: (Compilation) Collections of
James Horner themes were impossible to find in compilation form before
the success of 1997's
. The following year confirmed the
composer's marketability with a sudden burst of such products, mostly
taking the hit film's title as some kind of inspiration. Re-recordings
of Horner's more famous pieces had been made for ten years, but 1998
marked the first time these recordings were assembled specifically
around Horner's career. Both The City of Prague Philharmonic, contracted
by Silva Screen, and Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops, contracted by
Telarc, rushed to perform several Horner pieces, though the former group
and label were the only ones to specifically release a 2-CD set of
solely these Horner recordings. The composer's more obscure, synthetic
works of the 1980's started receiving significant treatment during this
time, lending credibility to these collections. One compilation that was
similar to the others, but arranged differently, was "Heart of the
Ocean," an idea executed by soundtrack producer Ford A. Thaxton and
pressed by the increasingly active Sonic Images label. Instead of
collaborating with a single source for the recordings of each selection,
Thaxton licensed various recordings, both original to this album and
available on others, for a highly varied presentation of themes. The
resulting compilation betrays the
-inspired title of the
album by providing far more synthetic selections from early in Horner's
career than mainstream listeners will be interested in hearing, though
film music collectors will be more content with these selections.
Chronologically, the album is a potentially difficult prospect, but the
individual highlights more than compensate.
The album opens with the piano solo from
Titanic,
an overrated piece that was in enormous demand between the release of
the first album for the film and the second one (which provided the
original solo performance heard in the film). Its performance here is
adequate, but the cue is among the weaker concepts in the score when
compared to majestic touch with which Horner approached the rest of his
score. While that cue from
Titanic was original to this album at
the time, the selections from
The Rocketeer and
Legends of the
Fall were licensed from the source for Bill Broughton's conducting
of the Orchestra of the Americas. These performances can be heard on the
various Intersound compilations of the mid-1990's, and they are
typically of high quality. The recording of
The Rocketeer is
nothing less than spectacular, putting The City of Prague Philharmonic's
poorly paced and error-prone performance of the same piece to absolute
shame. The synthetic tingling effect over grand piano in the opening
moments is brilliantly accomplished. Rarely does a re-recording eclipse
the quality of the original in the authentic enthusiasm of a film theme,
but aside from some slight microphone artifacts at about 1:50 and a horn
flub in the love theme interlude, this is a outstandingly vibrant
presentation. The same ensemble's take on
Legends of the Fall is
strong as well, though the cue performed is nowhere near being
representative of the score as a whole, leaving the casual listener with
no idea of the score's heavier, later tones.
The Cincinnati Pops produced some very entertaining
renditions of film music in the 1990's, and a few of their more
accomplished performances of Horner's works were licensed for inclusion
here. One of their best entries represents the splashdown sequence from
Apollo 13. Kunzel's arrangement does great justice to the
original, and his cost-saving synthesized choir is an effective
substitute. They performed
Braveheart's closing titles cue at
about the same time, and with its pipes and synthetic choir, is average.
More stirring are their performances of
Cocoon and
Star Trek
II: The Wrath of Khan, among their older works. Once again, the
performance of
Cocoon is superior to that of The City of Prague
Philharmonic; the flute performances here are far more accurate. The
compilation intersperses performances by trailer music master John Beal
on the synthesizer in between the symphonic tracks. His interpretation
skills have been praised widely, and while every synth programmer has
his hits and misses, Beal's work here is more intriguingly faithful to
the original recordings than Mark Ayres' similar attempts for the Silva
Screen Horner compilations. Beal's performances of
Commando and
Vibes are strikingly similar to Horner's own recordings, with the
best, exotic cue from
Vibes arguably serving as a highlight of
this entire compilation. His arrangement of
Name of the Rose is
adequate, but suffers from the same largely non-descript nature as the
rest of that score (especially since it doesn't accentuate the theme as
well). This is a case when Silva's commissioning of a different
arrangement from the same score wins the prize.
The
Field of Dreams arrangement comes off of
another Silva album and retains the country charm of the original. The
City of Prague Philharmonic makes its only appearance on this album with
Wolfen, a subtle score with many similar elements to
Star Trek
III: The Search for Spock, and this performance comes from the
ensemble's more suspect, early days of recording film music. It's
difficult to see why
Wolfen was included here, and the same
applies to
Where the River Runs Black. Thaxton managed to license
Horner's original recording from MGM for this score, but its title theme
is so weak that it again slows the momentum of the album.
Where the
River Runs Black's main title, as heard here, offers a very subdued
preview of the folksy rhythms and instrumentation of the closing
song-like cue from
Willow, and it won't send anybody in a frantic
search for the out-of-print Varèse Sarabande release. Overall,
this CD's symphonic performances all appear elsewhere, though the
product adeptly collects some of the stronger tracks from those albums
for inclusion here. This is especially the case with the Intersound
releases of Broughton's conducting of the Orchestra of the Americas. The
Kunzel and Cincinnatti Pops performances likely merit a search for their
original compilations (which are not only strong, but also include quite
a decent performance of
Willow that would have been a welcomed
addition here). Beal's synth performances are enjoyably accurate.
Because this compilation is so heavy on the early Horner works, it's a
good product with which to become familiar with those hard-to-find
collectible scores before you blindly buy them.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For James Horner reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.15
(in 108 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.23
(in 203,346 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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