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Review of Jerry Goldsmith: Suites and Themes (Compilation)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you desire one of the most robust and crystal clear
concert performances of Jerry Goldsmith music, conducted by the composer
himself, ever to exist on album.
Avoid it... only if you are disappointed by the lack of representation for some of the composer's strongest works of the 1980's on this otherwise solid presentation.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Jerry Goldsmith: Suites and Themes: (Compilations)
It has always been rare to witness a single concert performance of a
composer's works recorded and pressed onto album, despite advancements
in recording technologies. One notable exception has been a 1987
performance by The Philharmonia of London of famous Jerry Goldsmith
themes, conducted by the composer himself. The concert at the Barbican
Centre in London represented the first time Goldsmith had ever conducted
in front of an audience consisting of the public, and after receiving
glowing praise for his arrangements, he returned to the same group of
performers the following day at the Walthamstow Assembly Hall for a
separate recording of the same program without audience noise. That
recording has been released several times on CD in the decades since,
the first of which the most famous but least attainable. In the 1980's,
the Masters Film Music Special Release Series, CDs produced by
Varèse Sarabande executive Robert Townson, made available several
Jerry Goldsmith scores in either commercial or limited fashion. Some of
these were direct Varèse Sarabande albums, such as the two
Lionheart volumes and The Final Conflict, though The
Boys from Brazil and "Jerry Goldsmith: Suites and Themes" were
released under the separate "Masters Film Music" label and were
considerably more rare. The latter represented The Philharmonia of
London's famed 1987 performances, and with its recording and mastering
existing in purely digital form, the album offered a vibrant
presentation of this 64-minute concert on a product that was limited to
1,500 copies and made available only through Varèse Sarabande in
the early days of its CD Club. Featuring detailed packaging, original
art by Bob Peak, and crisp sound quality rarely heard on CDs at the
time, the 1988 album immediately became a top collectible. Initially
valued at about $150 after selling out, "Jerry Goldsmith: Suites and
Themes" became somewhat irrelevant rather quickly due to subsequent
releases of the same recording. A 1989 Deram pressing out of Europe
(entitled "The Soundtracks of Jerry Goldsmith with The Philharmonia")
and a 2002 Silva American CD (alternately titled "Goldsmith Conducts
Goldsmith") include musical contents identical to the famed 1988 CD,
leaving the Masters Film Music product as a rarity for only the most
ardent Goldsmith enthusiasts to seek. The Silva "Goldsmith Conducts
Goldsmith" album thankfully kept the recording available for normal
retail prices for a decade and is the most common version to be found in
Goldsmith collections.
For the purposes of this review (and a little nostalgia), however, the title of the original 1988 product, "Jerry Goldsmith: Suites and Themes," will represent the performance and all album variants. The presentation has long remained one of the most impressive and varied collections of the composer's music available. While Goldsmith conducted his own work for a precious few other albums, this one mostly stayed away from the composer's pop culture hits and also has the advantage of coming long before subsequent compilations in the 1990's. When the CD was first circulated in 1988, some of the music on the product had not been performed by an orchestra for an album before, further heightening demand. The selection of music in this concert may come as a surprise for some listeners, partly because it omits some of his best known themes (ones that would appear regularly in his concerts of the 1990's and 2000's) and partly because it also avoids scores that were very popular at the time of the recording. Leaning a bit heavily on music from the 1970's, the concert relies upon the muster of Goldsmith's war and adventure works on one hand and provides a healthy dose of his television writing on the other. The suite from The Blue Max is curiously long; despite the quality of that score, its sweep of primary themes and motifs occupies a quarter of the running time of this entire concert. The suite of television themes may sound awkward for some listeners given that these identities weren't always meant for the robust nature of London's best performers (and thus sometimes suffer the same troublesome result as a few of Erich Kunzel's similar recordings). A beautiful selection from the outstanding television score Masada (emphasizing the theme in the work that shares many traits with Under Fire) yields to perhaps the concert's standout suite from Gremlins. Since the primary thematic performance in Gremlins was originally electronic, this spirited orchestral recording not only sticks out like a sore thumb on this album but also provided the only purely orchestral performance of over seven minutes of its material available until Gremlins 2: The New Batch somewhat scratched the itch for a more symphonic adaptation of those ideas a few years later. The primary "motion picture suite" in the concert begins with somewhat flat but still enjoyable performances of The Sand Pebbles (lacking in power) and Chinatown (losing its seductiveness) before transitioning to the woodwind theme from A Patch of Blue. With the original version of this score existing in a much smaller incarnation in its original recording, the fullness of its adaptation here might catch you pleasantly off guard. Continuing the "motion picture suite" from "Jerry Goldsmith: Suites and Themes," a somewhat mundane variation of "Carol Anne's Theme" from Poltergeist loses some of its magic without the choral presence. Following these soft pieces, however, the suite ends with two massive thematic romps. After the seemingly exuberant carnival atmosphere of Papillon, complete with dynamic mid-range tones, comes a percussively pounding presentation of The Wind and the Lion, a score that deserves far more recognition in Goldsmith's career than it typically receives. The "generals suite" reminds listeners that Goldsmith certainly got caught up in the parading egos of wartime heroes, with both MacArthur and Patton offering a combination of pomp and confidence that, with the ensemble's equally enthusiastic performances, makes it seem as though Goldsmith enjoyed nothing more than glorifying the concept of "Americans kicking Godless foreigner ass." The concert ends with a repetitive but enjoyable performance of the primary theme from Lionheart, which was both brand new at the time of the recording (and thus a treat for those who attended the concert) and a favorite project of those close to the composer. On the whole, the performances by The Philharmonia of London, despite containing a few errors here and there (entirely in the lower ranges of the brass section, oddly), capture the original spirit of Goldsmith's compositions. While making the best use of the percussion section as possible, the performances do avoid all use of synthesized elements. As with any selection of music in a concert, the omission of some of a composer's works from the program is often curious. In this case, the lack of strong representation from Goldsmith's fruitful endeavors of the 1980's is perhaps this album's only weakness. Without the inclusion of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, either of the two First Blood scores, Under Fire, or Hoosiers, the album sells Goldsmith's more recent triumphs (at the time) short. The selections up until that point were very consistent with Goldsmith's Academy Award nominations, making their absence all the more disappointing. And while many of those scores relied heavily upon synthetic elements, the adaptation of Gremlins proved that Goldsmith wasn't afraid to translate his synthesizer and orchestra combination scores into traditional orchestration for live performance. Still, despite these final complaints, the "Jerry Goldsmith: Suites and Themes" albums are highly revered by Goldsmith collectors, and for good reason. While the rare 1988 product may not be worth the price, it is by far the most beautifully packaged. It is a shame that more of the concerts Goldsmith conducted in later years weren't frequently recorded and pressed onto CD with similar treatment. *****
TRACK LISTINGS:
1988 and 1989 Albums:
Total Time: 64:05
2002 Silva Album: Total Time: 71:32
* original soundtrack recording
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 1988 Masters Film Music album contains lengthy information
about Goldsmith's career (biography, filmography, pictures), as well as healthy
descriptions of each score and film represented in the performances. The 2002 Silva
album also includes extensive information in its insert as well.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Jerry Goldsmith: Suites and Themes are Copyright © 1988, 1989, 2002, Masters Film Music, Deram Records, Silva America and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/27/97 and last updated 11/2/11. |
