John Williams At The Movies
$11.98 – $54.98
Dallas Winds
Jerry Junkin
Christopher Martin, Trumpet
Music to inspire the world for generations!
2019 Best Engineered, Classical GRAMMY® Nominee
2019 Best Classical Compendium GRAMMY® Nominee
John Williams is a game changer. Early in his career he crossed the lines between music that was “art” and music that was “commercial,” and never looked back. He is one of the best known, most awarded and most successful composers in US history, and his name is inextricably connected to outstanding music for films. He has written scores for over 100 films, and his massive list of awards includes 51 Academy Award nominations and five wins, as well as 24 GRAMMY® awards. A less-known fact is his fondness for writing, arranging and conducting wind band music. This collection of his film music includes favorites from Star Wars, Superman, JFK, ET and many more, arranged for concert performance by top-level wind ensemble.
Brilliant performances by the Dallas Winds, were recorded in spectacular audiophile sound by Reference Recordings’ own award-winning engineering team: Keith O. Johnson and Sean Royce Martin. The engineers and album received GRAMMY® nominations in 2018 for Best Engineered Album, Classical and Best Classical Compendium for the 61st GRAMMY® Awards. John Williams At The Movies features soloist Christopher Martin, principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic. The recording was made in Dallas Texas, in the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, one of the world’s greatest concert halls, and the site of an annual Dallas Winds concert featuring the film music of John Williams.
John Williams At The Movies was our first wind band recording to be released as a hybrid SACD. The disc contains stereo SACD, 5.1 Surround SACD and a stereo compact disc layer encoded with HDCD, and was simultaneously being released as high resolution and standard resolution digital downloads and streams. Due to popular demand, we are also thrilled to offer a deluxe 2-LP set of the same music! This is our 18th album with The Dallas Winds, and is a project of which we are extremely proud, that was years in the making.
The Dallas Winds is the leading professional civilian wind band in the United States today. In his 25th season as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Dallas Winds, Jerry Junkin is recognized as one of the world’s most highly regarded wind conductors. He has also served as Music Director and Conductor of the Hong Kong Wind Philharmonia since 2003, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Senzoku Gakuen College of Music Wind Symphony in Tokyo since 2007. Additionally, 2017-18 marks his 30th year on the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Vincent R. and Jane D. DiNino Chair for the Director of Bands.
Extra notes
RM-2520: Reference Mastercut Double-LP: Half-Speed Mastered, 331/3 RPM, 180-Gram Virgin Vinyl
On This Recording
- Olympic Fanfare and Theme (4:32) *+
- The Cowboys Overture (9:49) *+++
- Superman March (4:30) *++
- Excerpts from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (7:55) ***++
- With Malice Toward None from Lincoln (4:19) **++
- Star Wars (Main Title) (5:47) ***+++
- Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back (3:21) ****+
- Scherzo for X Wings from Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2:23) ***+
- The Jedi Steps and Finale from Star Wars: The Force Awakens (9:44) ***++
- Theme from J.F.K. (5:15) ****+++
- Adventures on Earth from E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (10:42) **+
- March from 1941 (4:29) **+++
- The Star-Spangled Banner (2:57) ****++++
Reviews:
“Scrolling through John Williams’s extensive worklist triggers an avalanche of movie memories… What better way to get start than with the fanfare and theme Williams wrote for the opening ceremony at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. There’s a broad, arresting sense of spectacle, so familiar from his epic movie scores, plus a dash of Copland. As with all composers of quality, Williams knows and draws on the music of his antecedents, yet still manages to find his own, unmistakable ‘voice’. The band respond with startling clarity and noble mien, and the wide, deep soundstage adds to the sense of occasion. The recording, like the performance, is focused on the music, and that’s precisely what I’ve come to expect from this source. … Now this is rep where performers and engineers might be tempted to overplay their hand; thankfully, good taste and good judgment are the watchwords here, so the music retains all its vaunting splendour without sounding overblown or overlong. Once more, natural balances and a preponderance of ear-pricking detail – so much a part of Wine Dark Sea – serve the music admirably. There’s plenty of thrust and weight when it’s needed, as in the strut and swagger of the Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back. With the volume turned up, the percussion emerges with all the frisson one could wish for. It helps that Junkin is so proportionate in everything he does here. … Quietly sensational; a must for movie fans and audiophiles alike.” —Dan Morgan, MusicWeb International
“This latest album is a special collection: the performing ensemble is a virtuoso wind band that plays as though the music was written for them.… If you love John Williams’ music, played beautifully by a virtuoso ensemble, this is the one to have!” —WRTI (Album of the Week)
“Conductor Jerry Junkin is celebrating his 25th season with Dallas Winds, one of America’s most energized and revered ensembles. Add in one of the world’s greatest trumpeters, a superb engineering team, and the goose bumps that come with John Williams’s music, and you’ve got one highly charged new CD – and it’s the latest WCRB CD of the Week!” —WCRB Boston
“… the performances by the Dallas Wind Band under Jerry Junkin are so vivid and color-saturated that RR has chosen them for their first hybrid high-resolution wind-band SACD. … Once you catch your breath, you’ll also discover that Williams has a few favorite tricks up his sleeve. When he’s not dazzling you with his undeniably rousing array of catchy, action-narrating themes, he’ll sometimes throw in otherworldly interludes that, amidst chords of wonderment, may even offer hints of reflection.” —Jason Victor Serinus, Sterophile
“[The Dallas Winds] also include a harp, organ, string bass and piano, and when called upon they can pack a wallop. Play the Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back loud and you’ll know exactly what I mean. Over the years they’ve released about 15 recordings on Reference Recordings, all of them coveted by audiophiles. This new recording should garner the same attention. The recording engineers and audio technicians at Reference always seem to find the perfect balance between clarity and power, and always produce pristine sonics that can still thump your chest when required.” —Jean-Yves Duperron, Classical Music Sentinel
