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| • | Newest Major Reviews: | . | • | This Week's Most Popular Reviews: | • | Best-Selling Albums: | ||
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1. Nim's Island 2. The Life Before Her Eyes 3. Horton Hears a Who! 4. Leatherheads 5. The Spiderwick Chronicles | . | . |
1. Moulin Rouge 2. Gladiator 3. POTC: Curse of the Black Pearl 4. Star Wars: A New Hope 5. Edward Scissorhands |
6. Pearl Harbor 7. Schindler's List 8. Titanic 9. Braveheart 10. Home Alone | . | . |
1. Varèse Sarabande 25th 2. The Last of the Mohicans 3. Legends of the Fall 4. Schindler's List 5. LOTR: Return of the King (Set) |
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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if you own very few of Silva Screen's other film music compilations, for this product contains a disappointingly high number of repeat offerings. Avoid it... if you have come to expect superior performances by The City of Prague Philharmonic and aren't interested in hearing them mangle several of James Horner's most beloved themes. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
The City of Prague Philharmonic has excelled at performing the works of Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, and John Barry through the years, but it has not enjoyed the same success with Horner, and this compilation suffers as a result. The selling points of the album are the two tracks from Titanic, with Mark Ayres adequately capturing the spirit of the original in "Take her to Sea, Mr. Murdoch" in a good balance between the synthesizers and orchestra. The final track on the second CD is an instrumental version of "My Heart will Go On," an innocuous set of solo performances over the ensemble that leads to an unfortunate light rock rhythm near the end. The two cues from Glory are a curiosity; because Silva could not obtain finished sheet music for these selections (apparently none could be found by the publishers), Horner's original orchestral and choral drafts were employed. Thus, the performances feature considerably different pacing and orchestration than the original recordings. The famous "End Title" cue is unlistenable in its excruciatingly slower tempo, a massive disappointment. Following these awkward cues is Prague's previous and superior performance of Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, probably the best entry on the set. Both the performances of the lush themes from Legends of the Fall and Deep Impact lack the weighty romanticism in their string performances. The playful end credit suite from The Land Before Time is a welcome addition to Silva's library and another highlight of this album. Prague does well with its performance of We're Back: A Dinosaur Story, though the choice of that score over a handful of others is suspect. After the mundane "End Credits" to Ransom, the completely out of place Red Heat jars the listening experience with one of Ayres' less accurate representations. The Rocketeer has both been performed and recorded in far superior quality by the Orchestra of the Americas (which can be found with an equally good Legends of the Fall on the "Heart of the Ocean" compilation by Sonic Images). The City of Prague Philharmonic, in a rare show of complete incohesion, absolutely crucifies the 7:30 minute suite from The Rocketeer, with a muddled and disjointed orchestral climax during the finale. The respectfully decent performance of Braveheart was already available on three other Silva products (and appeared with The Man Without a Face and Ransom on their Mel Gibson compilation). The selection from Apollo 13 is not among the score's strongest cues. Prague's performance of Cocoon has always been enjoyable, though lazy woodwinds hinder its middle portion. The performance of Battle Beyond the Stars, heard on one of the "Space and Beyond" releases, isn't completely accurately, especially in the harsh brass tones, but the theme is a guilty pleasure. The performance of Willow is disappointing, with some blatant brass and woodwind errors. Ayres' work on Field of Dreams, Patriot Games, and The Name of the Rose is good, though the latter two selections don't merit an appearance here. His interpretation of Commando is less effective, especially without the appropriate flute, and is major irritant. Overall, this album is not as entertaining as the aforementioned, concurrent "Heart of the Ocean" compilation of Horner works. John Beal's superior synthesizer work on that Sonic Images album (especially on Vibes) seems to beat Ayres's performances here. On the other hand, Silva's album is still a 2-CD set for roughly the price of a single CD, and the quantity is hard to ignore. It's just so rare to hear Prague make blatant performance errors that this album is surprisingly disappointing. **
* Confirmed as "previously released" by Silva Screen as of release date
The insert notes are, as per usual for Silva's sets, in great depth. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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