Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... only if you are an extremely avid collector of Jerry Goldsmith's music and seek this expensive set for sentimental reasons rather than practical ones. Avoid it... if the huge financial sacrifice you'll make to acquire a rare copy is not worth the minimal quantity of music that has remained unreleased on other products in the years since this set debuted. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Jerry Goldsmith at 20th Century Fox: (Jerry Goldsmith) In one of the most comprehensive compilations ever to be released in the genre of film music, the Varèse Sarabande label built a 6-CD set based on the vast collection of material written by composer Jerry Goldsmith for films of the studio 20th Century Fox. According to Varèse, the 2004 set was meant to kick off a year-long celebration of Goldsmith's 75th birthday by the label (which had already announced in late 2003 that they would be releasing an SACD of Goldsmith's rejected Timeline score), though the composer passed away just a few months thereafter. Before diving into the debate about the concept of the 6-CD set itself, as well as the circumstances of its release, a summary of its contents may help you decide if it is worth the enormous expense. The set does not include all of Goldsmith's work for Fox; among the six exclusions are Capricorn One and Sleeping with the Enemy, both extremely unfortunate omissions, but it does offer at least one cue (and often many more) from Goldsmith's 39 other projects for Fox. For a comprehensive track listing, browse further down this page. All of the material on the first three albums has been released before, with the first album showcasing Goldsmith's war and action music, the second album containing Westerns, and the third album limited to suspense and horror. A considerable amount of the material on the first two albums had been recently released by Film Score Monthly in its limited Silver Age series of CDs. The third album contains a strong collection from the franchise of The Omen, however. The three latter CDs are the ones that will likely interest the collector of more obscure Goldsmith music. Among the more notable first-time releases are cues from Von Ryan's Express, Fate is the Hunter, The Agony and the Ecstasy (the original recording), and Alien, from which the original main titles and a medley of unreleased cues was offered for the first time. While most had never been heard even on commercial LP albums, The Chairman was making the transition for the first time. Although many of these scores had long been bootlegged, a few of them (such as Fate is the Hunter) were truly new to the ears of even the most avid Goldsmith collectors. More modern collectors appreciated The Vanishing as the only new inclusion from the digital era, though Varèse released that score in full as another of their Club entries not long after. In sum, there were 79 previously unreleased tracks between those final three CDs at the time of the set's debut. As a workable product, this Varèse set was completely different from any other, though it did inspire similar sets from FSM in coming years. When it originally sold from the label's web site, it cost nearly $140 (including shipping). It sold out within two weeks, and on the secondary market, its value immediately escalated past $200 and fetched prices upwards of $300 by the end of the 2000's. But is it really worth that much? There is a distinct reason why only 1,500 of these sets were produced; the market aim for it was very, very narrow. Even within the film music collecting crowd, only a few of the most avid Goldsmith enthusiasts will likely have the money or need to seek this set. As a visual and aural product, it is unquestionably outstanding. The 64-page booklet maintains the label's highest standards of their other Club releases and the sound quality has been mastered with great attention to detail on the older material (and even a more recent entry like The Vanishing). Everything about this product is spectacular, and it's no wonder that speculators bought multiple copies and left them sealed as an investment. The endeavor is very obviously a labor of love for executive producer Robert Townson and everyone at Varèse. A spirited debate ensued, however, about the viability of the set. If someone only wanted Fate is the Hunter and nothing else, then that person would pay extraordinary sums for just four cues from that one score. The same applied to the 14 minutes from Alien. Frankly, those collectors were simply screwed since the product was meant to be a complete package. Additionally, the set sold out so quickly (and thus marked up astronomically) that there was no chance for reviews of the product before the sell-out date. It was announced on the 10th of February, sold out by the end of that month, and shipped in late March, leaving the less Internet-capable collectors, or those who wanted to read reviews about it, with only very expensive reseller options. A logical argument at the time stated that the desired music would have been much more attainable by avid but less wealthy Goldsmith collectors had it been offered in three limited 2-CD sets for $44.99 each (or perhaps some other arrangement). As it was, too many of the sets sat unopened with people who bought several of them as investments. There are those, of course, who think that spending $150 on any set of CDs is absurd, and to an extent, those people have a good argument. At what point does a tribute simply lose all of its practicality? If you already have most, if not all of the Goldsmith music you want, then there's really no point in trying to locate a copy of this set. Many of the new attractions it contained in 2004 have been released in full since. Only if you love and value Goldsmith's career as much as the folks at Varèse do, however, should you consider acquiring it so many years later. *** Track Listings:
Total Time: 421:07
All artwork and sound clips from Jerry Goldsmith at 20th Century Fox are Copyright © 2004, Varèse Sarabande. The reviews and notes contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications. Audio clips can be heard using RealPlayer but cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 4/10/04, updated 10/13/11. Review Version 4.1 - PHP (Filmtracks Publications). Copyright © 2004-2013, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. |
