Beyond the Movies - Essay for Strings -

About the Essay for Strings:
Approximately 11 minutes in length, John Williams' Essay for Strings was premiered December 6, 1965 by André Previn and the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Previn led a second performance in December of the following year with the Pittsburgh Symphony. Hubert Roussel wrote in the Houston Post that the work was "neatly manipulated, rather pretty at times, with no ground glass in its careful dissonance. In the program notes for the first performance, the composer wrote: The work, for string orchestra, is in one movement and its character is essentially dramatic. After a quiet introduction, the main "rowlike" theme appears. This is followed quickly by just a suggestion of the driving 16th-note "motor" figure which eventually, after other development, moves the work into its final section. It is here that the main theme joins the "motor" figure and they combine to propel the piece to its conclusion.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic, under the direction of Zubin Mehta, gave the West Coast premiere on May 24, 1967 at the University of Southern California, as part of a Rockefeller Grant-sponsored concert of modern music; the program was repeated on succeeding nights at UCLA, Occidental College and Cal State Long Beach. Williams took part in a panel discussion at USC on May 25. Los Angeles Times critic Martin Bernheimer wrote that the Essay "revealed some interesting exploitation of the instrumental resource involved, and some arresting melodic and rhythmic detail. But it lacked the linear tension to give it proper cumulative impact. And it lacked a distinctive flavor."

Williams himself conducted the work on a subscription program with the Houston Symphony, April 4-6, 1987, and more recently has begun to perform the work with other orchestras, including the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood. It has also been performed by San Francisco's New Century Strings (in January of 1995) and by the Minnesota Orchestra under the direction of music director Eji Oue in April of 1996. The Minnesota performance was broadcast live in the Twin Cities area and later across the country as part of the orchestra's syndicated series of broadcast concerts. Williams has said of the Essay, "It's not a strict 12-tone work, but it has many gestures of that style."

This recording is performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. Ron Feldman, conductor.

Category:

Music

[GGbreizh]

Thanks a lot for posting this !

I love this music, John Williams is one of my favourite composers (with Saint-Saëns, Tchaïkovsky, Beethoven and Dvorak)

[Score1974]

@GGbreizh

Thank you so much! I am glad that you put him up there with the "big" ones,

instead of cataloguize him as one among the many commercial hollywood composers :-)

[pavkey88]

Thank you!!! I've looked all over for this cd but haven't found it. I've heard one of his compositions called essay for strings in A(I think?), but it was featuring contrabass and cello I believe. Do you also have that, or have any idea what I'm talking about? I'm not entirely sure of the name, but I know it was John Williams and it was mind-blowing- the one time I heard it.