Music From the Films of Sean Connery: (Compilation)
Back in the very early years of Silva Screen Records, they combined
recordings from the German Edel label, sometimes with performances by
The City of Prague Philharmonic, with their own first recordings with
the group. The old Edel releases often featured outstanding
performances, but also had the capability of belting out some stinkers
now and then. Like those Edel compilations, the early Silva ones also
varied wildly in quality. Half of the performances would range from
decent to very good, while others were simply unlistenable. Silva Screen
would eventually become a leader in the production of compilation
recordings in outstanding sound quality, whether in Dolby, HDCD, or
other budding technologies. They did produce a handful of compilations
in the few years following 1993 that did not feature this superior
sound, and among them were a couple of CDs devoted to music from the
films of Sean Connery and Harrison Ford, among others. Meanwhile, Edel's
American division had moved on and used an underpowered Orchestra
Seattle group to perform a 1994 compilation of Sean Connery music much
the same as Silva's first 1993 venture. The quality of all these CDs was
suspect given that no group (except the Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati
Pops, as well as the usual Boston Pops) at the time had been able to
perform consistently well in the large symphonic soundtrack re-recording
business. Silva's 1993 "Music From the Films of Sean Connery" was an odd
collection of recordings made under the original Edel contracts and some
of Prague's own early recordings. Additionally, you got a few song
renditions from the previous contract, as well as the original Bond song
for
Never Say Never Again. Sound quality is decent, but not what
you'd hear in subsequent years from Silva. In fact, Silva's tendency to
take the best from their previous recordings and re-press only that
material on subsequent albums usually renders albums like this one
useless. But because it alternates between Edel and Silva performances,
you do hear some performances different from those you'd eventually hear
in future Silva products.
But are these performances any better than those
subsequent ones done in Prague? Not really, but a few are interesting.
Silva would use the services of a different synth arranger (Mark Ayres)
in the future, and the electronic arrangements by Edel's pair of synth
producers are more interesting than Ayres' early work for Silva in many
ways. On this "Music From the Films of Sean Connery" album, both
Medicine Man and
The Name of the Rose are more vibrant
than on Silva's later recordings. The former includes a faithful
recreation of Jerry Goldsmith's synthetic parts of the score, whereas
the symphonic performances later on would gravitate towards "The Trees"
as an easier representative from that score. For the James Horner score,
the version here (especially in its synth choir) is more accurate than
Ayres' future version. Unfortunately, nobody has ever gotten Goldsmith's
The Russia House right in 15 years of re-recordings. It's
completely synthesized here, sucking all the life out of it. Likewise,
future Prague recordings of its themes would be lifeless, as was the
Edel Seattle recording, because it seems as though nobody is willing to
actually employ a saxophone in the performance (and thus, it just
doesn't work... duh!). The selection from
The Untouchables ("The
Ness Family Theme") would differ from that used by Silva on some future
Prague recordings. Both
Marnie and
Robin and Marian are
decent recordings, and would appear again on future Silva albums. Even
in 1993, Nic Raine's strong ability to arrange and conduct John Barry
music was evident. The Bond selections would also reappear on future
albums, except for
Thunderball, which receives a lackluster
performance anyways. The performance from
The Presidio would
likewise vanish for good reason. The two songs, the original recording
from
Never Say Never Again and Roger Taylor's "A Kind of Magic"
from
Highlander are major detractions from the album. Overall,
the product is somewhat interesting for specific collectors of Silva's
compilations, but has been surpassed in quality by other products since,
including Silva's "Hollywood Stars" Connery music compilation (with some
of the same recordings) in 1998.
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The insert includes detailed notes about the scores and films.
