John Williams – In Tokyo (Vinyl 2LP)

This 2024 release followed on the recorded concerts nonagenarian John Williams conducted in Berlin and Vienna, cementing his worldwide recognition as one of the greats. In a way, it completes a trilogy in this vein, but this recording also has an added function. Williams ensemble here, in a pair of concerts, is the Saito Kinen Orchestra, formed by conductor Seiji Ozawa in 1984. The recording commemorates several aspects of the relationship between Williams and Ozawa, which dates back to Ozawa’s tenure as conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and it represents the fulfillment of a long-held dream on Ozawa’s part to have Williams conduct his hand-picked group. Moreover, given Ozawas death in February of 2024, the album takes on a memorial quality, and it includes at the end a performance, conducted by Stephane Deneve, of Williams classical composition Tributes! (for Seiji), written in 1999 to mark Ozawa’s 25th anniversary as conductor of the Boston Symphony. The recording thus has a great deal of symbolic significance. As for the rest of the program? For this audience, Williams stuck to the classics, with really no rarities: it is mostly Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Indiana Jones, with the perennially popular Superman March to start things off. The orchestra takes easily to Williams music, and any audience might enjoy this album simply as a collection of Williams greatest hits. ~ James Manheim