In celebration of May the Fourth, the now-official Star Wars holiday, German classic label Deutsche Grammophon released the video of composer John Williams conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in their performance of the "Imperial March."
The caption for the video uploaded earlier on the classic music label's YouTube channel shared William's opinion of the performance and said that "It was honestly one of the best presentations of that March I've ever heard."
"They played it as though they owned it," the 88-year-old composer added.
Williams led the prestigious Vienna Philharmonic last January in their tribute to the American composer widely regarded as among the greatest film composers. In a statement, Williams said that performing with the 178-year-old orchestra was "One of the great honors of my career." The Weiner Philharmoniker lined up some of the best John Williams works from beloved franchises such as "Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark," the "Harry Potter" franchise, "E.T," "Jurassic Park," and of course, "Star Wars," where the "Imperial March" was from.
Classic FM first released the video on March 3, eve of "Star Wars Day." In the article from the classic music portal, Williams recounted playing "two rehearsals with the orchestra," and at the end of the session, the management asked him "Can we play the Imperial March from Star Wars?" Williams said that he "hadn't programmed that" and thought he had "already asked the brass to play quite enough big music."
John Williams further said that it was the brass section itself that made the request and was felt "very grateful" for the opportunity to play the March by the end of the program.
The full performance between Williams and Vienna Philharmonic, which also includes performances from violin virtuoso "Anne-Sophie Mutter, will be released on August this year.
The "Imperial March" is among the most recognizable themes from the entire Star Wars franchise, debuting a few weeks before the opening of "Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back." This theme and its variants have been used in all three trilogies of the film, its spin-off movies, and the animated series "The Clone Wars" and "Rebels." It usually accompanies the appearance or events referencing Darth Vader.
John Towner Williams has scored films in a career spanning more than six decades, earning 25 Grammy Awards, 5 Academy Awards, 7 British Academy Film Awards, and 4 Golden Globe Awards. He is currently the second most-nominated person with 52 Academy Award nominations, second only to Walt Disney himself.
The American Film Institute has chosen Williams' work on the original Star Wars film as the greatest American film score, with the deliberation results announced in 2005.
Aside from his work in scoring some of the most acclaimed movies and franchises, Williams has also composed classical music pieces for orchestras as well as solo instruments.
On the other hand, the Vienna Philharmonic, or "Wiener Philharmoniker" in German, was founded in 1842 and has been recognized as among the finest ensembles in the world. The orchestra is currently based at the Vienna concert hall "Musikverein."
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