\n
10 best film scores by John Williams<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
Five lesser-known film scores by John Williams<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
Four of the best John Williams recordings<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
Exclusive interview: John Williams on composing for film, his concert work \u2013 and the Vienna Philharmonic<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
Who has won the most Oscars for film music?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
<\/p><\/div> <\/section>
Star Wars<\/em><\/a><\/strong> (1977) exposed the world to the sound of the London Symphony Orchestra<\/a><\/strong> on a level it just hadn\u2019t been before, followed by high-profile film score recordings over the decade that followed. But even before that first visit to a galaxy far, far away, John Williams was no stranger to London. Williams spent a good portion of the 1970s in the capital working on music projects, including long spells on the film musicals Goodbye Mr Chips<\/em> and Fiddler on the Roof<\/em>, not to mention film scores like Jane Eyre<\/em> and even a West End musical \u2013 1975\u2019s Thomas and the King<\/em>.<\/p>\n
After Star Wars<\/em> Williams returned to London time and again to record some of his greatest film scores and albums, including Superman \u2013 The Movie <\/em>(1978), Dracula <\/em>(1978), The Empire Striks Back <\/em>(1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark <\/em>(1981), Monsignor <\/em>(1982) and Return of the Jedi <\/em>(1983). He made notable returns from 1999-2005 to record music for early films in the Harry Potter<\/em> series and the prequel trilogy of Star Wars<\/em> films, so really has been a key figure in waving the flag for British musicians, engineers and studios.<\/p>\n
He joins a venerable list of past musical recipients and is in very fine company indeed: Daniel Barenboim<\/a><\/strong>, Alfred Brendel, Pl\u00e1cido Domingo, Bernard Haitink<\/a><\/strong>, Yehudi Menuhin, Riccardo Muti, Eugene Ormandy, Murray Perahia, Andr\u00e9 Previn<\/a><\/strong>, Mstislav Rostropovich, Arthur Rubinstein, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Ravi Shankar, Ignacy Jan Paderweski and Georg Solti all received the honour, as did Williams\u2019 long-time friend and collaborator, director Steven Spielberg.<\/p>\n
Spielberg received his Knightood at the British Embassy in Washington DC, from the British Ambassador, so it\u2019s safe to assume that the same will be the case for Williams.<\/p>\n
The composer continues to work hard, conducting concerts in the US and Europe. His latest score for Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans<\/em>, is due for release in November. The composer intimated that the final entry in the Indiana Jones<\/em> franchise, underway for next summer, will likely be his final film score as he aims to focus on personal projects \u2013 these include a Piano Concerto.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t the only music nod in this year\u2019s list, as George Koukis \u2013 chair of The Mozartists \u2013 was awarded an honorary CBE for services to music, medicine and education.<\/p>\n
We named Williams one of the greatest film composers of all time\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
More classical music news<\/h4>\n
Continuo Foundation awards more grants for early music ensembles<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
Royal Philharmonic Society honorary membership for Thea Musgrave<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
London Phil seeks conductors from under-represented backgrounds<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n
Borodin Quartet welcomes new member<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>
<\/p><\/div> <\/section><\/body><\/html>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Michael Beek Published: Monday, 26 September 2022 at 12:00 am Arise Sir John Williams! The popular American composer and conductor can add a Knighthood to his five Oscars, seven BAFTAs, three Emmys, four Golden Globes, 33 (!) Grammys and an RPS Gold Medal. John Williams, who turned 90 earlier this year, is one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":19900,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/john-williams-awarded-an-honorary-knighthood.jpg",625,350,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/john-williams-awarded-an-honorary-knighthood-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/john-williams-awarded-an-honorary-knighthood-300x168.jpg",300,168,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/john-williams-awarded-an-honorary-knighthood.jpg",625,350,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/john-williams-awarded-an-honorary-knighthood.jpg",625,350,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/john-williams-awarded-an-honorary-knighthood.jpg",625,350,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/john-williams-awarded-an-honorary-knighthood.jpg",625,350,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Michael Beek Published: Monday, 26 September 2022 at 12:00 am Arise Sir John Williams! The popular American composer and conductor can add a Knighthood to his five Oscars, seven BAFTAs, three Emmys, four Golden Globes, 33 (!) Grammys and an RPS Gold Medal. John Williams, who turned 90 earlier this year, is one of…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/19899"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}