To accompany Colston Hall’s screening of Steven Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra Terrestrial: In Concert, with a live orchestral performance of its Academy Award®-winning score at Bristol Hippodrome (Wed 24 April), throughout April we’re putting the focus on iconic composer John Williams’ earlier musical scores.

It’s over 40 years since John Williams penned his landmark score for the original Star Wars and in doing so changed movie scores forever. Whilst Star Wars, Jurassic Park, E.T and the rest made him a household name, and remain some of his finest creations, there are important antecedents in the composer's work that rival not only these scores, but all of Williams’ subsequent output, themselves ranking among the most significant examples of film music ever written.

In April, we’ll be revisiting some of this incredible composer’s lesser known works including his score for the diabolically funny suspense-comedy Family Plot (Sat 7 April) - the last film ever made by the great Alfred Hitchcock; his multiple variations on a single main theme for Robert Altman’s oddball noir The Long Goodbye (Sun 14 Apr); his catchy and rapid-fire score for William Wyler’s comedy heist-caper How To Steal a Million (Sun 21 Apr); and his moments of dark, aggressive orchestral mayhem for Don Seigel’s sun-drenched 60’s crime thriller The Killers (Sun 28 Apr).

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