively so. While it works for the straight-ahead Schindler’s List music, a bit more ambiguity might make the two concertos more evocative.


Recording Details:

Reference Recording: none

JOHN WILLIAMS - Treesong; Violin Concerto; Three Pieces from Schindler's List

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