Four of the best John Williams recordings
We recommend a handful of the greatest examples of the film composer John Williams' work on disc

Star Wars
London Symphony Orchestra/John Williams
Sony S2K92950 (2 discs)
John Williams leads the LSO in the best-selling film score album ever, in classic ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’ style. We named London Symphony Orchestra one of the best orchestras in the world
All nine Star Wars scores ranked...
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Arista 07822 19004-2
One of Williams’s favourites, as well as the famous five-note motif, there are Ligeti-esque clouds of sound.
Memoirs of a Geisha
Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Itzhak Perlman (violin) et al/John Williams
Sony 82876 77857 2
An understated character study featuring a range of Japanese instruments.
Yo-Yo Ma Plays the Music of John Williams
Sony SK 89670
One of Williams’s closest collaborators in non-film works ranging from richly melodic to impressionistic.
Authors

Freya Parr is BBC Music Magazine's Digital Editor and Staff Writer. She has also written for titles including the Guardian, Circus Journal, Frankie and Suitcase Magazine, and runs The Noiseletter, a fortnightly arts and culture publication. Freya's main areas of interest and research lie in 20th-century and contemporary music.