John Wilson Orchestra

The John Wilson Orchestra was formed by British orchestral conductor John Wilson in 1994. A lush symphonic orchestra built around a jazz big band, it is renowned for resurrecting the original arrangements, which John Wilson himself has re-created, of MGM musicals and the works of Rodgers and Hammerstein. These were featured in Prom concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in 2009, 2010, and 2011, recorded and broadcast by BBC Television. The John Wilson Orchestra has handpicked virtuoso performers, uses skilled session singers and top choirs, and attracts international star soloists of opera, musical theatre and jazz at its large-scale concerts. John Wilson is also a devotee of big band jazz and dance music, and British light classical music, such as the works of Eric Coates.

Focus and configuration of the John Wilson Orchestra

The John Wilson Orchestra has been acclaimed for showing how "authentic period performance" extends to screen musicals.

In an interview with Rebecca Franks for the BBC Music Magazine prior to the 2010 Proms season John Wilson explained how the specific make-up of the orchestra reflects this purpose. He also highlighted the need for the best quality musicians:

The orchestra’s been together a good 15 years and its make-up is very specific. It’s modelled on the old contract movie orchestras in America. And that's basically the combination of a dance-band brass, rhythm and saxophone section, so four trumpets, four trombones, five saxes who all double, and a rhythm section, who are all very specific specialists in this style. And then on top of that you have a woodwind and French horn section.

But I think the key thing is getting the right string players. It has to be a very high octane, high gloss, soloist sort of player. The string sound isn’t blended down, it’s blended up. You play up to the best. It’s a very in-your-face, expensive sort of string sound and it takes a lot of playing. You have to have the best players, but we're spoilt in this country for terrific orchestral performers.

BBC Prom Concerts

The BBC Proms Concerts are a celebrated annual summer series in London's Royal Albert Hall. Annually the BBC televises a few, bringing the music to a far larger audience. These have established the unique role of the John Wilson Orchestra in reviving original arrangements of classic film and theatre musicals.

John Wilson is the man whose keen ears have reconstructed orchestrations thought lost to us for good and whose amazing orchestra has been custom made to deliver the kind of playing that takes you way beyond make-believe. "Technicolour for the ears?" You’d better believe it.

A Celebration of Classic MGM Film Musicals

At Prom 22 in 2009, the John Wilson Orchestra caused a sensation with A Celebration of MGM Film Musicals, with restored arrangements by John Wilson. The soloists were Sarah Fox, Thomas Allen, Kim Criswell, Curtis Stigers and Seth MacFarlane.

Imagine the soundtracks of your best beloved MGM musicals after an auditory steam-clean; better yet, imagine being there in the moment of recreation and hearing the crack MGM Symphony put through its paces, a saturation of swooning strings, mellow trombones, saxes, and a bevy of gleaming trumpets, their extravagant vibrato lending the sound an expensive sheen.

The BBC televises certain Proms every year, of which this was one. Uniquely, they have also released a DVD of the concert. This concert was revived for a national tour of Britain in November 2010.

Composers and works featured

The evening paid tribute to, among others:

• Composers George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Harry Warren, Jerome Kern, Andre Previn
• Hollywood arrangers Conrad Salinger, Johnny Green and Nelson Riddle
• Musicals High Society, Singin' in the Rain, An American in Paris, The Wizard of Oz.

A Celebration of Rodgers and Hammerstein

In 2010, the John Wilson Orchestra returned to the Royal Albert Hall for an evening featuring John Wilson's painstakingly recreated arrangements of Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals. In interview, John Wilson explained that "every single piece has been newly originated, edited and reconstructed. At least a third of the music we had to put together from scratch."

This project grew out of an invitation by Proms controller Roger Wright for John Wilson to do a concert commemorating the 50th anniversary of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein's death. As the John Wilson Orchestra specialises in film music, Wilson decided to revive the original film orchestrations.

Most of what we’re doing hasn’t been played in concert since the original film recording sessions. We’re doing the film versions of The King and I, South Pacific, Oklahoma, Flower Drum Song, Carousel, The Sound of Music – mainly this time the films were produced by 20th Century Fox, not MGM, but it’s that same sumptuous, expensive sound, which is perfect for the Royal Albert Hall.

The choir was the Maida Vale Singers and the world-class international soloists from opera and musical theatre included Julian Ovenden, Sierra Boggess, Kim Criswell, Anna-Jane Casey and Rod Gilfry.

In an interview for the CD Release for A Celebration of Rodgers and Hammerstein Wilson remarked that recording the music for the concert and CD was the hardest music he and the orchestra ever had to play.

Arrangers of original film versions

As in the MGM film musicals Prom, this concert featured John Wilson's reconstructions of the following arrangers' original film score versions: Robert Russell Bennett, Adolph Deutsch, Edward B. Powell, Gus Levene, Bernard Mayers, Pete King, Irwin Kostal and Herbert W. Spencer.

Bold text===Hooray for Hollywood=== BBC Prom 59 in 2011 saw the John Wilson Orchestra revisit the Royal Albert Hall for another televised concert from films made between 1935 and 1969, taking the audience through the birth of movie musicals to the last of the musicals made using the old studio format. Styles ranged from romantic to brash, and moods from elegiac to inspirational.

Virtuoso performances by the international soloists and orchestra re-created interpretations by Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Julie Andrews and Doris Day. Highlights included the title songs from 42nd Street (Annalene Beechey), Strike Up the Band (Caroline O'Connor), and Top Hat (Matthew Ford). Other outstanding numbers were "A Fine Romance" and "Secret Love" {Clare Teal), "Can't Help Singing" (Sarah Fox), "Jolly Holiday" (Mary Poppins, sung by Beechey) and "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" (Stuart Matthew Price). Operatic tenor Charles Castronovo interpreted "Serenade" (The Student Prince) and the duet "One Hand, One Heart" (West Side Story) with soprano Sarah Fox. Caroline O'Connor performed "The Man That Got Away" (A Star Is Born), and led the ensemble in "There's No Business Like Show Business".

As with the previous proms, the Maida Vale Singers backed the vocalists and performed songs such as "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat".

My Fair Lady

In 2012 the BBC brought back the John Wilson Orchestra for two proms. The first was a complete reconstruction of Lerner & Loewes musical My Fair Lady. This reunited many familiar vocalists who had featured with orchestra in previous proms.

This was the first of John Wilson Orchestra's proms, not to be broadcast on television though it had been recorded and aired on BBC Radio 3.

The Broadway Sound

The second Prom for the John Wilson Orchestra in 2012 was devoted to Broadway's best musicals. This was a a tribute not just to the composers of Broadway's golden age from the 1920s to the 60s but also to the arrangers and orchestrators who created the rich orchestral textures.

The authentic sound of Broadway was revived in the ballet sequences from Richard Rodgers's On Your Toes and Leonard Bernstein's On the Town, featuring the brass and woodwind sections. Contrast was provided by romantic songs from Frank Loesser's The Most Happy Fella, a ballad from Rodgers's Allegro and a comic routine delivered by a quartet from the Maida Vale Singers, from Jerry Bock's Fiorello. Seth MacFarlane and Anna-Jane Casey performed a medley from Guys and Dolls. Other star vocalists were Rodney Earl Clarke, Elizabeth Llewellyn, Sierra Boggess and Julian Ovenden.

2010 British Tour

During November, the John Wilson Orchestra reunited with soloists Sir Thomas Allen, Kim Criswell, Sarah Fox, Seth MacFarlane and Curtis Stigers for a British national tour of A Celebration of Classic MGM Musicals, visiting Manchester,Nottingham, Gateshead, Glasgow, Birmingham, and Bournemouth.

DVD

• A Celebration of Classic MGM Film Musicals (the MGM evening from the 2009 Proms, released July 2010; ASIN B003QHVKRQ)

Discography

• This Is The John Wilson Orchestra
• Orchestral Jazz (featuring Richard Rodney Bennett; CDSA 6800)
• Shall We Dance?: Big Band Arrangements of Geraldo (CDSA 6806)
• Soft Lights and Sweet Music: Classic Arrangements by Angela Morley (CDSA 6803)
• Moonlight Becomes You (Paul Weston arrangements; CDSA 6808)
• Film and Television Music of Angela Morley (CDSA 6807)
• Dance Date (ASIN B00082MXSC)
• Alone Together (with Gary Williams; CDSA 6809)
• That's Entertainmeint: A Celebration of the MGM Film Musical (EMI Classics, 2011)
• Rodgers & Hammerstein at the Movies (EMI Classics, 2012)

External links

• John Wilson Orchestra website
• BBC Proms Archive listing of all performances by John Wilson
• November 2010 tour schedule
• Facebook Group