- Artist:
- John Williams
John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra Complete Philips Recordings (21CD)
Mention the name John Williams and magic starts to happen. Fêted as the composer par excellence of some of Hollywood’s best-loved film scores, this has somewhat overshadowed the other facet of his career, which has been of no lesser impact: John Williams as a concert conductor. At the helm of The Boston Pops Orchestra, Williams legitimised film music repertoire in the concert hall—which in turn had the effect of elevating the value accorded it by other orchestras. He also commissioned new orchestral arrangements (and, of course, wrote some himself!) of popular classics and expanded the orchestra’s core classical repertoire, thus melding what were disparate ‘sub-genres’ and introducing new audiences to ‘classical’ music. This incredible legacy—which ran concurrent to his work as a composer for film—is brought together by Decca Classics in a new 21-CD set to mark his 90th birthday in 2022.