Buy it... if you have any remote curiosity about the career of Georges Delerue (or even if you already own a few of his scores), because this set is a very strong survey of his works in fantastic sound quality.

Avoid it... if you have no tolerance for flighty, whimsical romance themes and jazzy rhythms, a style that largely defined Delerue's career.

Delerue

Great Composers: Georges Delerue: (Georges Delerue) The film music community suffered an enormous loss in 1992 when veteran Georges Delerue succumbed to a stroke and left the world without its greatest contemporary French composer. In what was truly an international career, Delerue embodied the purely romantic side of film music, composing over thirty years for some of the world's most dramatic and sensuous films. Collectors of Delerue's music remain intensely loyal to his expansive body of work, even many years after his death. He represented a niche in film music that still appeals to the hopeless romantics at heart, a niche filled with lesser success by Rachel Portman, George Fenton, and eventually a new, rising set of French composers in the 2000's. The mass of Delerue's music is optimistic, with a spirited heart and genuine caring, and it always, always, includes a memorable melody. He was arguably at the height of his career in the dramatic genre in 1985 and 1986, when he composed two of his most memorable scores, Crimes of the Heart and Agnes of God, the latter of which gaining him an Academy Award nomination. Earlier in his career, his scores tended to favor light and fluffy tones (and it was one of these efforts, A Little Romance, which brought Delerue an Academy Award in 1980). His efforts of the 1960's and 1970's were high spirited and whimsically lofty, often with flighty, jazzy performances by woodwind instruments. But in the mid-80's, Delerue's music became practiced in the style of John Williams' big, dramatically popular scores. The culmination of Delerue's dramatic talents came with 1986's Platoon, for which he composed agonizing adagio that is equal to (if not better than) Samuel Barber's famous piece that director Oliver Stone opted to use in much of the film instead. This ridiculous and unnecessary move by Stone likely robbed Delerue of another Academy Award and additionally deserved public spotlight. He died just as a storybook would have it; before leaving the sound studio on the final day of recording Rich in Love in 1992, Delerue was struck by a fatal stroke. He spent his last few moments surrounded by his own incredible music, and with the assistance of such compilations as this crystal clear "Great Composers" album set from Varèse Sarabande in 2001, he will not be soon forgotten. To discuss the grand merits of each and every score would cause an analysis to ramble on for pages about the numerous strengths of each, so this review is targeted specifically at questions people have expressed about the re-recordings contained on this product.

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The majority of the recordings on this double-CD album were conducted by Delerue himself in London in 1989. In what came to be known as "The London Sessions," Delerue recorded lengthy suites from many of his most sweeping scores for the specific purpose of summarizing his career on compilations. Varèse Sarabande then released them as part of their Masters Film Music series on three CDs in 1990 and 1991. Arguably the highlight of the three was the final installment, which included a lengthy suite from the much coveted Something Wicked This Way Comes. No matter which of the three presentations was originally your favorite, however, all of them were fantastic tributes to the man at the height of his career. He would only go on to score a few more films after that series before he died, and the 2001 2-CD set addresses these last chapters with additional, fresh recordings. The three London Session albums from the early 90's were combined into the 2001 2-CD set, which contains nearly all of the re-recordings that Delerue conducted for those prior albums. The additional, new tracks on the second CD are up to par with the rest of the older recordings, and while a few of the excess material from the original CDs has been cut down to size (such as an extra cue from Her Alibi), nothing of extreme importance was left behind. The set also enhances several score suites that had previously been available only in reduced analog sound. Still, a few problems with this "Great Composers" set restrict it from the highest rating. First, the cues have been arranged (presumably by label producer Robert Townson) into a listening experience order whereas some might have preferred to hear a tribute to Delerue's career in chronological order. Also of curious note is the bizarre selection from House on Carroll Street, which doesn't have much to do with the film and ignores the score's overwhelming finale theme; this was both a problem on the original and new compilations (it's the same recording). Representation of True Confessions, one of Delerue's most remarkable and choral scores, and The Black Stallion Returns, with a magnificent title theme, is missing from the set, too. Nevertheless, Delerue's consistent ability to apply a strong theme and simple harmonies to his music allows a fan of his later, dramatic scores to easily enjoy his earlier jazz works as well. If you need cheering up on rainy afternoon, there is no better a composer than Georges Delerue to improve your mood. And even if you already own the original releases of the London Sessions, this compilation is a strong addendum to Varèse Sarabande's long-standing tribute to the great composer. ****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download