: (Compilation) At a time when
compilations of film music were mostly devoted to John Williams, James
Horner, and Jerry Goldsmith, the London Records release of a Michael
Kamen compilation was a refreshing change. Titled "Michael Kamen's Opus"
in America and "The Michael Kamen Soundtrack Album" abroad, the album
was a labor of love for the composer himself, who re-orchestrated some
of his more famous themes and produced the fresh recordings with The
Seattle Symphony Orchestra and London Metropolitan Orchestra. Regardless
of the composer's untimely death in the subsequent decade, the 1990's
were easily the most popularly successful time for the composer, and
this album rode the coattails of the appealing
and his grand theme for "From the Earth to the Moon" on television. As
usual with a compilation like this, the selection of choices is the
hottest topic of discussion, and in the case of "Michael Kamen's Opus,"
there also remains distinct curiosity about some of the arrangements of
each individual piece. Kamen, with the help of Ed Shearmur and Williams
Ross, gave a wide range of score themes from throughout his career a
distinctly different sound, only sometimes with success. Some of the
themes are only barely recognizable given their altered personalities,
technical curiosities that may not be as satisfying for the listener as
the originals. It should be noted, however, that several of the
selections in "Michael Kamen's Opus" come from scores that were
unreleased at the time or have always featured diminished sound quality,
so kudos are deserved for the somewhat unexpected scope of the product.
The album opens with the most predictable calling card of the composer's
career, 1991's
. The "Overture" cue
is abbreviated and yields to a lengthier rendition of the "Maid Marian
at the Waterfall" concert arrangement of the love theme and famous song.
The orchestrations in these cues are about as true to the originals as
any on the album, and the improvement in sound quality over the original
recording is notable.
Rather than inserting the usual "American Symphony" cue
from
Mr. Holland's Opus, Kamen decided upon "Rowena's Theme,"
which has been translated with somewhat muted success to a horn-led
piece. The "Dona Ana" cue from
Don Juan DeMarco is the gorgeous
instrumental version of the Academy Award nominated song from the film.
Representing some of Kamen's best romantic work, this performance is a
bit disappointing because it was handed over to strings and woodwinds
that steal the Hispanic spirit the score and give it a strangely Italian
flavor. Throughout the performances, but especially in this cue, Kamen
seems to treat his themes with a heavier dramaticism that occasionally
deflates the character of the original composition. From this point on
during "Michael Kamen's Opus," the album features more of the composer's
obscure works. "You're the One" from
Circle of Friends is a warm
and intimate interlude featuring solid piano performances. The theme
from the 1988 film
Crusoe is desolate and desperate, with a solo
cello weaving throughout a melancholy atmosphere. Strong and heroic is
"There Can Only Be One" from
Highlander, with an element of
flightiness that well represents the fantasy and adventure of the
concept.
The Next Man, was Kamen's first scoring assignment, and
it offers a lofty, string-plucking arrangement that mirrors the
flickering lights of New York City as seen from the air. Kamen's
association with Alan Rickman films (
Die Hard,
Robin Hood)
continued when Rickman asked him to score his directorial debut,
The
Winter Guest. The horn solos replacing the piano in the original
recording make for a much more complex thematic exploration than most of
his previous efforts. The selection from
Die Hard on this album
was much hyped, but severely under-delivers. The score was only
available in bootleg form at the time, and while it has since received a
limited pressing that is itself now a collectible, the original
recording has always suffered from muted sound quality. Because of his
fascination with the motif for Rickman's villain, Kamen chose the short
"Takagi Dies" cue for the performance on this album. Unfortunately, this
cue is far less interesting than any of the numerous action pieces from
the score (or its sequels).
Rounding off the compilation are its two most bizarre
tracks. Kamen's collaboration with Eric Clapton on the BBC TV production
of
Edge of Darkness features a wild electric guitar solo over a
pulsating, turbulent orchestra, building to a final blast by the guitar
with percussion in full. While not an embarrassment by any means, the
track doesn't fit well with the far softer seven or eight tracks that
precede it. The final track on the compilation is the Kate Bush cover
version of Ary Barroso's classic 1930's song "Brazil," inspired by Terry
Gilliam's
Brazil. Although this performance never appeared in the
film itself (and, incidentally, was already released on album at the
time), it was personally significant to Kamen during his assignment of
weaving the melody into his underscore for the project. Bush's
performance is distantly mixed, giving it a hauntingly inaccessible
elegance, and its balance of innocence and sinister madness makes for a
perfect, Gilliam-appropriate conclusion to the compilation. As an
overall listening experience, the music flows well despite the
stylistically different "Nuclear Train" cue from
Edge of
Darkness. The only complaints you hear about "Michael Kamen's Opus"
are legitimate questions about the material that didn't make the
49-minute album. Fans would have been better served with selections from
one of the
Lethal Weapon scores, the often forgotten
License
to Kill,
The Dead Zone,
The Three Musketeers, or even
his "Amazing Stories" episode. Even as it is, however, the compilation
includes a distinguished collection of music. Several of the cues offer
very lightly mixed sound effects at their outset, including ocean waves
in
Don Juan DeMarco, distant police sirens and city rumblings in
Die Hard, and an airy breeze in
Brazil. Regardless of its
somewhat curious choices for inclusion, "Michael Kamen's Opus" is a
competent and sometimes interesting survey of the composer's career
through the middle of 1998, just before the composer's outstanding
last-minute replacement score for
What Dreams May Come, and it
comes highly recommended.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
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| Bias Check: |
For Michael Kamen reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.13
(in 15 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.22
(in 33,735 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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