John Williams And Anne-Sophie Mutter, 2 Geniuses For The Price Of One
"I once said to Fred Astaire, 'Isn't it wonderful what the Gershwin brothers did for you at RKO?' " John Williams recalls. Astaire answered. "Yes. But Irving Berlin did more."
Williams has more American cultural reminiscences than you can shake a baton at. At 87 years old, he was born before Elvis Presley, and he's worked with everyone from Astaire to Alfred Hitchcock to Yo-Yo Ma to, of course, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Spielberg and Lucas gave the composer the canvases that made him a household name: Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Schindler's List — films that produced some of the most recognizable, beloved melodies of the 20th century.
The Star Wars universe alone has given us dozens of earworms, and one super fan of that music is star violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter.
"I grew up at the Black Forest, where Germany, Switzerland, and France meet," Mutter explains. "It was gorgeous surroundings, but really not much to do other than playing the instrument, playing some soccer, and going into the meadows and the forest. But, we also had the cinema! ... And there John kind of arrived in his music, in 1978 — . That was the first time I was released in the U.S. in 1977.)
