: (Compilation) By 1997,
Silva Screen Records' compilations featuring The City of Prague
Philharmonic and the Crouch End Festival Chorus had begun offering some
of the very best film music performances available on the market. The
orchestra had been assembled from various others in the region, and the
Czech players had become familiar enough with their British conductors
and producers that their work often flowed without flaw. While they had
been pumping out compilations of score music for several years, the
"Cinema Choral Classics" albums quickly became their most successful
offerings. A massive financial success, this first album would spawn a
sequel the next year, and eventually a third entry many years later.
There are three sins involved with any film music re-recording, and you
often find compilations committing one or more of those sins. They are,
in no order: lack of orchestra size, lack of choral accompaniment when
the original recording featured one, and poor recording quality. It's
not often that a label and performing group avoids all of these sins,
but Silva has done just that over the past ten years with their
magnificent compilations. When the ensemble is large, the chorus is even
larger, and the sound quality is in at least Dolby Surround quality, you
can forgive even the occasional performance mistake or questionable
adaptation, both of which are inevitable in any compilation. The City of
Prague Philharmonic had drastically reduced their mistakes in recordings
by 1997, and the adaptations were often as loyal to the originals as
possible (in some cases, as with Nic Raine's conducting of John Barry's
work, the re-recordings are often superior).
The first "Cinema Choral Classics" album, despite its
share of flaws, is an outstanding achievement, surpassed only by the
plethora of their two-CD compilations that often provide a more
substantial amount of music for the price. One of the greatest assets of
Silva products such as this one is the immense knowledge of film music
carried by its producers, leading to compilations that intelligently
balance popular scores with obscure ones, all the while choosing
representatives from across the different ages of film music. Near the
outset of the album are two source cues of great fame that often appear
in (or inspire) original scores. Both Carl Orff's "O Fortuna" (the
ultimate source for trailer music nowadays) and Samuel Barber's "Agnus
Dei" are perhaps over-exposed, especially the latter in the years after
Platoon, but they exist to help sell copies of the product. The
Maurice Jarre and Ennio Morricone cues, from
Jesus of Nazareth
and
The Mission respectively, provide the product with elegance
and beauty, using the size of the ensemble to accentuate the harmony of
the two scores. The remaining cues on the album better represent the
lightning on its cover. The performance of "Never Surrender" from Jerry
Goldsmith's
First Knight is the surprising highlight of the
album, thanks to an ambitious performance that exceeds the quality of
the original. Also eclipsing the original recording in depth is the
well-arranged suite from Alan Silvestri's
The Abyss. Failing to
muster the same energy is Miklos Rozsa'a
King of Kings and,
surprisingly, Basil Poledouris'
Conan the Barbarian, which
suffers from a suspect mix balance between chorus and orchestra.
The suite from Barry's
The Lion in Winter
(first, second, and last tracks of the score) is on par with Prague's
usual superior performances of the composer's work. Vangelis'
Conquest of Paradise is performed here without the dominant
synthesizers that overwhelm its theme in the original, relying on varied
percussion that may sound a bit strange to collectors of the composer.
The finale to Mario Nascimbene's
The Vikings features the famous
three-note Vikings theme but, compared to the other selections, seems
out of place. A very long suite from Goldsmith's
The Omen
follows, and will be a major attraction to film score collectors. Its
relentless chants are well executed and are surrounded by a fair amount
of Goldsmith's non-choral score. Finally, the beautiful "Non Nobis
Domine" theme from the climax of Doyle's
Henry V is offered
without some of the overbearing zeal that other ensembles have handled
it with, and its victorious tone is a very fitting end to the CD.
Overall, this is a very satisfying compilation; the second "Cinema
Choral Classics" album would provide a wider variety of lesser known
selections, especially from the Golden Age, but it also caters to fans
of Patrick Doyle, Danny Elfman, and Basil Poledouris (with multiple
selections representing each). The sound quality is resounding, and will
alone be worth the price of the album for some listeners. These products
are an important cross-over concept to help bridge the gap between
casual mainstream listeners and dedicated score collectors, and its
quality is strong enough to attract repeat listens for the latter
crowd.
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