Written by CSchwartz
Published on July 20, 2003

John Williams Concert
- July 15th, 2003
Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia

• Introduction
• Report by BrianS7785
• Report by Ken
• Report by stacheDaddy
• Report by John L DiMeo
• Report by CSchwartz

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I attended the Philly concert of John Williams, held at the beautiful Mann Center. It was worth the two hour drive from Northern New Jersey!

A conductor spends most of any concert with his back to the audience, and I found myself staring at the back of his head in amazement about the creativity that has flowed from it for so many years now. In his 70s, he is still vital, sharp and imaginative.

I felt, as I'm sure many others did, that he might have spent less time on the lesser known scores, especially the Cowboys and Far and Away, and gave the audience a little more of what we were there for, which was....STAR WARS! Hearing the main theme live, along with ET and Raiders, with full orchestra, was a joy. By the way, the Schindler's List joke went like this: he said that after Spielberg screened the movie for him, he had to leave the room. When he came back, he told S that he needed a much better composer for it than HE was, to which S replied, "I know...but THEY'RE dead!" The audience roared!

Afterwards, my sons and I went back stage, thanks to a contact from Sony, and met him. He is the nicest, most gracious man. I told him how much we were looking forward to Ep3, to which he said "So am I!" We left floating. If there is another chance to see him live in the future, we will be there!

Feedback welcome

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