:
(Compilation) Much has been said through the years about the
consistently superior quality of the film music compilations produced by
Silva Screen Records, The City of Prague Philharmonic, and The Crouch
End Festival Chorus in the late 1990's and beyond. These products are so
much better than most of the competitions that you have to approach
nearly all of their products with at least some curiosity. Within their
ranks, however, there are a lot of winners and a small handful of
losers. This opening entry in Silva's "Essential" series, devoted to the
works of James Horner, is unfortunately one of their poorest offerings.
Several reasons exist for why their "Titanic" compilation of Horner's
works from 1980 to 1998 is weak, but one of them, contrary to
speculation at the time, is not related to the fact that Silva promptly
jumped on the
bandwagon just as all the labels were
seemingly attempting to do in 1998. Expecting them not to take advantage
of that market was like expecting teens to behave themselves well at a
drunken toga orgy. Instead, the doom of this compilation was caused by a
combination of poor selections and poor performances, both
uncharacteristic for Silva and The City of Prague Philharmonic,
respectively. Additionally, this album really suffered from the fact
that Silva had a tendency (and still does) to repress previous
performances onto fresh compilations, and this 2-CD set features music
that was already available on other popular Silva albums at the time.
Only about 40% of the material on these CDs debuts here, a frustrating
prospect for people with many Silva compilations already on their
shelves. As usual, a few token new performances appear here for the
first time, but those selections on this product aren't as strong.
The City of Prague Philharmonic has excelled at
performing the works of Jerry Goldsmith, John Williams, and John Barry
through the years, but it has not enjoyed the same success with Horner,
and this compilation suffers as a result. The selling points of the
album are the two tracks from
Titanic, with Mark Ayres adequately
capturing the spirit of the original in "Take her to Sea, Mr. Murdoch"
in a good balance between the synthesizers and orchestra. The final
track on the second CD is an instrumental version of "My Heart will Go
On," an innocuous set of solo performances over the ensemble that leads
to an unfortunate light rock rhythm near the end. The two cues from
Glory are a curiosity; because Silva could not obtain finished
sheet music for these selections (apparently none could be found by the
publishers), Horner's original orchestral and choral drafts were
employed. Thus, the performances feature considerably different pacing
and orchestration than the original recordings. The famous "End Title"
cue is unlistenable in its excruciatingly slower tempo, a massive
disappointment. Following these awkward cues is Prague's previous and
superior performance of
Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, probably the
best entry on the set. Both the performances of the lush themes from
Legends of the Fall and
Deep Impact lack the weighty
romanticism in their string performances. The playful end credit suite
from
The Land Before Time is a welcome addition to Silva's
library and another highlight of this album. Prague does well with its
performance of
We're Back: A Dinosaur Story, though the choice of
that score over a handful of others is suspect. After the mundane "End
Credits" to
Ransom, the completely out of place
Red Heat
jars the listening experience with one of Ayres' less accurate
representations.
The Rocketeer has both been performed and
recorded in far superior quality by the Orchestra of the Americas (which
can be found with an equally good
Legends of the Fall on the
"Heart of the Ocean" compilation by Sonic Images). The City of Prague
Philharmonic, in a rare show of complete incohesion, absolutely
crucifies the 7:30 minute suite from
The Rocketeer, with a
muddled and disjointed orchestral climax during the finale. The
respectfully decent performance of
Braveheart was already
available on three other Silva products (and appeared with
The Man
Without a Face and
Ransom on their Mel Gibson compilation).
The selection from
Apollo 13 is not among the score's strongest
cues. Prague's performance of
Cocoon has always been enjoyable,
though lazy woodwinds hinder its middle portion. The performance of
Battle Beyond the Stars, heard on one of the "Space and Beyond"
releases, isn't completely accurately, especially in the harsh brass
tones, but the theme is a guilty pleasure. The performance of
Willow is disappointing, with some blatant brass and woodwind
errors. Ayres' work on
Field of Dreams,
Patriot Games, and
The Name of the Rose is good, though the latter two selections
don't merit an appearance here. His interpretation of
Commando is
less effective, especially without the appropriate flute, and is major
irritant. Overall, this album is not as entertaining as the
aforementioned, concurrent "Heart of the Ocean" compilation of Horner
works. John Beal's superior synthesizer work on that Sonic Images album
(especially on
Vibes) seems to beat Ayres's performances here. On
the other hand, Silva's album is still a 2-CD set for roughly the price
of a single CD, and the quantity is hard to ignore. It's just so rare to
hear Prague make blatant performance errors that this album is
surprisingly disappointing.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
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