Rhapsody in Australia

John Williams 

Surprise of the week for me was finding out that John Williams is Australian! He lives in London (has done since he moved there with his family when he was 10), but has a beautiful property just outside Melbourne which he visits when on tour in Australia. He has collaborated with Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe and has some of his guitars made by Greg Smallwood, who lives in a remote, barely accessible place in the outback. I learnt all this watching a Film Profile on a DVD which also contains the Seville Concert performed at the Royal Alcazar Palace in Seville. Read more about him here.

What a pleasant surprise also to find out that, belying appearances, Williams is extremely affable, down to earth and delightfully modest, always seeking out others' opinions when he feels he can learn from them. So, for example, if he wants to convey a particularly flamenco feel in a dance piece, he pops in to see his friend Paco Pena. Handy having the world's best flamenco guitar player living just down the road!

This attitude has probably led him into many of his forays slightly off the mainstream classical track, most famously with the group Sky, but also with his many contemporary renditions of modern popular pieces.

But I'm off to buy what sounds like a very intriguing collection called Magic Box, consisting of tracks recorded in Africa with the collaboration of African musicians.