Take a Bow, John Williams
P H OTO B Y M I R O V I N TO N I V
Lockhart Reflects on Composer’s Legacy
B
Williams passes the baton to Lockhart in 1995.
efore there was Keith Lockhart, there was John Williams. And this year, Williams’s successor at the Boston Pops has been busy conducting a celebration of the legendary film composer’s works to commemorate his 85th birthday. “There’s not a better known composer on the planet. There is a connection with his music and some of the most popular films of all time,” said Lockhart, who was handed the conductor’s baton for the Boston Pops in 1995 when he succeeded Williams, who served in that capacity from 1980 to 1993. While Williams still maintains a connection with the Pops as its laureate conductor, he is best known for his influence on cinema, scoring such popular movies as the “Star Wars” series, the first two “Jurassic Park” films, the Indiana Jones series, “E.T.”, and the first three “Harry Potter” films. He has worked alongside such Hollywood heavyweights as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Oliver Stone, and Ron Howard. And he has been nominated for 50 Academy Awards – second only to Walt Disney’s 59 – winning five of them. “His movies date back to the 1950s,” Lockhart noted. “In the nine decades that movies have had sound, he has films in seven of those decades. That’s incredible to think about.”
artsfoundation.org
Since April, the Pops have held several concerts at Boston Symphony Hall to honor Williams, including separate performances of “E.T.” and “Jaws” as part of live screenings of the two Spielberg films. The Pops also released a CD featuring a selection of several Williams classics and rarities it performed over two days this past spring. This year’s Pops by the Sea will be a continuation of that theme, exposing Cape Cod audiences to the best that Williams has to offer. This will include the familiar “Jaws” theme which has a close connection to Cape Cod, having been filmed on Martha’s Vineyard. “That score is a model for how to make a suspense film,” Lockhart said. “That music makes an ordinary movie extraordinarily nail-biting.” And with the country’s foremost shark expect, Dr. Gregory Skomal, serving as this year’s guest conductor, that film and its familiar “duh-dun, duh-dun, duh-dun” chord will be particularly significant for the 32nd Annual Pops by the Sea. It’s a concert that serves as another opportunity for Lockhart to pay tribute to someone he has deep affection for. “It is great to be in a position to honor someone like John Williams whose contributions are that significant,” Lockhart said. “What a great chance we have to say, ‘Thank you’ while he is still here to take a bow.”
51
