Please, don't waste your time by reading this if you can't stand or have complaints about the discussed compilation.

I have read John Williams' own words (posted in the same form independently on quite a number of sites to which I can give you all links if asked by you) explaining the nature of the new Olympic theme. And well, in other words, JW explains why his Salt Lake City Olympic Theme has been composed the way it is, and what all (which inevitable events among other things) influenced it and to what extent.
I am also quite pleased to read (on numerous sites beside this one it'd been vented) how GREAT the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Theme is and how it's superior to this brand new one and perhaps to all JW's hymns composed to date. Yes, I am pleased to have come across these good news because I remember all those sometimes harsh complaints that I had read about the "Summon the Heroes" centennial theme as (at that time) being "composed under a schedule pressure" and how healthily it's apparent even for the casual listener, how it's "scatterbrained", having almost nothing memorable about it and so on. I know they were most likely different people those complainers (it's been 6 years or so since then), but I want to say that I thought they might have been wrong as to the "wishy-washy" nature of the '96 Olympic theme and am glad to be discovering today you're proving them all to have been wrong. :-)
I myself like "Call of the Champions" say the same as both "Summon the Heroes" and even the sometimes-legitimately-mentioned "Duel of the Fates". And although "Call of the Champions" is supposed to become close associated only with the upcoming Olympic games deed by JW, I am glad the "Call" hasn't turned out as being solely another bombastic, with optimism sparkling piece of music strenuously putting every graze we've come through in the past second, which is to say that it is no blemish for me to find "Call of the Champions" sounding a bit "restrained" or the like - whatever word you mind find more appropriate to be used instead of the trite "restrained". I highly enjoy the album as a whole, especially my long yearned-after "Celebrate Discovery" that I can't help listening to while mimicking playing the drums :-), although some pieces on the CD are too good that they easily stand out too blatantly to make this album sound/appear as a seamless cohesion. But this is not to be taken to task as the serious weakness of "A.J." I think. The disadvantages of such compilations better be unmentioned today. Since compilations are to be about music rather than order of the tracks or their functionality they have when listened to one by one, I couldn't care less for it being a little of a motley kind of compilation.

Roman (from Czech Republic)