Buy it... if you want to fill an entire afternoon with some of the most heroic music ever written for the big screen, all of which presented in outstanding sound quality.

Avoid it... if you are deterred by the significant emphasis on Golden Age representation on this and similar sets from Silva Screen.

Warriors of the Silver Screen: (Compilation) One of the highlights of Silva Screen Records' impressive summer 1997 lineup, "Warriors of the Silver Screen" offers selections of swordfighting and epic historical scores not featured on the label's "The Mark of Zorro" and "The Crimson Pirate" albums released a few months later. The performances of classic film music by The City of Prague Philharmonic and Crouch End Festival Chorus were reaching the level of outstanding precision that would be expected from the groups in the years to come. For Silva, "Warriors of the Silver Screen" was following the ambitious and fantastic "Space and Beyond" and "Cinema Choral Classics" albums. This compilation has a particularly healthy dose of music by Miklós Rózsa, including three multi-track performances from Ben-Hur, The Thief of Bagdad, El Cid, the last of which is particularly effective in the performance of its melodic love theme. Two heroic Franz Waxman suites appropriately begin each CD, each at least ten minutes in length. Otherwise, the selection of music is spread between the works of many great composers, classic and modern. The choral incorporation mixed at the end of John Scott's classically elegant suite for Anthony and Cleopatra is momentous, and the ensemble handles the composer's usual, layered brass counterpoint well. The march from Manos Hadjidakis' lesser known The 300 Spartans is quite light-footed and bit flighty compared to its surrounding representatives. The City of Prague Philharmonic has always performed Jerry Goldsmith's First Knight with great enthusiasm and power, with eleven minutes from the score presented here in grand fashion. While the "No Surrender" cue has been re-recorded before (appearing on the "Cinema Choral Classics" album), the "Arthur's Farewell" cue is beautifully performed and a highlight of the first CD in the set.

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After Carter Burwell's somewhat mundane music for Rob Roy, the explosive fanfare from Jerome Moross for The War Lord, resembling a Maurice Jarre tune in many ways, stirs the pot. The thirteen minutes from Patrick Doyle's Henry V is extremely well performed, eclipsing the original in all three of its tracks. The two cues outside of the famous "Non Nobis Domine" are treats that use every last corner of the improved soundscape to convey their percussion. Following Alex North's bombastic title and lush love theme from Sparticus, the ensemble returns to John Barry territory for, not unexpectedly, a superior performance of The Last Valley (they would eventually re-record this entire score alongside The Lion in Winter). The end titles for James Horner's Braveheart will be a major attraction for many mainstream buyers, and the performance here is loyally conveyed with the appropriate light choir, uillean pipes, and tin whistles. The suite from Basil Poledouris' Conan the Barbarian strangely meanders through the "Prologue" cue before getting down to business with the film's primary two themes in "Anvil of Crom." The "Riders of Doom" cue would be made available on the first "Cinema Choral Classics" album. Concluding the second CD (after the always pompous and somewhat irritating "Prelude" to Bernard Herrmann's Jason and the Argonauts) are seven tracks and eighteen minutes from Mario Nascimbene's The Vikings, the last track from which also appearing on "Cinema Choral Classics." Recognizable instantly by the three note theme representing the culture in the film, Nascimbene's score is a good one that still perhaps gets too much attention from Silva. At any rate, its "Funeral and Finale" cue is once again a fitting finale to the album and set. Unlike some of the concurrent single-CD releases by Silva that summer, "Warriors of the Silver Screen" is largely free of performance errors, and the Dolby sound quality, as always, is second to none. The enhanced CD features are an additional bonus, especially with the footage of Taras Bulba being recorded. *****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download