The Legacy of John Williams Podcast
Episodes
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
Tuesday May 12, 2020
Exclusive: Mike Matessino Talks 'Far And Away' and 'The River'
Tuesday May 12, 2020
Tuesday May 12, 2020
Interview with soundtrack producer Mike Matessino on his restoration work for two lesser-known scores from John Williams’ filmography
Hosted by Maurizio Caschetto and Tim Burden
In this new episode, soundtrack producer Mike Matessino talks in-depth about his work on the expanded soundtrack releases of John Williams's scores for Far and Away and The River, released respectively on La-La Land Records and Intrada.
Matessino joins The Legacy of John Williams editor Maurizio Caschetto and co-host Tim Burden to offer background information about the remastering and production process of each release. Matessino comments on John Williams’s creative journey for these films in a long and engaging conversation, where several topics beyond the two releases are also discussed.
Discover more at thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com
Wednesday Dec 11, 2019
Wednesday Dec 11, 2019
An exclusive interview with soundtrack producer Mike Matessino on his restoration work for the Disaster Movie Soundtrack Collection – Music by John Williams, and the remastered expansions of Monsignor and Minority Report
Hosted by Maurizio Caschetto and Tim Burden
The DISASTER MOVIE SOUNDTRACK COLLECTION – MUSIC BY JOHN WILLIAMS, is a thrilling, limited edition four disc box set from La-La Land Records containing the remastered and expanded original scores to three classics of the so-called "disaster movie" genre from the 1970s: The Poseidon Adventure (1972), and The Towering Inferno (1974), both from legendary producer Irwin Allen, and Earthquake (1974), produced and directed by Mark Robson, all composed and conducted by John Williams and restored by soundtrack producer Mike Matessino.
In this conversation, Mike talks about his work on this new box set and the remastered editions of Monsignor and Minority Report released in 2019.
Discover more at thelegacyofjohnwilliams.com