BRETT MITCHELL PLAYS SUPERMAN

BRETT MITCHELL PLAYS SUPERMAN

Brett Mitchell performs his original solo piano arrangements of music from John Williams’s Grammy-winning score for Superman: The Movie (1978), Superman II (1980), and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987).

Cues are listed chronologically in story order.

“One of the essential things about the film to me was the fact that it was fun and didn’t take itself too seriously. The way Richard [Donner] had directed it, and particularly the way Chris[topher Reeve] and Margot [Kidder] had played the parts, it had an almost kind of theatrical camp, if you like, to it that didn’t take itself too seriously. And if one could strike a level of theater and sleight-of-hand and tongue-in-cheek in the creation of the themes, that might be the right idea. I tried to have the music constructed in such a way that it would be heroic and big and operatic but not take itself seriously.”
— John Williams

Director Richard Donner and composer John Williams at work on the set of *Superman: The Movie* (1978).

“The day we went into a recording studio and we ran the opening credits, as ‘Superman’ came on the screen, I swear to God, if you listen carefully, the music literally speaks the word. I screwed up his take ’cause I just ran out on the floor yelling, ‘Genius! Genius! Fantastic!’ The orchestra applauded him and everything.”

— Richard Donner, director

“One of the most exciting things about doing film music is the opportunity for creating original music for a character that, in the case of Superman, has been with us for decades, but isn’t yet identified musically. It’s a difficult thing to do because the musical identification needs to be accessible and very direct.”

— John Williams