The Empire Strikes Back: The Original Soundtrack Release (Polydor 825298), 1985

This CD was an edited version of the 2-LP set. Many of the most sought after cues were cut from the CD release, making this one of the most irritating releases of all time. The LP set was beautiful, with a full color booklet and an almost-complete score. The CD, on the other hand, is dull, poorly labeled, out-of-sequence and incomplete. Some of the best parts of the LP release were cut, including all of Lando's sequences and most of the half-hour of the film. The sound quality is awful, too. The music sounds distant and muted. The value of this CD is minimal. As an example of the strangeness of this CD: the Main Titles (the Star Wars theme) is track #6. Go figure. **

The Empire Strikes Back: Charles Gerhardt Conducting (Varese Sarabande VSD-5353), early 1993

For a long time, this CD was the only decent release of Empire. It contains cues that did not appear on the original release (above), and its sound quality is excellent. This was the last of a series of great film scores to be produced by Gerhardt on CD, and the only one to be release by the Varese label. Much better than the other two Star Wars scores perfomed by this group, this CD has many memorable tracks. The concert version of "Han Solo and the Princess" does not appear in the anthology or special edition, and it superbly combines the love theme with Leia's theme from Star Wars. The concert arrangement of "The Imperial March" differs from any other: it opens with the carbon-freezing scene's climax, and then the relentless concert version of the march starts just as Solo is frozen. The last two tracks make a suite out of the best sequences of Lando's Palace, The Duel, Boba Fett's Departure, and the End Credits. The last track (entitled "Finale" even though it's only the End Credits compilation of themes) performs the themes better than anywhere else --including the originals. Overall, this is an excellent performance of Empire, with lots of old and (relatively) new tracks to enjoy. ****

The Empire Strikes Back: The Anthology Release (Fox 11012-2), late 1993

This release contained almost all of the original score, minus the opening Executor sequence, Han's garbage dump escape scene, and a few of Lando's sequences. The only complaint I have about this release is that the music from Empire is spread over two CDs (newly released tracks from all three scores appeared on CD #4), and some of my favorite sequences are trapped on the fourth CD. These include the battle preparation scenes at the beginning and the carbon freezing/duel scenes. The sound quality on these releases are much better than the originals, but still sound distant. One track appears here that does not appear on the Special Edition version of the score; Both the concert version and the film version of the end titles are included here. Overall, I'm going to keep my anthology version of the score, but don't plan to listen to it often. ***