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The Classic Film Music of John Barry, Volume II:
(Compilation) In their long history of producing fine compilations of
film music re-recordings by the City of Prague Philharmonic, Silva
Screen Records has had a love affair with the music of John Barry. Part
of the significant attention Silva has given to Barry's music is
probably due in part to the easy marketability of Barry's music across
two generations. But a more likely reason is the association of
orchestrator and conductor Nic Raine with Silva and the performers in
Prague. Raine had orchestrated Barry's final two James Bond scores (as
well as
Chaplin) at the outset of his employment on these Silva
sets, so his knowledge of the reproduction of Barry's sound is
unparalleled. Indeed, some of the best performances to ever come out of
the City of Prague Philharmonic have been under the wand of Raine and in
front of sheets of Barry's music. Their first compilation of Barry
themes debuted in Great Britain in 1993, spread to America in 1994, and
led to subsequent collections in 1996, 1999, and 2006, among others.
Silva also released full re-recordings of the Prague musicians tackling
entire scores for
The Lion in Winter,
The Last Valley,
and, most magnificently,
Raise the Titanic. When you look back at
this history, the most interesting aspect of all these Barry-related
albums is that their use of recordings differs from Silva's usual
practice of endlessly recycling performances across multiple products.
In fact, each of the albums listed above includes performances that
can't be found on other Silva products. And mercifully, unlike most
other Barry compilations, Silva doesn't take up precious time with
endless regurgitations of Barry's James Bond material. Additionally, the
musicians in Prague have re-recorded some of their own performances to
improve upon their offerings of the mid-1990's. A good example of this
is
Zulu, which Silva seems to like to debut their John Barry
albums with. The recording available on the 1993/1994 compilation is an
inferior one compared to the vibrant and fresh one on the "Zulu"
compilation set in 1999. And yet, the sound quality of that performance
on the 1999 set is superior to the presentation of the same recording on
the 2006 "Film Music Masterworks" series CD.
So the moral of the story when it comes to Silva's John
Barry CDs is that each one is unique in its selection and perhaps even
its performances. The first CD in this history was the 1993 "The Classic
John Barry," a British product that would be issued with a different
cover but identical musical contents in America just six months later.
Both it and its 1995 sequel album would be released before Silva began
issuing their recordings in stunning surround sound quality, but the
quality here is still on par with other digital recordings of the era.
Barry's original recordings have always featured great sound quality
(going back to the 1960's), so in some cases, the quality here is not an
improvement over the originals, despite 25 years difference in age.
Unlike the first volume of Barry music that Silva produced, "Volume II"
offered a significant array of the composer's more obscure work. Many
consider
High Road to China to be the companion score to
Raise
the Titanic, partly because of their proximity in composition, but
also because of their shared elegance. Its appearance here was a debut
on CD, and while the pacing may be slow across all of the themes
(especially the flying theme), it's still a beautiful score.
The
Wrong Box,
The Ipcress File,
The Appointment,
The
Knack,
The Dove Suite, and
The Quiller Memorandum are
representative of the possible overarching flaw of the album, which is a
staggered inclusion of the jazzier, Bond-like sound of the 1960's
amongst the more romantic, symphonic themes. Hearing the triumphant
title theme and churning black hole theme for
The Black Hole is
always a treat considering that the masters for the original recording
are supposedly lost and we'll never hear the original score on album.
Barry's two romantically saturated scores from 1995 are centerpieces
here as well, with a gorgeous flute in
The Scarlet Letter and
hints of
Zulu in
Cry, the Beloved Country (Silva just
can't resist putting that
Zulu theme on every Barry compilation,
even if only Barry collectors know it's there!). The suite from the
Western
Monte Walsh is a bit out of place. A suite from
Mary
Queen of Scots and a shorted suite from the then-unreleased
Deadfall round out the album. It should be noted that the very
lengthy album was considered more attractive at the time because it
contained several cues for which there had been no CD recording. It
still contains important recordings not available on other well-known
Silva/Barry compilations, including
High Road to China, so
die-hard Barry fans may want to search for this long out-of-print
album.
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The insert includes extensive information about the scores and films.
