Несколько цитат из книги
По ходу чтения "выписываю" некоторые места из книги и разбрасываю где попало. Соберу здесь.
William Starling "Strings Attached: The Life and Music of John Williams"
***
Джон и фаны:
Wherever he plays and in whatever context, John is invariably available to sign authographs after the show. He bridles occasionally when asked to pose for a photograph with a stranger's arm flung around his shoulder, his standard protest being, 'I am a musician, not a model' but he makes time to answer questions, preferably when there is time to do so properly. A few years ago, at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, he experienced both the demands and devotion of fans. As he sat at a table signing CDs and concert programmes, one man had the effrontery to tell him, in a most unpleasant manner, that he had incorrectly described one piece he had played. John chose not to enter into debate but others who were waiting let the man know their feelings in no uncertain terms. Having satisfied the long queue, John went back to his dressing room to get changed and prepare to set off on the drive back to London. He got to the stage door lobby to find a young couple who had been waiting there for over an hour. The young man, who was on crutches, was a guitar student desperate to see his idol but the nature of his injury meant that he could not have stood in the queue. He apologised for bothering Williams and humbly asked for the authograph, proffering his ticket. John spotted the distinctive fingernails of a guitarist and talked to him for twenty minutes or more, giving advice on technique, repertoire and practice, despite it now being close to midnight and knowing that he had a long drive in front of him.
***
Вильямс и юмор:
Williams, tanned and in jeans and a colourfully striped shirt, came on stage with his guitar to great applause. He settled himself on the chair and began playing 'Cavatina'. After a couple of choruses, Saunders wandered back on stage with a flashlight. She went over to John, who was still playing, and touching his shoulder said, 'Stop it, stop it! I think they're bored'. She then addressed herself to John Cleese, who was approaching from the other side of the stage, 'He's your friend, you tell him, go on, tell him', and, picking up the microphone, she exited the scene. Cleese shrugged, looked apologetically at the apparently perplexed and disconsolate guitarist, then put a comforting arm around his shoulders and steered him off-stage, pausing to pick up a half-eaten apple left by a previous act, which he offered to John by way of consolation.
There is a clip of this performance on YouTube and many of the touching but completely misguided comments on it are expressions of sympathy for John Williams from people who clearly failed to appreciate that the self-effacing Aussie was obviously aware if what was going to happen and delighted to be the butt of the joke. The whole point!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OSGcbuu-uoU
***
Поучительная история "Джон и варенье":
'He was, though, somehow different from the other two (Nupen and Markies) - more direct, brutally honest, disinclined to or dismissive of diplomacy.
Flatmate Chris Nupen recounts a couple of illustrative examples, fairly trivial but telling: at breakfast, which the three often shared, Luc was taking some marmalade for his toast. He spilled some and it ran slowly down the outside of the jar. John admonished him harshly, 'Clumsy!' Luc's relaxed reply was that it could happen to anyone. Williams shot back quite curtly, 'It doesn't happen to me.' Luc went into a furious rage but John was unmoved. He knew what he said was accurate and probably had difficulty in understanding why the large Dutchman looming over him was so angry. It is also telling that this little domestic vignette has since been forgotten by Williams. For him it has little meaning or significance, whereas Nupen and Markies remember it vividly, fifty years on.'
Поучительная история "Джон и Бах":
'On another occasion, John was working on an arrangement for the guitar of an arpeggio Prelude by J.S. Bach but found one bar that could not be made to work. Nupen, who believed the piece in question to be that most compelling among all of Bach's to be played on the guitar, encouraged him that it would be easy to fudge it - 'Go on, fake it for one bar'. John simply would not countenance such a thing and abandoned his efforts in an example of what Christopher cites as the pure honesty that he counts as one of his friend's defining and enduring qualities.'
William Starling "Strings Attached: The Life and Music of John Williams"
***
Джон и фаны:
Wherever he plays and in whatever context, John is invariably available to sign authographs after the show. He bridles occasionally when asked to pose for a photograph with a stranger's arm flung around his shoulder, his standard protest being, 'I am a musician, not a model' but he makes time to answer questions, preferably when there is time to do so properly. A few years ago, at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, he experienced both the demands and devotion of fans. As he sat at a table signing CDs and concert programmes, one man had the effrontery to tell him, in a most unpleasant manner, that he had incorrectly described one piece he had played. John chose not to enter into debate but others who were waiting let the man know their feelings in no uncertain terms. Having satisfied the long queue, John went back to his dressing room to get changed and prepare to set off on the drive back to London. He got to the stage door lobby to find a young couple who had been waiting there for over an hour. The young man, who was on crutches, was a guitar student desperate to see his idol but the nature of his injury meant that he could not have stood in the queue. He apologised for bothering Williams and humbly asked for the authograph, proffering his ticket. John spotted the distinctive fingernails of a guitarist and talked to him for twenty minutes or more, giving advice on technique, repertoire and practice, despite it now being close to midnight and knowing that he had a long drive in front of him.
***
Вильямс и юмор:
Williams, tanned and in jeans and a colourfully striped shirt, came on stage with his guitar to great applause. He settled himself on the chair and began playing 'Cavatina'. After a couple of choruses, Saunders wandered back on stage with a flashlight. She went over to John, who was still playing, and touching his shoulder said, 'Stop it, stop it! I think they're bored'. She then addressed herself to John Cleese, who was approaching from the other side of the stage, 'He's your friend, you tell him, go on, tell him', and, picking up the microphone, she exited the scene. Cleese shrugged, looked apologetically at the apparently perplexed and disconsolate guitarist, then put a comforting arm around his shoulders and steered him off-stage, pausing to pick up a half-eaten apple left by a previous act, which he offered to John by way of consolation.
There is a clip of this performance on YouTube and many of the touching but completely misguided comments on it are expressions of sympathy for John Williams from people who clearly failed to appreciate that the self-effacing Aussie was obviously aware if what was going to happen and delighted to be the butt of the joke. The whole point!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OSGcbuu-uoU
***
Поучительная история "Джон и варенье":
'He was, though, somehow different from the other two (Nupen and Markies) - more direct, brutally honest, disinclined to or dismissive of diplomacy.
Flatmate Chris Nupen recounts a couple of illustrative examples, fairly trivial but telling: at breakfast, which the three often shared, Luc was taking some marmalade for his toast. He spilled some and it ran slowly down the outside of the jar. John admonished him harshly, 'Clumsy!' Luc's relaxed reply was that it could happen to anyone. Williams shot back quite curtly, 'It doesn't happen to me.' Luc went into a furious rage but John was unmoved. He knew what he said was accurate and probably had difficulty in understanding why the large Dutchman looming over him was so angry. It is also telling that this little domestic vignette has since been forgotten by Williams. For him it has little meaning or significance, whereas Nupen and Markies remember it vividly, fifty years on.'
Поучительная история "Джон и Бах":
'On another occasion, John was working on an arrangement for the guitar of an arpeggio Prelude by J.S. Bach but found one bar that could not be made to work. Nupen, who believed the piece in question to be that most compelling among all of Bach's to be played on the guitar, encouraged him that it would be easy to fudge it - 'Go on, fake it for one bar'. John simply would not countenance such a thing and abandoned his efforts in an example of what Christopher cites as the pure honesty that he counts as one of his friend's defining and enduring qualities.'