“He has 21 Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, and five Oscars,” writes Joan Anderman in Tuesday’s (5/11) Boston Globe. “He has composed music for four Olympics, the ‘NBC Nightly News,’ President Obama’s inauguration, the Statue of Liberty’s rededication, and Darth Vader’s entrances. ‘Star Wars’ is one of more than 100 film scores he’s written, and with 45 Oscar nominations, he is the second-most nominated person after Walt Disney. Of course John Williams knows how he should be memorialized on the occasion of the Boston Pops’ 125th anniversary. ‘Put in a couple of sentences between Fiedler and Lockhart,’ he suggests, teacup delicately in hand and ego typically in check. Williams, who spent 14 seasons on the Symphony Hall podium as the Pops’ music director and is celebrating his 30th anniversary with the orchestra this year, is back in Massachusetts for his four-night ‘Hooray for Hollywood’ film-music series with the Pops at Symphony Hall, tonight through Friday. … Williams composes every day, 6 1/2 days a week, inspired or not, wherever he is. He has no hobbies and rarely vacations. At 78, John Williams is a music-making machine.” Says Hollywood director and long-time collaborator Steven Spielberg, “His music has deepened the souls of characters, and lends an almost ineffable meaning to the stories we’re telling.”
Posted May 12, 2010
