Let me tell you a story,’ Leonard Slatkin says. ‘As the year 2000 was approaching, I received a request to do an interview with Time magazine. They were looking for people to talk about the most important figures in their fields in the 20th century. I said, “Sure,” and one question they asked was who I thought was the most influential composer of the last hundred years.
Without missing a beat, I answered, “John Williams.”
“No, no, no,” they said. “We don’t mean that. We’re talking about Stravinsky or Schoenberg.”
So I said, “Look, can you name seven people on the planet who haven’t heard something by John Williams?”’
Source: John Williams’s concertos: the other side of cinema’s great musical genius | Gramophone