Maestros

A few months ago, we purchased tickets to a New York Philharmonic concert of John Williams music expecting some fun entertainment. Upon arrival at the show, we discovered we were in the front row and that, not only was John Williams conducting, but Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg would be introducing some of the pieces.

The evening was presented in two parts: the first was devoted to the film music of Bernard Herrmann , which spanned  most of cinema's history from Citizen Kane, Psycho , and North by Northwest to Scorsese's masterpiece, Taxi Driver . Scorsese was visibly moved as he told stories of Herrmann's brusque composing attitudes -- in fact, Herrmann died the night after the last audio mixing on "Taxi Driver" was finished.

The second part of the evening focused on the collaboration between Spielberg and Williams. This ranged from the sacred Schindler's List  and  Munich , to the spectacular Close Encounters of the Third Kind . Showing the power of film and music together, the finale of the movie E.T. was shown with the orchestra performing the score live. Speilberg sat near the podium watching the crowd relive the honest sentimentality of that small epic. While I'm sure the crowd was partisan, it was amazing to see Lincoln Center's Avery Fischer Hall roar with applause at the conclusion.

The evening ended with several encores: the magnificent Star Wars themes, the complete "NBC Evening News" orchestral arrangement (sounds wierd but played  with elegance), and a brief birthday gift to Leonard Bernstein that Williams wrote in the late '70s.

A quite exceptional evening and great showcase of three American masters of film arts.

update: updated to change "I" to "We" -- the lovely Kristen accompanied Richard.