CD: John Williams & Boston Pops Orchestra - Complete Philips Rec. (21CDs) Presale

John Williams is 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. Williams’ career on the podium burgeoned on his appointment as successor to Arthur Fiedler, who had over his fifty-year tenure turned the Boston Pops Orchestra into a national institution and a worldwide recognised ensemble. In the face of a daunting task, Williams’ conductorship was to prove an inspired choice. Williams legitimised film music repertoire, approaching it with more philological respect and seriousness than had been afforded it before - which in turn had the effect of elevating the value accorded it by other orchestras too. He commissioned new, more musically sophisticated symphonic arrangements of popular classics and of the Great American Songbook, replacing the lacklustre and ‘trashy’ arrangements in the Pops’ repertoire. He also expanded the orchestra’s core classical repertoire, programming European composers not previously billed, as well as commissioning new works.

Williams’ legacy with the Boston Pops is superbly represented in this boxed set which collects the albums made for Philips from his first decade at the helm of the orchestra. Rounding out the set is an intimate project with the unforgettable Jessye Norman: Williams returns to his pianist roots accompanying Norman in songs by Leonard Bernstein, Michel Legrand, Richard Rodgers, Kurt Weill, George Gershwin, Frederick Loewe, and Billy Joel. Jessye also features on a second disc in this collection with the Pops, singing the Great American Songbook.

The Philip Classics recordings constitute one of the most salient testimonies of the importance of Williams’ Boston Pops tenure, and the most comprehensive showcase of the musical skills, the interpretive acumen, and the stylistic range of conductor John Williams.