WorldView Episode 45: John Williams
Known for crafting some of the most memorable and significant film scores in history, John Williams has captivated audiences for seven decades. A recipient of 25 Grammys and 52 Academy Award nominations, Williams is one of the most decorated classical composers of all time. In this hour, Williams makes his compositional debut on WorldView with a lesser known work: “Three Pieces for Solo Cello.”
The recently knighted Sir John Towner Williams was born in New York City in 1932, the son of two department store owners. The family moved to Los Angeles in 1948, where Williams attended the University of California. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1951 to 1954, serving as a performer in multiple Air Force ensembles and an arranger of music for the Band. He went on to pursue composition and piano at both Julliard and the Eastman School of Music, after which he became a successful orchestrator of film music in Hollywood.
Williams’ first composition for the screen was a promotional video for Newfoundland, which he completed while on assignment in 1954. In the next fifteen years, the artist quickly gained a reputation for his diversity of compositional skills and lush orchestral style; however, his career was jump started when director Steven Spielberg asked him to write the score for The Sugarland Express, released in 1974. This spawned a relationship that has lasted until today and generated countless unforgettable works, with Williams’ score for Spielberg’s The Fabelmans (2022) nominated for another Grammy Award.
Inspired by composers such as Richard Wagner and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Williams has adopted a predominately neoromantic style. He is often credited with helping bring symphonic scores back into mainstream films, after they had fallen out of favor earlier in the twentieth century. In addition to writing film music, Williams has released a considerable number of concert works. He completed “Three Pieces for Solo Cello” in 2001, and it was first recorded by Yo-Yo Ma in 2002 on the album “Yo-Yo Ma Plays the Music of John Williams.” Episode forty-five of WorldView features this recording of the work, released by Sony Classical.
WorldView Episode Forty-Five Playlist:
Aram KHACHATURIAN, “Violin Concerto in D Minor”, {Itzhak Perlman (vn), Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Zubin Mehta (cond)} - Emi
Elizabeth LIDDLE, “Whale Rant”, {The Hilliard Ensemble} - ECM New Series
John WILLIAMS, “Three Pieces for Solo Cello”, {Yo-Yo Ma (cl)} - Sony Classical
WorldView is a classical music radio show featuring composers from everywhere in the world - except Western Europe. Tune in to hear works by lesser-known artists such as Irving Fine and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, and widen your knowledge of classical music. Hinke Younger hosts each week’s episode of WorldView on Mondays at 9AM and 6PM (with a rebroadcast Saturdays at 2PM) on Charlottesvilleclassical.org.