|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|||||||
| July 2000 Film Music CD Reviews | Film Music Editor: Ian
Lace Music Webmaster Len Mullenger |
|
index
page/monthly
listings/July/
For
those wishing to print these reviews with CD cover graphics
there are scrolling copies available
Month by Month
index Alphabetical composer
index
© Film Music on the Web 2000.
All rights retained.Reviewers retain copyright on their
reviews.
COMPETITION -
WIN a CD
Return to the July Index with thumbnails Part 1 [Part 1] [ Part 2]
CDs may be purchased from the retailers listed at the bottom of the page with a saving of around 22% Donations Disclaimer
Alfred Hitchcock featurette (Video and CD reviews):-
Video Review:-
A Talk With Alfred Hitchcock
Amazon USA DVD VIDEOI picked this video up in Tower Records on my way through Seattle after vacationing in Canada. It was announced as a new video release. The interview with Hitch dates back to 1964 (hence black and white). It was a two-part television programme broadcast by CBC in their Telescope series (sponsored by General Motors) roughly equivalent to BBC's contemporary Monitor series.
The interview is fascinating. For me, its most interesting facet is what is omitted - any mention of Vertigo. In 1964, that film had not quite achieved the cult status which it enjoys today. Interestingly, the interviewer, Fletcher Markle, says, "Most critics today agree that your finest film to date is Shadow of a Doubt, would you agree with that estimation?" "Unquestionably", agrees Hitch.
Hitchcock explains his philosophy of montage - putting an idea across in a series of "little assemblies" like a mosaic and shows how he achieved the Psycho shower murder scene by assembling no less than 78 pieces of little film over 45 seconds to convey its horror: shots of feet, head, hands, shadows on the shower curtain, water going down the plug-hole, and the shower curtain being pulled from its hooks as Janet Leigh's lifeless body slumps to the floor etc. He then contrasts this mosaic with another for the murder of the detective, using a different technique of sharply contrasted angled shots head-on and from high up.
Of music for his films, Hitch says, "I have no control over the music the composers do as they like, I can't judge its effect from hearing a piano (reduction)." Bernard Herrmann is also interviewed. He states that Hitch was adamant about having no music behind he Psycho murders but Bernie insisted and when Hitch reluctantly heard those famous stabbing chords with the film as opposed to silence he immediately relented.
Another fascinating section relates to the story limitations imposed by the use of certain actors. In Suspicion, it will be recalled, Cary Grant was suspected by his young wife, Joan Fontaine, of plotting to kill her. Now the producers, concerned for Grant's career and not wanting him to appear in unsympathetic roles, insisted that there be a happy ending with Grant proven to be just a loveable rogue (the wild car ride at the end where Fontaine is convinced he is planing to kill her by pushing her out when he actually pulls her back in). Hitch wanted to have an ending where Grant poisons her with that glass of milk. Fontaine would have realised his intention but resigned herself to death rather than continue life without his love. However she has written a letter to her mother, which she asks Grant to post as he hands her the milk. The letter reveals all so that no other woman need share her fate. The film would have ended, after her death, with Grant cheerfully posting that letter.
Special effects for The Birds is discussed and special mention made of Marnie which was in production at the time of the interview. A must for all Hitchcock fans.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
************************************************************** EDITOR’s CHOICE Classical Score July 2000 **************************************************************
Collection: Alfred Hitchcock
Dimitri Tiomkin Strangers on a Train
Franz Waxman Suspicion
Roy Webb Notorious
John Williams Family Plot
[Note: This album might be difficult to find in some territories. Varèse Sarabande's California office assures me that it is still in their catalogue. If in difficulty visit their web site: www.varesesarabande.com]
Amazon USAFor the second month in succession I find that I prefer a recording that might be difficult to obtain. This marvellous album was first released in 1985 and I snapped it up in its LP format. Readers might remember that I mentioned it in our Alfred Hitchcock centenary feature on this site last year and I was keen, then, to review the CD version that I knew existed but I was led to believe that it was no longer available. Then I found a copy in a Vancouver record store. Needless to say I purchased it without a moment's hesitation.
The larger type in the heading is there for a purpose. Tiomkin's score for Strangers on a Train is simply magnificent. It towers over all the other music on this album. And that is some statement for all the other works have stature. The 16+minute Strangers... suite opens with one of Tiomkin's most powerful and memorable Main Titles. Here is Tiomkin's pronouncedly individual style, with its great rhythmic energy, magnificent tunes, and opaque rough-edged sonorities. In this Hitchcock thriller Farley Granger is Guy, a champion tennis player who is approached on a train by Bruno (Robert Walker) who proposes they swap murders. He will kill Guy's unsympathetic and unwanted wife while Guy kills Bruno's over-dominant father. The music for Guy reflects his somewhat passive character, while Bruno's music denotes his mania in the demonstrably glassy, ghostly tones of high violin harmonics. These two themes (both heard in the main title) are heard to spectacular effect in the tennis match scene, in which Guy has to race against time to finish his game and prevent Bruno planting incriminating evidence in the form of a cigarette lighter. Ketchum and the Utah players succeed magnificently in screwing up the tension implicit in this wonderfully thrilling music.
For Hitchcock's last film, Family Plot, John Williams provided a sparkling score that helped to lift this disappointingly tensionless black comedy of errors. The album includes the polished and elegant End Titles that summarise all the main themes including the wordless female voices representing the "mystical" aura - complete with phoney crystal ball - which surrounds Blanche; and the glittering, elegant harpsichord theme. Who knows what might have developed from a partnership of Williams and Hitchcock?
Franz Waxman's music for Suspicion is full of atmosphere and suspense; it is also thoroughly English-sounding appropriate to its setting. (this was the second Hitchcock 'English' story filmed in Hollywood that Waxman had scored, the first being Rebecca-see also my remarks about Suspicion in the Hitchcock video review also on this site this month). The opening Main Titles music has a glitter and glamour that is infectious although there are shadows lurking. For 'Sunday Morning', as Cary Grant courts Joan Fontaine, the material is mainly sunny, optimistic and upbeat as Fontaine is elatedly swept off her feet. Yet again there are passing clouds, particularly in that brief, enigmatic, cold long shot where the sky darkens and it appears that Grant's embrace has something sinister and threatening about it. The mood darkens as Fontaine discovers that her husband is an irresponsible playboy fond of gambling and a spendthrift and a liar. She suspects that he has killed his best friend and that he maybe intending to kill her next. The music swirls menacingly and for the famous scene where Grant races along the cliff road with Fontaine thinking he is about to push her out of the car, Waxman provides a thrilling, pounding accompaniment ('Too Fast') that screws the tension up to fever pitch.
The least well-known composer represented in this collection is Roy Webb who did such sterling work at RKO Radio. Hitchcock's Notorious inspired Webb to write one of his best scores. The Main Title impresses with an urgent note of danger and intrigue contrasted with a memorable sweeping romantic theme for Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. This short suite includes Webb's tense, strongly characterful and evocative music for Sebastian (Claude Rains) as he detects Grant's intrusion and discovery of the uranium hidden in his wine cellar; and the equally suspenseful music for the scenes where Bergman lies poisoned by Sebastian and his mother, before she is rescued by Grant; and finally to underscore Sebastian's doom as he faces the wrath of his fellow Nazi conspirators.
For those who have the LP version of this recording I suggest they keep treasuring it because it sounds richer and fuller than this CD incarnation - yet, notwithstanding this setback, the album is strongly recommended
Reviewer
Ian Lace
James HORNER
The Perfect Storm
Crotchet Amazon UK Amazon USAThe opening track begins with uncreative music, full of roomy clichés and lacking any protean application, but almost two minutes in there is the musical symbolism of impending danger, a dark roll of low strings, timpani, cymbal and brass -- gathering storm clouds and thunder - that made me remember how great Horner can be. That first magnificent moment is hardly new compositionally (raise your hand if you've heard Hovhaness' Symphony No. 2), it is even old symbolically (Beethoven's Symphony No. 6; and you can put your hand down now), but like the whole of what is contentiously Horner's best score, "Brainstorm," it slices through complaints of undue referrals with at least the illusion of individuality. Horner's craftsmanship shines, if not his artistry. Themoment raises hope.
You know the expression "Hope floats." Well, "The Perfect Storm" ultimately sinks it.
I spent many of my younger days 'bashing' Horner, using terms that were at best brutally accurate and at worst indicative of teenage stupidity. Usually there were combinations of both. However, the basic dilemma remains for us to argue: James Horner is habitually not at his best.
Few listeners will be startled by the general lack of innovation. Some could thank Horner for compiling enough of "Apollo 13" and "Mighty Joe Young" that they can sell them for more shelf space. I would keep Mark Mancina's exceptional "Twister" score, though, as the quality of Horner's electric guitar use is questionable... Of course, all composers repeat themselves and others, but there is repetition that enhances, that is redundant, that plagiarizes, and there is that which doesn't bear repeating.
Interesting, then, how his soundtracks can be well acquainted, yet peculiarly inconsistent. There are more excellent moments than the one I fondly mentioned above awaiting brave adventurers, but "The Perfect Storm" basically panders to shallow musical standards. Let us start with the main theme. James Horner is the master of the complaining melody. It starts flatly in the middle range, moves up the scale to state a truly obnoxious phrase, returns to the tonal center, and then repeats its "I want! I want! I want!" styled refrain. It is a juvenile motif overused by track five (a patchwork cue virtually guaranteed to have those knowledgeable of classical music screaming, by the way), yet the orchestration shimmers! Shortly thereafter Horner introduces a secondary theme where it is the orchestration that dries and shrivels. He strips it down to the string section, accented horribly by arpeggios awkwardly played on piano. The action/tension music is uniformly exciting but ludicrously derivative... to the point of abstraction. Quiet moments and a handful of symphonic lightening bolts are what provide the core interest. Thus between a stormy sense of deja vu and the infrequency of themes meeting variations, the successes within the recording attract attention to just how washed-up it is overall.
Oh, and John Mellencamp sings the theme song.
Reviewer
Jeffrey Wheeler
John POWELL and Harry GREGSON-WILLIAMS
Chicken Run
Crotchet Amazon UK Amazon USANick Park always insisted on eschewing the traditional Tom & Jerry approach when it came to music for his Wallace and Gromit films in favour of music that might be applied to any feature film. As he observed, his were real characters, in real, well quite real, situations with real feelings. He maintains the same philosophy for Chicken Run and Powell and Gregson-Williams deliver a gung-ho heroic score very much in the mould of A Close Shave.
The score is an eclectic patchwork quilt of material reminiscent of Ron Goodwin in Where Eagles Dare mode, Jerome Moross's The Big Country, Eric Coates in The Dam Busters mode, and Elmer Bernstein's The Great Escape etc. It is a kaleidoscope of many styles which I am sure work well with the animation: Scottish, Celtic/Irish, Country and Western/hoe-down , the rumba, waltz, vaudeville and Italian etc. etc. There is much military music with heroic brass and snare drum flourishes; and hot swing and fowl jazz if you will allow the pun. There is a real confusion - sorry, profusion of styles. Most tracks are taken at a hectic pace with only one or two pauses for breath to signify some sentimental or romantic episode. Two songs are included, both quite appealing: 'Flip, Flop and Fly', performed by Ellis Hall and 'The Wanderer' by Dion.
Fun but exhausting
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Maurice JARRE
Sunshine
Crotchet Amazon UK Amazon USAMaurice Jarre is not one of my favorite composers. He plagiarizes. He often drags his themes out as far as he can and shoves them beyond. He depends on orchestrators too heavily for my tastes. He cozens his listeners.
Yet, "Sunshine" makes me re-examine that. It is politically incorrect to say an artist is maturing, as that implies his past works are immature, but Jarre has certainly grown. "Sunshine" bears similarities to past works, such as his own "Ghost" apparent in an airy leitmotif, but the familiarity is hardly the distraction less talented composers proffer,
or that troubled his younger career. He continues to milk his themes for all they are worth, but they seem worth more in our increasingly unsentimental culture (when we bother to hear them). According to associates, and confirmed by the consistency of Jarre's style, his symphonic ear is keener than it was in his "Doctor Zhivago" days. And as for the wheedling, we know the tricks now and are nevertheless moved, so there is a gap in the complaint.
"Sunshine" is beautiful music. The context is "an epic period piece spanning three generations of a Hungarian Jewish family trying to gain acceptance in their turbulent homeland..." says the media release. Strong scores defy an attendant condition, because they are dramatically assured enough to attract our own condition. The resulting
soundtrack albums often seem too short for the imposing compositions. That feels true here, and conjecture adds to the notion: I am told "Sunshine" is a few hours long and that the album hardly touches on the full majesty of the score... True or not, the soundtrack as a publicity tool serves its purpose, as I look forward to seeing and hearing the feature.
The soundtrack as an entertaining accompaniment is a nobler state of being. Its central, culturally orientated theme does joins the various motifs together. A first-rate example is the final track, 'The Sonnenschiens,' in which a theatrical piano solo from Holger Groschopp ties to a very cinematic choral from the Metro Voices to the "Ghost"-like charm and massive orchestral coda from the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (a version without choir, and with a very ugly crossfade, opens the disc). Let the trumpets sound, and may the singers shout, "He left his synthesizers elsewhere!" Through the recording's short running time Jarre touches on many facets of Hungarian music, from folk simplicity to military stridency to classical complexity. Even a saxophone nudges in on the action.
The work is epic regardless of whether there is a presentation to match. This is a gorgeous stand-alone, and for those who question the use of filmusic independently I respond that music, "the organization of sounds with some degree of rhythm, melody, and harmony," can be shaped by, but not defined by, unspooling celluloid. Maurice Jarre *composed* this, and its success or failure in theater or CD player forever depends on its degree of rhythm, melody, and harmony.
Here. Right now. It succeeds.
Reviewer
Jeffrey Wheeler
************************************************************** EDITOR’s RECOMMENDATION July 2000 **************************************************************
Hans J. SALTER and Frank SKINNER
Mystery and Horror
Crotchet Amazon UK Amazon USAI understand the reasoning behind releasing an album of suspense scores by Hans J. Salter and others. The composers are unfairly underrepresented in record stores. "Universal's Classic Scores of Mystery and Horror" is a step toward remedying that. There are some wonderful orchestral scores presented, and the cheerful exclamation of "John Morgan and Bill Stromberg, keep it going!" is perpetually appropriate.
Following Jimmy McHugh's classic Universal fanfare, the heart of the album begins with the second re-recording of Hans Salter's "The Ghost of Frankenstein," expanded to a very exciting 45 minutes. "The Ghost of Frankenstein" is unexpectedly passionate, and through the considerable forward momentum and mettlesome bombast there are no regrets about Hollywood romanticism. The story of Frankenstein's creation is slick melodrama, aimed at exposing social biases, assisting the suicide of terminally ill political agendas, and serving a catalyst for religious thought. Salter mirrors these ideas with great music. Where the score may raise eyebrows is with its derivativeness, including what is quite possibly the first filmusic nods to Gustav Holst's 'Mars, Bringer of War' and Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring." The music leans to repetition, too, but of the evolving, involving sort that rarely grows tiresome.
My favorite track, the "Son of Dracula" 'Main Title,' is also the briefest film score portrayal on this disc. In one minute, Salter has me shouting (figuratively, of course) for more as he again moves from horror-filled dissonance to gothic mystery to tragic melody.
Regrettably, the score proper mostly borrowed from Universal's music library.
The unmemorable 'Hypnosis' from "Black Friday" by Salter, Charles Henderson, and Charles Previn falls on a similarly short side. After an intro that clearly foreshadows the transitional music Herrmann would later use in "Psycho," the weakest selection of "Mystery and Horror" spends the bulk of its tiny time emptily moiling, growling, and blasting dreary chords.
If the talk in various filmusic discussion groups is any indication, the two cues from Hans J. Salter's "Man Made Monster" are the recording's surefire pleasures. These are quite grand (and are exceptional treats following a 'Hypnosis'), sparkling bright with volant orchestrations and musical humor... 'Corky' introduces a frolicking motif in full scherzo form; it took me awhile to get this tune out of my head, and courtesy of writing this critique I must recall it again. Corky's theme gets a few more variations in "Electo-Biology" before the music develops a secluded, then demented taste, reaching an apex in a delightful counterpoint for... xylophone!
A premiere recording of Frank Skinner's "Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror" is the closing suite. The ponderous moments thrown in with classical turmoil are initially disappointing, but disinterest fades away as Skinner unwinds a solid British verve. The score is sinister and suspenseful, giving away to the occasional tourbillion of crazed excitement. The suite notably includes a musical cameo from one Hans J. Salter (does the name seem vaguely familiar?) as 'The Spider,' a cue tracked from the later "Sherlock Holmes and the Spider Woman."
The liner notes by Bill Whitaker are magnificent -- well written, meticulously researched, insightful, entertaining, and directly relevant to the current state of filmusic use & appreciation. Conductor Stromberg summons brisk, energetic performances from the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (subbing for the Moscow Symphony, and doing a lovely job of it). This album's technical production is extraordinary and rates alongside the team's most 'authentic' re-recordings.
Reviewer
Jeffrey Wheeler
************************************************************** EDITOR’s RECOMMENDATION July 2000 **************************************************************
Roy WEBB
Music for the films of Val Lewton:
Cat People; The Seventh Victim; The Body Snatcher; I Walked With A Zombie
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava) William T. Stromberg
Marco Polo 8.225125 [69:53]
Crotchet Amazon UK Amazon USAOf all the film music discs produced by Marco Polo and conducted by William Stromberg, this is, in my opinion, the most important. I am aware of only one other disc devoted to the music of Roy Webb and that was a release of original soundtracks on the Silva Screen label (CNS 5008). It is an essential buy but it contains only one extended suite (the marvelous Curse of the Cat People). Most of the cues last only a couple of minutes and offer a mere sampling of the work Webb was doing at RKO during the 1940s. The sound of these recordings is in mono but is excellent nonetheless. Aside from the Silva disc and a couple of re-recorded suites (Notorious on Varese Sarabande and The Seventh Victim on a long-out-of-print Decca album entitled Satan Superstar!), Webb's music has been largely ignored. Why this is may have to do with the nature of Webb's scoring which is unusually restrained when compared with that of his contemporaries. I've often noticed how a Webb score lurks in the background--an ominous presence more felt than heard.
What happens when you pull this music away from its source and bring it out into the light? To me the result is a revelation. Far from being just a series of chromatic chords and orchestral effects, Webb's music is multi-layered; relying on complex counterpoint, impressionist-like harmonies and thoroughly-worked thematic development for its effect. He's been described as a composer ahead of his time and I can understand why. His methods of scoring resemble those more commonly used in the 1950s and 60s when composers such as North, Friedhofer, Bernstein and Goldsmith were paring down the rhetoric and bombast that had afflicted so many scores during Hollywood's "Golden Age". Webb seems to have led the way in this regard and its sad that he has lingered in near obscurity for so long.
I should have known that John Morgan and Bill Stromberg would come to the rescue. They have similarly served other underrated composers such as H.J. Salter, Frank Skinner and Hugo Friedhofer and their discs devoted to these composers have been the highlights of the Marco Polo series. This new Webb disc is now my absolute favorite. Aside from the fact that the music is extraordinarily good, I also feel this disc features Bill Stromberg's very best and most sensitive conducting captured in sound that is superior to other issues in this series. That may be the result of a change of recording venues for this disc, along with the brilliant new recording of mystery and horror scores by Salter and Skinner, was recorded using the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra rather than the usual Moscow Symphony Orchestra. The war in Serbia evidently made it impossible for Morgan and Stromberg to get to Moscow at the time these recordings were made. I was initially disappointed when I learned that Marco Polo had chosen Bratislava and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra because I haven't been too impressed with that orchestra's playing on other Marco Polo discs - especially those conducted by Adriano. Here they sound completely in sync with Webb's idiom. I can only guess that the combination of the music and Stromberg's inspired musical leadership drew from them their very best playing.
As is usually the case with these old scores, Morgan had to rely on piano reductions and his extraordinary ears to reconstruct the music. Webb's scoring is much more subtle and chamber-like and Morgan has resisted the temptation to beef it up. There were only a few places where I felt a fuller string sound would have helped such as in the main titles for Bedlam and The Seventh Victim, otherwise the reconstructions sound note perfect to my ears. Morgan had literally hundreds of Webb scores to chose from when compiling this disc but he selected a few that Webb wrote for RKO producer Val Lewton. It was the perfect choice. The Lewton/Webb partnership is one of the less lauded but most significant in the history of film. Lewton's films are frequently described as psychological horror films and almost all contain a "walk" or long stretch during which one of the characters travels through some ominous landscape to escape danger or resolve a conflict. The most famous example may be the walk through the sugar canes in I Walked With A Zombie or little Teresa's evening journey to buy flour in The Leopard Man. These segments are devoid of dialogue. A less sophisticated composer may have papered such delicate scenes with layers of music but not Roy Webb. His scoring, when it's used, is subtly integrated into all the other elements of the scene in a way uncommon with film scoring during that time. Lewton was extremely fortunate to have had access to a composer whose understated style so beautifully reflected his own.
This disc contains extended suites from Cat People and The Seventh Victim and shorter suites from Bedlam, The Body Snatcher and I Walked With A Zombie. It's a generously filled disc (70 minutes) and Morgan has done his usual masterful job in putting the suites together. I'm especially pleased that he has given us so much of the score for The Seventh Victim. It is an absolute masterpiece and the highlight of this disc. The film itself is Lewton's darkest and Webb's score is mesmerizing in the way that it is manages to be both eerily beautiful and deeply unsettling. Listen to the cues "The Palladists' Trial", "The Chase" and "Desirous of Death" and you'll hear Webb's art at its absolute zenith. His use of instrumental color is as original as Bernard Herrmann's but a good deal more subtle. His use of whirling counterpoint disturbed by occasional flashes of harsh dissonance is typical as is the emphasis on harmony and instrumental sonority. In this regard, Webb's music sounds very impressionistic but he is more of the English than French school, I believe.
Webb's music does at times remind me of the music of Arnold Bax, Frank Bridge and John Ireland and I like to think that hearing these scores gives us some idea of what those masters might have written if they had ever composed music for a horror film.
My only complaint about this Seventh Victim suite is that it omits the tender music for the scene where Jason and Mary view the search light outside his apartment window. It was included in Christopher Palmer's much briefer suite recorded by Stanley Black but that recording is long out of print. I suspect there was enough time available to include it here but its absence is sorely felt.
We do get a lengthy suite from Cat People and that music has its moments of menace but the overall tone is tragic for it expresses the conflicted emotions of the film's protagonist, the haunted Irena, so beautifully played by the great Simone Simon. Also beautiful is the score for I Walked With A Zombie.
Morgan assembled a small chorus of basses for the "Zombie Chant" and their inclusion is indicative of the care and attention given to recreating these scores for recording. They've also included the street beggar's ballad from The Body Snatcher sung by Maria Knapkova. Her diction is a little awkward but she captures the spirit of the song and it adds immensely to the suite. I hope Morgan and Stromberg can be convinced to give us the complete score to The Body Snatcher for it is another masterwork and there is much great music not included in this suite. I would recommend Webb's score for Curse of The Cat
People as a companion. I'd love to hear what Morgan and Stromberg would do with that gorgeous music. The Slovak orchestra plays these scores with tremendous sensitivity. Bill Stromberg captures the atmosphere and mood of the music without allowing it to become staid or monotonous. He has really developed into a fine conductor and I'm delighted to see him branching out into recording concert music as well. I can't imagine his performances of this music ever being bettered and I suspect Roy Webb would have been thrilled if he had lived long enough to hear it. I hope having more of his music available will bring about a renewed interest in his music for he was one of the greatest and most original practitioner in his field. This disc receives my highest possible recommendation.
Reviewer
Richard R. Adams
Nicolay ARTEMYEV
The Barber of Siberia
Crotchet Amazon UK Amazon USAThis historical drama was clearly a composer's dream. Lush scenery, epic themes (and length - 185 minutes!), set-piece scenes (e.g. a carnival on a frozen lake), and Richard Harris as a slightly mad inventor. There's a large variety in style from Artemyev, but not so much that this feels like a range-demonstrating demo.Most lastingly impressive for this reviewer is the sumptuous waltz of "Surprise At The Ball", but the jaunty scherzo of "Cadets and Maidens", the orchestrated so as to be geographically correct "Welcome To Russia", and the imposing weight of "The Prisoner's March" should not be forgotten either.
This is to be recommended as something decidedly outside of the Hollywood norm.
Reviewer
Paul Tonks
Richard HARTLEY
Don Quixote
Crotchet Amazon UK Amazon USARichard Hartley has conceived a delightful score for John Mortimer's television series based on the famous novel by Miguel de Cervantes starring John Lithgow as Quixote and Bob Hoskins as Sancho Panza. Hartley's music is sensitive to the complex character of the eccentric ageing knight. It is colourful and vibrant; atmospheric and evocative. It is just a pity that there is not a theme that really lingers in the memory. The material and treatment: colour, orchestrations, rhythms etc - all are familiar. The strongest impression is of the music of Rodrigo. Yet it is Hartley's immaculate taste and skill that weaves the widely varying material into a most satisfying whole and Varèse have been unusually generous in providing an album of 72 minutes allowing Hartley's creation space to breathe and follow the development of Cervantes story.
The album consists of nearly 40 cues mostly quite short, on average about 2 minutes but with two more substantial tracks: 'Down the Well', mysterious, subterranean agitated string swirlings that contrast with the heavenly serenity and wide cosmic vistas of 'Journey Beyond the Stars' with its mystical overtones overlaid with references to the noble and virtuous side of the Don's character. Other cues are concerned with the pastoral backgrounds to the story. Others have proud fanfares to accompany the jousts. Energetic dance rhythms and sultry love music underscore the more romantic moments and there are very evocative pieces for such episodes as 'Tilting at Windmills' in which the turning of the windmill sails are splendidly realised.
Although it could be said that there is a certain amount of sameness running through this album, it is nevertheless colourful and entertaining.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
************************************************************** EDITOR’s RECOMMENDATION July 2000 **************************************************************
Michael CONVERTINO
Children of a Lesser God
[This album is an existing release; the original recording was released in 1986]
Crotchet Amazon UK Amazon USA
Two films I can see over and over are The Accidental Tourist and Children of a Lesser God both starring William Hurt (what has become of his fine talent of late?). Both films had hauntingly beautiful yet melancholy scores that added immeasurably to the dramatic and emotional impact of the films: the former by John Williams and this music by Michael Convertino. Convertino creates a bitter-sweet, gentle, slow moving score, written mainly for high strings but including synth material sensitively mixed within the texture (an object lesson in the technique).
Children of a Lesser God, based on the acclaimed stage play by Mark Medoff, was released by Paramount in 1986. William Hurt won an Oscar nomination for his warm portrayal of James the teacher of the deaf in an isolted specialist school. Other Oscar nominations went to the film itself as best picture, Mark Medoff for his screenplay and Piper Laurie for her role as the mother of the deaf Sarah played by the stunningly beautiful Marlee Maplin who won the Best Actress Oscar for her remarkable performance. Although it can be said the film did not have the bite of the stage play, the central romance between the teacher and the irascible, disillusioned and bitter Sarah, the college's former pupil, now the janitor, is most sensitively handled.
The Main Title music introduces the haunting bitter-sweet theme for the romance between James and Sarah. It speaks eloquently of their tenderness yet trepidation and hesitation and much about the vulnerability of Sarah. This lovely tune fully flowers in End Title after the estranged lovers have come back together to find a mutual and satisfying method of communicating and expressing their love. There is something of a pastoral nature too in the Main Title, expressive of the cool northern watery beauty of the New Brunswick setting with its soft golden light. For much of the album the music moves slowly, ebbing and flowing, moving in slow but complex cross-currents, high strings cascading, glistening, with pointillistic piano and synth notes and anchored by long held lower string chords. The music cleverly points up not only the setting, but the plight, the isolation of the young people under James supervision, locked within themselves and within their deafness. 'Sarah Sleeping' introduces muted and distant voices and whistling to subtly suggest her disorientation. Just two trumpet chords in something of a Last Post mode, indicating James's sorrow and despair sound out from the pervading string texture in 'Searching for Sarah' and cool piano ripples cross 'Love on the Couch' suggest a tentative reaching out for tenderness.
In contrast to all the slow moving material there is 'Boomerang' a more energetic and gaudy pop tune organised for the students by James to encourage them to speak; and the second movement of Bach's Double Concerto for two violins which James plays in the privacy of his rooms.
This is quiet music beautifully crafted that grows on you. Away from the film, it can be enjoyed as a calming, soothing soundstream.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
GNP Crescendo's web site is:- www.gnpcrescendo.com
Maurice JARRE
I Dreamed of Africa
Crotchet Amazon UK Amazon USAAs a technician there is no doubting Maurice Jarre's ability, but as a artist his music all too often is bland and uninspiring and that is certainly the case here. The irony is that he has proven that he is capable of writing emotionally resonant work, such as his memorable score for Jesus of Nazareth. But as that seems to be the exception rather than the rule, perhaps in that particular instance it was more a case of divine intervention!
Anyway, 'Arrival in Africa' opens with a conventional, unsurprising mixture of strings and a few African tribal rhythmic embellishments that unfortunately only add up to a feeling of heard it all before.
Supplementing the Jarre tracks are a number of pieces by African musicians, the first being 'Ondiek' written and performed by Ayub Ogada. I suppose this could well be described as modern African folk music, but I'm sorry to say that I found it to be rather dull.
'A Different Rhythm' is curiously uninvolving too, as if merely going through the motions, although of course I'm certain that Jarre does intend that to be the case. The problem is that he so often provides film-makers with the flip side of what artists like John Williams or Danny Elfman offer. Where their scores seem to be so rich and evocative, Jarre's work can sometimes meander along without hitting any kind of strong emotional buttons.
Next Geoffrey Oryema contributes 'Kel Kweyo', an up tempo Africana piece with plenty of solid rhythmic work and moments of vocal interest, before Jarre returns with 'The Storm', beginning with dramatic percussion and brass followed by a lengthy section of low-key semi-melodic tinkling. A combination of buff and bluster and quiet introspection.
'Death and Misery' incorporates Richard Strauss and Joseph Von Eichendorff's 'Im Abendrot' with solo soprano by Michaela Kaune. The melodramatic string and tribal rhythm section half way through comes as something of a surprise after a very restrained opening, but once 'Im Abendrot' takes over we are at last provided with something of substance and quality. Whether the comparison is fair or not, Jarre's original work is made to look rather second-rate.
'Obiero' is the second track featured written and performed by Ayub Ogada and while it's more enjoyable than his first selection, I still didn't find it particularly engaging.
The final Jarre cue, 'Kuki's Determination' recaps some of the themes previously heard with swirling strings plus the obligatory African rhythmic elements. While this clearly attempts a big, uplifting conclusion, all that is really achieved is a sense of workmanlike mediocrity.
All of Jarre's pieces are on the longish side ranging from six to eleven minutes in length, but sadly this only seems to highlight their lack of vitality or invention.
I think it will come as no surprise if I conclude by saying that this is not a score I will returning to any time in the near future
Reviewer
Mark Hockley
John BARRY
High Road to China
The 'Main Title/A Nasty Headache' is another one of those pleasing, rather stirring uniquely Barryesque themes we have come to know so well, the kind that this composer produces with unfailing consistency. Add to this a latter section of equally classy dramatic suspense music and the CD gets off to a sound start.
'The Flying Lesson' comes along next and is more string based high tension and spectacle. Barry can write this kind of thing in his sleep but it's always enjoyable if perhaps just a little overly familiar. 'Look out Charlie!/A Hurried Exit' opens with his distinctive use of brass, backed up by busy strings to create a sense of anticipation. Some of the offbeat background drum work seems a little superfluous though, but as ever with Barry there is much to savour here. 'Onto Waziri/Khan' gives a brief nod to the main theme before 'Escape From Waziri/Eve & Struts' utilises his typically menacing brass sound, before the strings take over for another rousing action/drama motif.
'On to India/Arrival in Katmandu/Souls Approaches' gives us a very pleasant rendition of the main theme, while 'The Dogfight/Journey to China/Anymore Surprises/The General's Cannon' is a longish track with some more interesting dramatic lines, very much in the Barry mould and pleasing enough without containing very many surprises.
'You'll get your Money/One Eye Open' offers a soft, romantic version of the main theme with the flute and violin working in tandem. Finally 'Raid on Chang's Camp/Finale & End Titles' sees the return of that imposing brass before delivering a number of variations on the score's primary motifs, concluding with the inevitable reprise of the main title.
A whole batch of 'Source Music' is also included, although I'm not really convinced it was needed.
'Mohamet's Dance' and 'Waziri Source' are valid as they are Barry compositions, the first a simple middle-eastern styled rhythmic piece and the latter a similar if far more restrained cue, both of which would be used simply to establish location and atmosphere.
There are also pieces such as 'Charleston', 'Love me Tender', 'When the Saints Come Marching in' and 'Swinging at the Riverside' to name just a few, all authentic 1920s ragtime style tunes and are fun for those who enjoy such things.
But for my own part, I did begin to forget exactly what soundtrack I was supposed to be listening to after a string of these tunes. I have to say that the effect was not particularly welcome, although I suppose one should never complain at being provided with extras.
'Allemande from the Bach French Suite' and 'Number #5 in G Major' are even more of these additional cues, so there is certainly a wide range of music on offer.
To my mind, John Barry's music is always likeable. Even when his scores are (as is the case here) written for not particularly memorable films. Sadly though this is not untypical of Barry's work, as he has all too often chosen projects that would seem to be beneath his talent, leaving his score to stand as one of their few redeeming features. And indeed, another by-product of these kind of collaborations must surely be that inferior productions are unlikely to bring out the best in him as an artist. So, as is illustrated here, the music is only ever likely to be solid rather than truly remarkable.
This specially produced CD on behalf of the composer himself, is all very pleasant without really reaching the heights of his most notable work. Nonetheless it is still essential stuff for both Barry collectors and lovers of film music in general.
Reviewer
Mark Hockley
Lalo SCHIFRIN
The Fox
Crotchet Amazon UK Amazon USA
'The Fox, main title', opens with a burst of menacing piano, before quietening abruptly to introduce the pretty flute led melody that features prevalently throughout the entire work. It is heard in various incarnations on tracks like 'Fox Variation #1' and later given an almost tragic air in 'Dead Leaf'. At other times the theme is used as a counterpoint for the more threatening aspects of the score, where a strong sense of suspense and foreboding are created, particularly in tracks such as 'Paul's Memories', 'Frost Trees' and 'Snowy Bushes'. Add to this both a jazz version with female vocal on 'That Night' (not so welcome) and a final big band interpretation in 'The Fox Symphony' with virtuoso piano and laid-back rhythm section and the main theme certainly gets a lot of mileage.
However, despite the predominance of that theme, probably the most interesting cues are those that emphasise the psychological elements of this adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's novel of confused emotions. In fact these suspense cues come as something of a surprise with tracks like 'The Proposal' at times sounding like it could have easily been lifted straight out of the TV version of 'Mission Impossible'! Whatever the case, it certainly shows Schifrin on fine suspense form and the same can be said of the equally accomplished 'The Foxhole' and 'Desperate Interlude', the latter benefiting from an almost Hitchcockian quality.
The main problem with any score once it is reduced to purely a listening experience is how well it holds up simply as music. Among admirers of this singular art form there are different schools of thought as to how film scores should be best appreciated. Some argue that you cannot judge a score in proper context without having first seen the film it was written for. For my own part I take the opposite view. While I accept that often another dimension can be added once you have seen the images the soundtrack was specifically written for, truly great film music should also be simply great music. It should be able to stand alone, regardless of its origins.
And this score does illustrate this point in that despite its ambition and unquestionable technical prowess, it remains a work less satisfying separated from its source.
Even so, this Oscar nominated score is clearly an important work in terms of the composer's career and will be well received by his many fans. Ironically though its major claim to fame will probably always be its notoriety in France where it was used to advertise a leading brand of women's stockings. All I can say is that I trust Lalo was duly compensated!
Reviewer
Mark Hockley
But our guest reviewer Peter Holm is much keener:-
Lalo Schifrin's THE FOX hit me like a bolt of lightning from a clear sky. I was immediately hooked from the dramatic opening piano punch to the powerful resolution. Of course I've listened to his other spectacular scores such as Enter the Dragon, Bullitt, Dirty Harry (and it's sequels) and also watched several of the movies carrying his name, but I must admit it appears that I've missed the crown jewel itself.
Before I start discussing the music let me just say that I simply adore the CD cover. The highly imaginative and colourful artwork of the 60's is simply a joy compared to what we're used to these days (in exception for some of Varese's covers when they commission Matthew Peak).
The Fox, from 1968, is a drama based upon a novel by D.H. Lawrance. Schifrin's music has earlier been issued on vinyl record and he also received an Oscar nomination for it, but lost to the equally impressive The Lion in Winter by John Barry. However this is a new recording featuring the complete score along with a bonus jazz version of the principle theme.
To portray the film's gripping triangle drama the music balances between two distinctive sides. On one hand it's intensive, brutal and frenzy, and on the other delicate, soft and sometimes almost tragic in character. All of this is strengthened by Schifrin's choice of orchestral setting. Instead of a large one with big, bold and sweeping musical frames he chose a strong and highly intimate setting, like that of a quartet and chamber orchestra. This creates a sense of classical aura for the music, yet with a modern touch, such as 'Minuet in C' or 'Fox Variation #2'
Claude Debussy and Bernard Herrmann are mentioned in the liner notes, but only to a specific cue. However I feel that Schifrin has found some inspirations in their respective works and developed and integrated it and created his own sparsely musical landscape and emotional voice for this score. The elegance of Georges Delerue's music is another comparison, but Schifrin's a lot more powerful in that aspect.
Apart from the usual musical elements such as strings, woodwinds and brass the score features piano, harp, harpsichord and percussion. Due to the setting each instrument's voice becomes clear and present and very useful when the score takes on an experimental and dissonant path. These passages are also the most dark and menacing ones with colourful patterns. 'The Proposal' and 'The Foxhole' are two of these cues filled with turmoil and menace from the hammering piano and mournful flutes and they sure give a good thrill down the spine of pleasure.
The main theme is presented on flute in the opening cue. It's a hauntingly beautiful and memorable one with a lot of grace and sensibility and just enough touch of loneliness. Perhaps it was this theme that John Scott glanced at when he wrote the epilogue for Red King, White Knight in 1989? The theme is used throughout the score along with a second one that appears in 'Paul's Memories'.
Indeed Schifrin's music has many dazzling and refreshing cues to offer and several of them have a lavishing tapestry of a landscape in season transition (autumn to winter), for example 'Frost Trees' and 'Snowy Bushes'.
Schifrin's complex and compelling score is one that will grow with each listening and present new angles on its structure, nuances and emphasis on various instruments. Compared to his other jazz oriented scores The Fox is unique in that aspect and I find it to be a true masterpiece.
Reviewer
Peter Holm
Jerry GOLDSMITH
Supergirl
Crotchet Amazon UK Amazon USATwo composers consistently come out as the most acclaimed and popular in contemporary Hollywood, and there must be times when Jerry Goldsmith wonders why the other one gets the pick of the best jobs. John Williams had Star Wars and Superman, and Jerry Goldsmith got Star Trek and Supergirl (1984). Boldly going where Williams declined (or wasn't asked) to go, Goldsmith had the thankless task of scoring the third-rate adventures of Clarke Kent's younger cousin. Yes, I did see the full European cut of the film (126 minutes, against the re-edited 114 minute American version) well presented in a good cinema, so I'm not repeating hearsay. The film was competently mediocre. Fortunately, Goldsmith didn't let that deter him, and he crafted a strong, colourful and rousing score. It's not a great all-time film music classic like Williams' Superman, but given the difference in overall quality between the two films, it would be astonishing if it was.
The CD is a straight reissue of Silva Screen's expanded score album first released in 1993. There are some alternate versions of cues included, and some different versions to those on the previous original soundtrack album. For instance, 'The Flying Ballet' appears in the version used in the full-length cut of the film, as well as in the version for the shorter American release; the variance being mainly the addition of some extra electronic synthesiser 'whooshes'. Elsewhere, the cue 'Main Title & Argo City' is slower than that which appeared on the original album, and is the version actually used in the film. Likewise, 'The Storm Monster' contains more electronics than the version previously issued, and is the version used in the movie. The cues 'Argo City Mall', 'The Journey Begins', 'Chicago Lights/Street Attack', 'Ethan Spellbound', 'Flying Ballet-Alternate Version', 'The Map-Alternate Version', 'First Kiss', 'The Phantom Zone', 'The Final Showdown & Victory / End Title - Short Version' are all (or were when this version of the soundtrack was first issued 1993) previously unreleased. Given that the last of these runs over 12 minutes, this is a considerable amount of 'new' music. Indeed, this is a particularly lengthy album, clocking at very nearly 78 minutes. It's doubtful though that many people will want to listen to it all the way through in a sitting very often, for as is the nature of film music, there is a considerable amount of repetition. This is not to suggest that I would ever argue to leave cues off a soundtrack release, simply to note that its good to have the choice of which ones to play.
The album opens with an 'Overture' which is actually an unused, extended end title. As the notes point out, it features the films three major themes, the Supergirl March, the love theme, and the 'monster' theme for the villain's evil creations. Goldsmith's Supergirl march has the impossible task of standing against William's Superman theme, and still the composer acquits himself splendidly. His theme is built around a big, bold brassy rift augmented by lots of synthesisers which whoosh heroically. And that is the point, it is a heroic, jubilant, vibrant and youthful theme. Deliberately, and appropriately, it lacks the slow-building dignity and nobility of the Superman march. It is less memorable than Williams' creation, but it does what it sets out to do admirably.
There are frequent returns to the main theme plus developments of a tender love theme and the menacing 'monster' theme, while the orchestrations are full of lush glitter and fantasy are akin to Goldsmith's work on The Secret of Nimh (1982) and Legend (1985). The choral writing is likewise in this vein. Some of the synthesiser sounds will be familiar from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1980), and reappear in Legend, while the more robust diving action music looks back to the muscular assault of such 70's scores as Capricorn One (1978).
Both the playing and the sound are first rate. The brass in particular really is burnished, blistering forth proud and true, while the recording has tremendous depth, clarity and punch. This is especially so when compared to Howard Blake's Flash Gordon (1980) (which I also review this month on FMOTW) and which was also performed by the National Philharmonic. One would think it had been committed to tape 20, rather than four years earlier than Supergirl, such is the difference in sound quality. Apart from some tape hiss Goldsmith's score might have been in the studio this month.
For Goldsmith devotees this album is essential; likewise for collectors of lavish SF / fantasy scores, and for comic-book aficionados. For others this isn't as necessary as Star Trek The Motion Picture or Legend, but is probably about on a par with The Mummy (1999), which tracks like the epic 'The Monster Tractor' somewhat prefigure (actually, there is a strange and disconcerting edit in this track at just past the 6 minute mark which is surprisingly clumsy). Generally though, it gets better the further you turn the volume up, and turn it far enough and the result is often breathtaking, exhilarating and spine-tingling. 'The Final Showdown & Victory / End Title - Short Version' presents complete just the sort of rousing feel-good finale the music enables us to image the film having: forget the screen, listen to Goldsmith scoring the film they should have made.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
Leonard ROSENMAN
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Available exclusively from the magazine and website (www.filmscoremonthly.com) for $19.95 plus shipping. E-mail:Lukas@filmscoremonthly.comIt may be a little ungracious to say that you know what you're going to get from a Leonard Rosenman score. But if you are familiar with Fantastic Voyage, Lord of the Rings, or Star Trek IV - you'll have the composer's style set in mind. It's an often abrasively edged sound, perhaps suited better here than any of the features cited above.
Sitting shotgun on the sequel to Goldsmith's gloriously experimental original was a hard act to follow. Clearly taking the lead from the picture itself, Rosenman pulls an even more off-the-wall effort out the hat. Where Goldsmith worked leitmotivic devices out of his clusters of atonality and sound design, Rosenman through-scored his picture with only scant associative referencing. The cues can often sound incomplete or improvised - which actually compliments their complexity.
This may be a tough standalone listening experience, but if you can appreciate what this did for the picture - a portrait of utter chaos leading to Doomsday itself - it can certainly be admired for its intelligence.
Reviewer
Paul Tonks
For more information visit http://www.filmscoremonthly.com
Howard BLAKE
Flash Gordon (also includes music from Amityville 3D)
Flash Gordon performed by the National Philharmonic
Amityville 3D performed by the Sinfonia of London
How to get copies of promotional discsPerhaps it just that its summer, but it's definitely sci-fi month. That's right, not SF or Science Fiction. Prime slices of tacky pulp. Alongside Battlefield Earth comes a reissue of Jerry Goldsmith's Supergirl (both of which I review elsewhere on FMOTW this month), and the first ever issue Howard Blake's music for the 1980 version of Flash Gordon. It must have seemed like a good idea at the time. A year before Star Wars producer Dino De Laurentis burnt a huge heap of cash on a spectacular and spectacularly misjudged remake of 1930's SF / fantasy landmark King Kong. Apparently he fancied having another go at the 30's, and why not given that Star Wars was essentially Flash Gordon with state of the art production values? The resultant film was actually rather better than many hoped (though the shelved Nic Roeg project could have been great), with glorious production design that captured well the colours and look of Alex Raymond's original comic-strip. Howard Blake wrote a striking score too. I clearly remember sitting in the cinema 20 years ago being struck by it.
Unfortunately, and bizarrely given that John Williams score for Star Wars had been so instrumental in the success of that film, to say nothing of selling a colossal quantity of LPs, the rock band Queen were invited to contribute to Flash Gordon. Originally the idea was that they would provide a title song, but things escalated, and they ended-up 'scoring' several sections of the film with, considering the cod-1930's ambience, completely inappropriate and crassly heavy-handed rock numbers. A hugely successful 'soundtrack' album was released, and a massive hit single was had. The foundation was laid for plastering action movies with rock music and editing the result like a pop video, a dire practice which came to 'maturity' with Top Gun (1986) and of course Highlander (also 1986), a fantasy adventure virtually transformed into a feature promo for Queen's then current album, A Kind of Magic. With Queen's Flash doing so well at the record store, Howard Blake's score has had to wait 20 years for a release, and even now it is as a composer's promo rather than a commercial issue.
Clearly it was thought worth sticking with what worked on orchestral SF and fantasy scores of the time, and there are some very familiar names in the credits: The National Philharmonic, Sidney Sax, Eric Tomlinson. There is a fair bit of tape hiss and the sound is not so full-bodied as the recent Star Wars and Star Trek The Motion Picture soundtrack reissues from the same period, but it is perfectly adequate and more than does its job. In-fact, apart from the strong stereo, rather than coming from 1980, it all round sounds more like a classic Bernard Herrmann soundtrack recording from the Ray Harryhausen fantasy films part of his career. The album presents 18 tracks from the film, five of which briefly interpolate some of the Queen material, though this fact can safely be ignored, such a good job did Blake do of weaving it into the tapestry of his score.
Some very short cues 'The Hero', 'Romantic Reunion', 'The City of the Hawkmen', leave space for some extended set-pieces such as 'Opening Scenes/Killer Storm/Plane Crash', with a very old Hollywood / Adventures of Superman action suspense feel, 'Tree-Stump Duel / Beast in the Swap' and 'Duel on the Sky Platform'. Some interesting pitch-effects come into play for 'Rocket Flight', the track developing into a mutant orchestral modern jazz before heading into Planet of the Apes pounding piano figures, all in 90 seconds. Only in film music! And so it goes, a thoroughly entertaining and engrossing score for the committed film music fan. I mentioned Bernard Herrmann above in respect to the recording, but I would take the comparison further. Both in the robust action writing and in the glittering oriental fantasy of cues such as 'The Princess' the legacy of Herrmann's imagination is apparent. Of course there isn't the big theme here to attract the more casual listener, Queen having grabbed all the opportunities for a rousing orchestral march, filling them with their patent brand of carnival rock. Don't however, let that put you off. The score is well worth exploring, and suggests that had things been different Howard Blake might have become famous for more than The Snowman.
Amityville 3D is necessarily a very different affair. The mysterious wordless female vocal in the main titles soon putting us right to the fact that we are deep in the heart of supernatural horror territory. It's second rate horror territory though, and Blake does a good job of bringing some real style and imaginative orchestrations to the routine proceedings. The female vocal returns throughout, echoing in the end-titles the best of such moody doom-laden sound worlds down the decades, demonstrating that Blake certainly knows how to both establish atmosphere and to Hammer the horror home. Not worth buying the album for on its own, but certainly well worth having appended to the main feature
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
Various
Mega Movies
It's been a short while since Erich Kunzel's last compilation, perhaps waiting for enough high profile titles to make one worthwhile. Musically this does recommend itself "The Big Picture", even if it does fall down in the same sort of places. Although the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra is eminently capable with the straight re-interpolations of suites, it's in the orchestration of a piece's unique electronics that the only disappointment can be levied. The standout case in point here being the limp version of "Threnody in X" from The X-Files movie. Without Mark Snow's personalised samples it doesn't occupy the same parallel universe at all.
That sort of carries over to both The Rock and Armageddon, but some might actually welcome hearing these pieces performed by all live instrumentation. It's interesting to see 3 apiece from Goldsmith and Horner: The Mummy, Air Force One, L.A. Confidential, then The Mask of Zorro, Mighty Joe Young, and Titanic. Their styles have certainly translated well for the Pops and make for concert repertoire worthy choices.
Decidedly unusual suspects rounding out the playlist are: Contact, The Prince of Egypt, A Bug's Life, Elizabeth, Godzilla, and Shakespeare In Love. All take the ear nicely enough, but about the best surprise is a well thought out segue editing together the "Main Title" and "The Flag Parade" from Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace.
The best fun to be had is testing out your speakers with Michael Bishop's new batch of sound effects. There's a swish of swords for Zorro, a helicopter pass-by for The Rock, Podrace zooms for Star Wars, a bee attack for Mulder on Scully, thudding footfalls in New York from Godzilla, and the teeth itching screech from ice on metal for the Titanic.
Reviewer
Paul Tonks
[ Part 2]
 |
|
| Discs
on these pages are offered for sale. There is also a page of search
engines from a selection of on-line retailers
here.
Please support this web-site by buying your discs here. Disclaimer: Every effort is made to make sales links to the correct disc but, in the end, you must take responsibility for checking that what you are purchasing is what you want. Some of these discs were not actually available for sale at the time of posting but a link has been made in anticipation of their forthcoming availablility. |
Return To Film Music on the Web
e-mail: info@musicweb.uk.net