The Legacy of John Williams Podcast
Episodes
Monday Jan 08, 2024
Return To Neverland: HOOK The Ultimate Edition - Part 2
Monday Jan 08, 2024
Monday Jan 08, 2024
Part 2 of the podcast special dedicated to La-La Land Records’ magnificent 3-CD set of John Williams’ masterful score for the 1991 Steven Spielberg fantasy epic
Hook – The Ultimate Edition is a 3-CD collection with a newly restored and expanded presentation of the magnificent score composed by John Williams for the 1991 film directed by Steven Spielberg. Assembled, mastered and produced by Mike Matessino in full cooperation with the composer, the new release presents this seminal Williams’ work in a truly definitive and loving treatment, with the complete score presented in the film’s narrative order on disc 1 and 2, and a third disc featuring for the first time all the songs by John Williams and Leslie Bricusse for when the film was supposed to be a musical.
In Part 2 of the Hook - The Ultimate Edition podcast special, producer Mike Matessino returns to discuss more of the musical contents of La-La Land Records' magnificent release, together with associate producers and co-writers of the liner notes John Takis and Jason LeBlanc. During the conversation, the trio of special guests dissect all the riches found in the treasure chest of this John Williams' score, analyzing the score's main themes, how the songs' melodies were reworked into the thematic fabric of the piece and offering their own thoughts and reflections on the film and its score.
Read more at https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2023/12/27/hook-podcast-special
Thursday Dec 21, 2023
From Swiss Alps to English Moors: The Music of ’Heidi’ and ’Jane Eyre’
Thursday Dec 21, 2023
Thursday Dec 21, 2023
Soundtrack Producer Mike Matessino and Writer John Takis talk two early John Williams' masterworks, now available in new remastered editions from Quartet Records
Hosted by Maurizio Caschetto and Tim Burden
European-based soundtrack label Quartet Records announced a 2-CD set presenting new remastered editions of two early masterworks in John Williams' filmography: Heidi (1968) and Jane Eyre (1970), both newly restored, assembled, mastered and produced by Mike Matessino. Both scores were composed by Williams for two made-for-television films produced by Frederick H. Brogger for Omnibus Productions and both directed by Academy Award-winning director Delbert Mann.
In this new podcast conversation, soundtrack producer Mike Matessino and film music writer John Takis talk the history of these two early landmark John Williams' scores, offering insights and reflections on the special quality and the timelessness of both scores, how they sits in the Williams' canon and chronicling the laborious restoration process both recordings went through for this new spectacular release, another one that cannot be missed in the CD collection of any true John Williams' admirer.
Read more at https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2023/12/21/heidi-and-jane-eyre-podcast
Friday Sep 01, 2023
Gripping Journeys: Mike Matessino On ’The Lost World’ and ’Amistad’
Friday Sep 01, 2023
Friday Sep 01, 2023
Producer Mike Matessino returns to talk the remastered and expanded editions of two impressive scores from the Steven Spielberg/John Williams collaboration, recently released by La-La Land Records
Hosted by Maurizio Caschetto and Tim BurdenSpecial Guest: Jason LeBlanc, project assistant
The collaboration between director Steven Spielberg and composer John Williams continues to be one of the main subjects of the activities of The Legacy of John Williams. In the last few months, fans of the Maestro have been treated with two more remastered and expanded releases from the catalogue of the legendary Spielberg/Williams partnership, courtesy of specialty soundtrack label La-La Land Records: The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Amistad.
In this episode, Mike Matessino returns to discuss these two releases, shedding light on his restoration work on both these seminal scores, but also offering his insightful comments on how they sits within John Williams' filmography and overall career. Project assistant Jason LeBlanc joins the episode as a special guest to further illuminate on the process of restoring these two releases and explaining his role assisting Matessino during their production.
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Amistad 25th Anniversary Remastered and Expanded 2-CD Limited Editionhttps://lalalandrecords.com/amistad-25th-anniversary-expanded-limited-edition-2-cd-set/
The Lost World: Jurassic Park Remastered and Expanded 2-CD Limited Editionhttps://lalalandrecords.com/the-lost-world-jurassic-park-remastered-expanded/
Friday Nov 11, 2022
’The Fabelmans’ First Listen
Friday Nov 11, 2022
Friday Nov 11, 2022
The Legacy of John Williams, in collaboration with Sony Music, is proud to announce the latest John Williams release - The Fabelmans (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack); a soundtrack album by the five-time Academy Award® winner for director Steven Spielberg’s deeply personal cinematic memory of the forces, and family, that shaped his life and career. The release marks the latest collaboration between Spielberg and Williams, whose longstanding creative partnership spans nearly 50 years and 30 films. From E.T., Jaws and Jurassic Park to Schindler’s List, Lincoln and Saving Private Ryan, Williams and Spielberg’s collaborations have produced some of the most stirring and well-recognized music in film history.
The Fabelmans is a deeply personal portrait of a 20th century American childhood. Written by Spielberg together with Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner, it's a universal coming-of-age story about an isolated young man’s pursuit of his dreams, the film is an exploration of love, artistic ambition, sacrifice and the moments of discovery that allow us to see the truth about ourselves, and our parents, with clarity and compassion. The musical score by John Williams accompanies the film during its key moments with a poignant, lyrical tone that enhances the characters' most intimate and profound feelings--the main theme (heard in the opening track, "The Fabelmans") is one of the most heart-rending and touching themes ever composed by Williams. The music features chamber-like solos for piano, harp, guitar and celeste, painting a heartfelt portrait of the story and its main characters.
The Legacy of John Williams is proud to present this special podcast episode featuring a commentary on John Williams' new soundtrack by Editor Maurizio Caschetto and Head Contributor Tim Burden. The talk focuses around three tracks from the soundtrack album selected by Caschetto and Burden, "Mitzi's Dance", "Mother and Son", and "The Journey Begins," which offer a beautiful representation of Williams' poignant and delicate scoring for this film.
You can listen to John Williams' wonderful new music in full here: https://soundtracks.lnk.to/thefabelmans
Special Thanks to Maria Kopp and Dani Chwatt (Sony Music)
Friday May 20, 2022
Mike Matessino Talks SpaceCamp and Presumed Innocent
Friday May 20, 2022
Friday May 20, 2022
Producer Mike Matessino talks the latest John Williams expanded reissues just released: the 1986 space adventure film SpaceCamp and the 1990 courtroom drama Presumed Innocent
Hosted by Maurizio Caschetto and Tim Burden
For the joy of fans and admirers of the Maestro around the world, the first two John Williams expanded archival releases of 2022 have been recently announced. They are respectively SpaceCamp (from Intrada) and Presumed Innocent (from Varèse Sarabande), two sought-after titles that have been long out of print and that now are finally available in expanded and remastered form courtesy of Soundtrack Producer Mike Matessino, giving a new chance to listeners to appreciate and rediscover two very unique and distinctive film works in John Williams’ catalogue.
In this conversation, Matessino returns to The Legacy of John Williams podcast to discuss how both SpaceCamp and Presumed Innocent fit into the chronology of John Williams’ career, talking about how the composer became a household name during the 1980s and how he challenged himself in new and diverse projects.
Special Thanks to Douglass Fake & Roger Feigelson (Intrada), Cary Mansfield (Varèse Sarabande) and to Mike Matessino.
For more information, visit https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/
Friday Mar 05, 2021
Legacy Conversations: Growing Up With John Williams
Friday Mar 05, 2021
Friday Mar 05, 2021
What happens when you discover and start to love music when you're still a little kid and share this passion with one of your siblings? This is the starting point of this in-depth discussion between two pairs of brothers with many things in common, specifically the love for the music of John Williams. One of the missions of this website is to celebrate and discuss the huge influence of the Maestro among at least two generations of people who literally grew up and became adults while listening to his music, and how it helped shape lives and even careers of millions of people around the world.
Brothers Will Brueggemann and Marty Brueggemann are two of the most admired podcasters among the niche of film music aficionados on the internet. Their show, UnderScore: A Podcast of Music and Story, offers insightful musical analysis of major film scores including works by John Williams. In this episode, titled "Growing Up With John Williams", editor Maurizio Caschetto and contributor/illustrator Gianmaria Caschetto sit down with Will and Marty to discuss what it means to grow up listening to the music of Maestro Williams. Both pairs of brothers were raised in similar contexts and started to fall in love with Williams' music for such films as Superman, E.T. and Star Wars since childhood (as happened to millions of fans and admirers of the Maestro around the globe). The discussion goes on to talk about Williams' unrivaled compostional prowess, his daring harmonic choices and his uncanny ability to craft the perfect melody for the film. More thoughts are also offered about what makes John Williams' music so exciting for kids and young people.
Monday Oct 12, 2020
"They're Already Here": Mike Matessino Talks 'War of the Worlds'
Monday Oct 12, 2020
Monday Oct 12, 2020
Exclusive video podcast with soundtrack record producer Mike Matessino discussing his restoration work on John Williams's thrilling score for the sci-fi classic directed by Steven Spielberg in 2005
Hosted by Maurizio Caschetto and Tim Burden
Steven Spielberg's big-budget adaptation of the sci-fi classic novel by H.G. Wells War of the Worlds marked the 22nd collaboration between the esteemed director and composer John Williams. The film turned out to be a very unique and perhaps even personal project for the director, who took the opportunity to craft a grim moral tale disguised as an action-packed sci-fi drama.
The movie presented a unique challenge for composer John Williams. The music accompanies the drama with his usual skillfull dramatic sensibility, giving the film's action sequences its necessary propulsive energy, but at the same time avoiding any kind of leeway to conventional scoring. Instead the music enhances the dark, grim tone of the film through violent Herrmann-esque orchestral colors (12 horns, 2 tubas, 5 trombones, 2 sets of timpani playing antiphonally), unstable harmonic language and an overall tone of fragilty and uncertainty.
The new remastered edition released by soundtrack specialty label Intrada Records has been meticolously restored and produced by Mike Matessino, who worked from the original audio elements to rebuild from scratch the mixes and all the performance edits. The new release is spreaded on two CDs--Disc 1 presents the complete 80-minutes film score with all the cues in chronological order as they appear in the film (including unreleased and extended material), while Disc 2 offers the remastered original soundtrack album, plus a slew of alternate cues that reveal Williams' meticolous creative process for the film.
In this conversation with The Legacy of John Williams, Mike Matessino offers his deep thoughts about how this new release of War of the Worlds came about, how the perception on the film and some of its most controversial aspects changed throughout the years and became even more relevant in today's world, the role of the music within the film and how the new edition was meticolously assembled and produced.
Special Thanks to Mike Matessino and Tim Burden, and to Douglass Fake and Roger Feigelson at Intrada Records
War of the Worlds - Expanded and Remastered 2-CD Edition available for purchase at http://store.intrada.com/s.nl?it=A&id=12263
Visit https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com for more information
Monday May 25, 2020
Monday May 25, 2020
Special episode dedicated to John Williams's iconic scores for the Star Wars film series, including a focus on the last work for the Saga, The Rise of Skywalker
Special guests: Doug Adams, Frank Lehman, Jim Ware
Hosted by Maurizio Caschetto
The music composed by John Williams for the Star Wars saga is universally acknowledged among the greatest ever written for film.
In this episode of The Legacy of John Williams podcast, editor Maurizio Caschetto is joined by author Doug Adams (writer of the best-selling book The Music of The Lord of the Rings Films), film musicologist and theorist Frank Lehman (author of the Complete Catalogue of the Musical Themes of Star Wars) and film music expert Jim Ware for an in-depth roundtable-like discussion about the legacy of the iconic music by Maestro Williams for the Star Wars saga.
Starting with commentary on the score for The Rise of Skywalker, the group goes deep into analyzing the new musical material, how it sits in the overall musical lexicon of the series and how John Williams's style evolved throughout his 40+ years musical journey.
Wednesday Sep 04, 2019
Wednesday Sep 04, 2019
Part 2 of the exclusive podcast featuring producer Mike Matessino on Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Remastered Edition, a new release from La-La Land Records of John Williams’ soaring score
Hosted by Maurizio Caschetto and Tim Burden
In Part 1 of our conversation, soundtrack record producer Mike Matessino discussed all the previous incarnations of the score released through the years, while also shedding light on the painstaking process of restoration after discovering the source materials. In Part 2, Mike talks about the historical importance of the Richard Donner film and its unforgettable score by John Williams, while also reflecting on the overall legacy of the composer and his music. He also talks about the reconstruction of the 1978 original soundtrack album program and presents an excerpt of the previously unreleased cue “Fortress of Solitude (Alternate Segment)”. We also touch briefly upon his work on the 25th Anniversary Edition of John Williams’ Schindler’s List soundtrack, released last December on La-La Land Records. Joining us in the conversation is once again radio presenter and concert producer Tim Burden.
Superman The Movie – 40th Anniversary Remastered Edition is available at lalandrecords.com
Thanks to Mike Matessino and Tim Burden. A very special thanks to La-La Land Records’ Michael V. Gerhard and Matt Verboys.
Discover more at https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2019/02/25/mike-matessino-superman-part-2/
Wednesday Sep 04, 2019
Wednesday Sep 04, 2019
An exclusive podcast featuring producer Mike Matessino on Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Remastered Edition, a new release from La-La Land Records of John Williams’ soaring score
Hosted by Maurizio Caschetto and Tim Burden
In Part 1 of this exclusive interview, Mike Matessino talks to The Legacy of John Williams‘s editor Maurizio Caschetto and radio presenter/concert producer Tim Burden about Superman: The Movie 40th Anniversary Remastered Edition, a 3-disc set available from La-La Land Records featuring a full restoration of John Williams’ score for the 1978 classic superhero film. Mike talks about previous incarnations of the score he worked on during the past decade, revealing how the working process changed through the years and how the soundtrack market business evolved. He also pays tribute to his friend Nick Redman, the legendary soundtrack producer and documentary filmmaker who recently passed away.
Superman The Movie – 40th Anniversary Remastered Edition is available at lalandrecords.com
Thanks to Mike Matessino and Tim Burden. A very special thanks to La-La Land Records’ Michael V. Gerhard and Matt Verboys.
Discover more at https://thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com/2019/02/18/mike-matessino-superman-part-1/