With May the 4th occurring yesterday, it seemed only natural that there might be some Star Wars music-related news, or some great catalog-related material from the film series' iconic composer, John Williams. Luckily, fans got both!

Not one but two Williams-oriented titles were announced yesterday. First, from Deutsche Grammophon comes John Williams Live In Vienna, a new live set taken from concerts conducted by the five-time Oscar winner earlier this year. Anticipation for the shows were doubly high; Williams first planned to make his conducting debut in Vienna in the fall of 2018, before a sudden illness caused him to postpone several European dates.

The sets proved to be worth the wait: Williams ably led the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra through a stirring set of thematic favorites (JAWS, Star Wars, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park) as well as several deeper cuts featuring the solo violin of Anne-Sophie Mutter, with whom Williams collaborated on the album Across The Stars last fall. John Williams Live In Vienna will be available August 14 on both CD and double vinyl; a deluxe edition pairs the CD with a Blu-ray of the complete concert (including six extra performances not featured on the audio disc). The program will be available in stereo as well as a Dolby Atmos surround mix, and the Blu-ray will feature a bonus interview with Williams and Mutter at the world-famous Vienna Musikverein.

The Williams party kept going with another expansion of a title from the composer's deep catalogue, courtesy of Intrada Records. The label has reissued the score to The River, a 1984 drama starring Sissy Spacek and Mel Gibson as heads of a Tennessee family farm fallen on hard times. Director Mark Rydell sought a modern Americana feel for the film from picture to sound, and didn't have to look hard for inspiration: Williams had already scored three of his pictures, including The Reivers, The Cowboys and Cinderella Liberty. This new single-disc presentation combines both the remastered original soundtrack album, featuring unique edits of original score and re-recorded versions of cues, as well as the original score - offering some 20 minutes of unreleased material! As always, Williams' longtime restorer Mike Matessino serves as producer, mixer and editor, also penning the set's liner notes with package design by Kay Marshall.

(A side note for Intrada fans: the label's expansions of Alan Silvestri's Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Jerry Goldsmith's Chinatown are also back in stock this week!)

May 4th also yielded a Star Wars reissue from Varese Sarabande: Joel McNeely's dramatic score to Star Wars: Shadows of The Empire. This 1996 album was conceived as part of Lucasfilm's ambitious multimedia project featuring "everything but the movie": a compelling story in a galaxy far, far away told through an original novel, comic books, trading cards, toys and a bestselling video game. (Series creator George Lucas saw the 12-month period featuring the Shadows rollout and the Special Edition theatrical reissues of the original trilogy as a test run for the rollout of the Star Wars prequels between 1999 and 2005.)

Set in the year between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of The Jedi, Shadows finds the Rebel Alliance regrouping to rescue Han Solo from the clutches of the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, assisted by the rogue smuggler Dash Rendar, cross paths with mysterious crime lord Prince Xizor, who attempts to disgrace Darth Vader by killing Luke before the Sith Lord can deliver his son to Emperor Palpatine.

McNeely's appropriately cinematic score, excerpted in the Shadows video game, is packed with gripping action sequences, rich original themes (particularly Xizor's sinister motif) and even a few choice quotes of Williams' Star Wars themes. Performed by The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Shadows comes to light August 7 with a CD reissue as well as a premiere on vinyl.

Finally, over at La-La Land Records - where the label's ongoing 30% off sale has been extended to the end of May - another title has been added to the ongoing Universal Pictures Heritage Collection series: the score to 1999 cult-classic Mystery Men. Loosely based on the surreal Flaming Carrot comic book series, this send-up of superhero lore features an all-star team of misfit superheroes (played by Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, The Simpsons voice actor Hank Azaria, Wes Studi, All That co-star Kel Mitchell and Paul Reubens) who set out to rescue a much more successful superhero (Greg Kinnear) from a local villain (Geoffrey Rush). Though not a commercial success, Mystery Men features one of the first instances of Smash Mouth's "All Star" in film. (Several of the cast members cameo in the song's music video.)

The double-disc premiere of Mystery Men's score features a unique, eastern European-flavored score by Oscar winner Srephen Warbeck (Shakespeare In Love) that was written and recorded in under a month. When last minute changes were made to the movie, Shirley Walker - well known for her work on Batman: The Animated Series - was hired as a last-minute fixer to augment Warbeck's material with the final cut. This edition, limited to 3000 copies and produced by Matessino with liner notes by John Takis and art direction by Dan Goldwasser, premieres both Warbeck and Walker's works.

Below, you'll find track lists and order links for all these new score releases!

The Vienna Philharmoniker, John Williams Live In Vienna (Deutsche Grammophon, 2020)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
CD/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

1. Flight to Neverland from Hook
2. Excerpts from Close Encounters of The Third Kind
3. Devil's Dance from The Witches of Eastwick *
4. Adventures on Earth from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
5. Theme from Jurassic Park
6. Dartmoor, 1912 from War Horse
7. Suite from JAWS
8. Marion's Theme from Raiders of The Lost Ark
9. Main Title from Star Wars
10. The Rebellion is Reborn from The Last Jedi
11. Luke & Leia from Return of the Jedi
12. The Imperial March from The Empire Strikes Back
13. The Raiders March from Raiders of The Lost Ark *
    

Additional Blu-ray tracks

1. Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone *
2. Theme from Sabrina *
3. Donnybrook Fair from Far and Away *
4. Nice To Be Around from Cinderella Liberty *
5. The Duel from The Adventures of Tintin *
6. Remembrance's from Schindler's List *

All tracks recorded live at The Musikverein, Vienna, Austria - 1/18-19/2020
* Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin

John Williams, The River: Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Limited Edition (Intrada ISC 441, 2020 - original film released 1984)

1. The River
2. Growing Up
3. The Pony Ride
4. Love Theme From The River
5. The Ancestral Home
6. Rain Clouds Gather
7. From Farm To Factory
8. Back From Town
9. Tractor Scene
10. A Family Meeting
11. Young Friends Farewell
12. Main Title (Rain Clouds Gather)
13. Leaving Home *
14. The Family *
15. The Kids Separate *
16. The Garveys
17. On The Dock
18. Under The Tractor
19. Dialing The Hospital *
20. Telephone Call *
21. The Hotel *
22. Releasing The Doe *
23. Back From Town (Film Version)
24. The Ancestral Home
25. End Credits (The River)
26. The Family (Alternate) *
27. The Ancestral Home (Alternate) *
28. Leaving Home (Film Version) *

Tracks 1-11 released as MCA Records 6138, 1984
Tracks 12-25 are original film score presentation. * denotes previously unreleased track

Joel McNeely and The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Star Wars: Shadows of The Empire (originally released as Varese Sarabande VSDE-5700, 1996 - reissued Varese Sarabande, 2020)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. (TBD) / Amazon Canada (TBD)
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. (TBD) / Amazon Canada (TBD)

1. Main Theme from Star Wars and Leia's Nightmare *
2. The Battle of Gall
3. Imperial City
4. Beggar's Canyon Chase
5. The Southern Underground
6. Xizor's Theme
7. The Seduction of Princess Leia
8. Night Skies *
9. Into The Sewers
10. The Destruction of Xizor's Palace *

* includes original Star Wars themes by John Williams

Mystery Men: Music From The Motion Picture - Universal Pictures Heritage Collection Limited Edition (La-La Land LLLCD 1530, 2020 - original film released 1999)

Disc 1: Music by Stephen Warbeck

1. Mystery Men Opening
2. Mystery Men Arrive
3. The Battles We Used To Have
4. Inside The Asylum
5. Arrival Of Disco Boys
6. Anabel and The Explosion
7. Furious and Sally
8. Meet The Sphinx
9. Spleen
10. Car Chase
11. Sphinx Master Class
12. Heller
13. Monica and Roy
14. Frakulated
15. Casanova Has a Setback
16. Roy
17. Casanova's Battle Plan
18. Vaya Con Dios
19. Blame Thrower
20. Casanova's Last Stand
21. Escape From The Mansion
22. Victory
23. Inside The Asylum (Alternate)
24. Victory (Alternate)

Disc 2: Music by Shirley Walker (* includes thematic material by Stephen Warbeck)

1. Mystery Men Opening *
2. Red Eyes Attack
3. Captain Amazing *
4. A Good Husband
5. Casanova's Snare *
6. Psychofrakulator
7. The Invisible Boy's Dream
8. Car Fight
9. Shoveler's Encouragement
10. The Forks *
11. Blind Date With Destiny
12. The Laser
13. Spleen's Battle
14. Victory