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Review of Varèse Sarabande: A 25th Anniversary Celebration

Volume One

Volume Two

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you want the ultimate taste sampling of a huge quantity of film music that you probably haven't heard before.

Avoid it... if you prefer to hear scores in their entirety (or at least in some logical arrangement) so that you can set a consistent atmosphere.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Varèse Sarabande: A 25th Anniversary Celebration: (Compilations) The Varèse Sarabande record label began producing LP records in 1978 and, after over 1,000 albums, became the most prolific soundtrack label in the world (though, unknown to many film score collectors, they make a significant share of their grosses from non-soundtrack offerings). Its original focus in the 1970's was on classical music as well as film scores, but with their movie music releases by Golden Age film composers leading their sales charts, the label quickly established itself as the leader in pressing film score recordings. After producing LPs in the late 1970's and early 1980's, Varèse Sarabande offered LPs and CDs (and cassettes, of course) concurrently for a short time in the mid-80's before CDs became their sole focus. Fans who stumble upon very early Varèse Sarabande CDs will know they have one of the label's original few pressings by the little ring of removable foam that was used to keep the CD in place within the case at the time. Despite criticism about short album running times in the 1990's (an argument that was based mostly on fans' ignorance of how the music industry works), the label delighted in producing albums that no other label would, taking chances on young composers and often resulting in a combination of hidden gems and obscure disappointments. By taking those chances, Varèse has shed light on countless young careers, single-handedly pushing several of those careers on to mainstream success. The label also provides a wealth of material from the career of Jerry Goldsmith specifically, offering fans of modern film music the opportunity to seek a nearly complete collection of Goldsmith's work from the 1980's through his death.

The CD albums of Varèse can always be identified by their "buggy" logo, which, depending on who you quiz on the subject, varies in definition from a Rorschach ink blot test, an insect ("we just call it the bug," says Varèse Vice President Robert Townson), to, more likely, a rare woodwind instrument. Any collector of Varèse albums will also note their maroon and white spines (with a touch of black in later years and one 2008 album with an appropriate splash of green), a color scheme that easily distinguishes their products. With the label usually on pace to release fifty soundtrack albums a year, every score collector undoubtedly has several of these maroon and white-sided entries on their shelves. The curious fan should know that French composer Edgard Varèse, a pioneer in arrhythmic and atonal works, was the father of electronic music in the early to mid-20th Century, and a "sarabande" is the French translation from the Spanish word (zarabanda) for the music of various Spanish dances during the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Together, a "Varèse Sarabande" would be a French language combination of dance and electronic music that is mostly symbolic and elegant to roll off the tongue. Despite the snazzy French name, fans should also know that Varèse Sarabande is staffed by Americans in Los Angeles, California, placing it at the heart of the film music community. In 2003, to celebrate their 25th anniversary, the label decided to produce two sets containing the best of their music from those 25 years. The first 4-CD album, released in April of 2003, contains 84 cues from 84 different scores that Varèse had released on CD. The cues vary wildly in genre and age, with a handful of offerings representing the label's well-known re-recordings and the great majority being original cues.

The selection of music on the first set is very strong, spanning nearly every major composer with whom Varèse Sarabande had worked in the past (except, interestingly, for Elliot Goldenthal, who has his fair share of material released by Varèse). The album acts as a supreme sampler for film music, allowing the listener to hear a vast array of different sub-genres (including a few from the label's rare Club series). The set will certainly have two or three cues (at least) that will make you want to purchase the expanded albums for that music. Since the label retains the rights to all of this material, these albums (despite their immense size) are not expensive to produce, and the savings are therefore passed on to you, the consumer. The first anniversary set shouldn't cost much more than a single album, making it more than worth your money. If the products can be criticized, then an argument could be made that the cues would have been more effective had they been ordered by their original composition date. As is, you have Gone in 60 Seconds and XXX on the same CD in between Sunset Boulevard and Cleopatra, and the listening experience is therefore completely disjointed in parts. Serious fans of film music may also debate the selection of which scores to represent (nothing from The Road to Wellville?), but both albums stand as very strong samplers for your enjoyment. Later in 2003, when Townson decided that he had left too much great (and usually more obscure) material off of the first set due to time constraints, he coordinated the second volume, structurally similar to the first but less attainable. With 74 cues, the selections on "Volume Two" are a tad lengthier and more inclined to represent composers like Cliff Eidelman, Joel McNeely, Mark Isham, Patrick Doyle, and George Fenton (along, finally, with Goldenthal).

Also featured on the second set are several more cues from the original Club series (from 1988 and beyond) and cuts from other albums that are largely difficult to find on the market. Hidden gems like Richard Harvey's Animal Farm and Conrad Pope's Pavilion of Women are more plentiful on the follow-up as well. The only cue choice that seems rather odd on the second set is the inclusion of the mundane opening titles of Charlie Mole's Othello rather than the score's explosive end titles of roughly the same length. One interesting factoid about the two sets is the historical lack of James Horner material pressed by Varèse (before late 2003), with only one cue (from Brainstorm on the first set) represented. Completely missing from the sets is David Arnold, for whom Varèse had released several scores in recent years. Again, the weakness of the second set is the jumbled order of cues, with no chronological or genre ordering that may have assisted the listening experience. Still, the two sets together offer an overwhelming sampler package of scores that most have not heard before. The second set was available only as a limited pressing through the Club series (but not actually with a set number produced), and the CD had a discontinuation date of December 31st, 2003. The first of the two sets remained in print through the label's 30th anniversary, selling quite well during that time. For that 30th anniversary of Varèse in 2008, Townson organized another 4-CD set representing the company's products, covering a wide spread of their roughly 250 albums from late 2003 to early 2008. You simply can't beat these deals; on both sets in retail print (the first and third), you're getting five hours of film music for the approximate price of a single album. Such items had never existed before and are truly unique in this small corner of the music industry.

• Volume One: ****
• Volume Two: ****

TRACK LISTINGS:

Volume One::
Total Time: 303:07

CD 1: (75:49) • 1. The Man from Snowy River - End Title (Bruce Rowland) (3:54) • 2. The Winds of War - Main Title (Bob Cobert) (2:22) • 3. Blue Velvet - Mysteries of Love (Angelo Badalamenti) (2:09) • 4. Witness - Building the Barn (Maurice Jarre) (4:57) • 5. Raising Arizona - Way Out There (Carter Burwell) (1:54) • 6. Pee Wee's Big Adventure - Breakfast Machine - re-recording (Danny Elfman) (2:36) • 7. Halloween - Theme (John Carpenter) (2:54) • 8. A Nightmare on Elm Street - Main Title (Charles Bernstein) (3:33) • 9. The Fly - Finale (Howard Shore) (2:49) • 10. RoboCop - Rock Shop (Basil Poledouris) (3:42) • 11. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - The Imperial March - re-recording (John Williams) (3:20) • 12. The Right Stuff - Yeager's Triumph - re-recording (Bill Conti) (5:11) • 13. The Final Conflict - Main Title (Jerry Goldsmith) (3:26) • 14. The Abyss - Bud on the Ledge (Alan Silvestri) (3:13) • 15. Brainstorm - Michael's Gift to Karen (James Horner) (6:48) • 16. Peggy Sue Got Married - Peggy Sue's Homecoming (John Barry) (3:25) • 17. My Left Foot - Mother (Elmer Bernstein) (3:37) • 18. The Dead - The Story of Michael Fury (Alex North) (2:58) • 19. Stanley & Iris - Stanley & Iris (John Williams) (3:25) • 20. The Milagro Beanfield War - Theme - re-recording (Dave Grusin) (3:57) • 21. Driving Miss Daisy - End Titles (Hans Zimmer) (4:51) CD 2: (74:55) • 1. Steel Magnolias - Suite (Georges Delerue) (8:06) • 2. Unforgiven - Claudia's Theme (Lennie Niehaus and Clint Eastwood) (5:41) • 3. Raggedy Man - Main Title (Jerry Goldsmith) (3:34) • 4. The Grifters - The City (Elmer Bernstein) (3:34) • 5. Green Card - Silence (Hans Zimmer) (4:03) • 6. City Slickers - Main Title (Marc Shaiman) (2:40) • 7. Father of the Bride - Main Title (Alan Silvestri) (2:27) • 8. While You Were Sleeping - A Happy Ending (Randy Edelman) (2:20) • 9. Babe - This is a Tale... (Nigel Westlake) (1:47) • 10. The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective - Main Title (Henry Mancini) (1:38) • 11. The Adventures of Robin Hood - Main Title/Coronation Procession - re-recording (Erich Wolfgang Korngold) (4:42) • 12. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles - Peking 1910: American Thanksgiving... (Laurence Rosenthal) (5:56) • 13. The Secret Garden - Colin Opens his Eyes (Zbigniew Preisner) (2:00) • 14. A Little Princess - The Good-bye (Patrick Doyle) (4:19) • 15. Rudy - Main Title (Jerry Goldsmith) (3:34) • 16. Iron Will - Main Title (Joel McNeely) (2:57) • 17. Memphis Belle - The Final Mission (George Fenton) (3:53) • 18. Eye of the Needle - Finale and Epilogue - re-recording (Miklós Rózsa) (3:19) • 19. Total Recall - The Dream (Jerry Goldsmith) (3:33) • 20. Back to the Future Part III - End Credits (Alan Silvestri) (4:02) CD 3: (75:58) • 1. To Die For - Main Titles (Danny Elfman) (4:10) • 2. The Player - The Player (Thomas Newman) (3:06) • 3. Black Robe - Suite (Georges Delerue) (4:49) • 4. Medicine Man - The Trees (Jerry Goldsmith) (6:01) • 5. 2001 - Space Station Docking - re-recording (Alex North) (2:21) • 6. Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire - Xizor's Theme (Joel McNeely) (4:37) • 7. The Crow - Birth of a Legend (Graeme Revell) (6:17) • 8. Blade - Intruder (Mark Isham) (4:50) • 9. The Omen - Ave Satani (Jerry Goldsmith) (2:31) • 10. Vertigo - Prelude and Rooftop (Bernard Herrmann) (4:39) • 11. Scream - Sydney's Lement (Marco Beltrami) (1:37) • 12. The Sixth Sense - De Profundis (James Newton Howard) (2:21) • 13. Xena: Warrior Princess - Main Title (Joseph LoDuca) (1:15) • 14. Air Force One - The Parachutes (Jerry Goldsmith) (5:21) • 15. Starship Troopers - Klendathu Drop (Basil Poledouris) (4:29) • 16. The Matrix - Main Title/Trinity Infinity (Don Davis) (3:53) • 17. The Iron Giant - The Eye of the Storm (Michael Kamen) (2:27) • 18. You've Got Mail - Empty Store (George Fenton) (2:49) • 19. A Little Romance - Main Title (Georges Delerue) (3:12) • 20. Pleasantville - Real Rain (Randy Newman) (4:31) CD 4: (76:25) • 1. Sunset Boulevard - Prelude - re-recording (Franz Waxman) (3:50) • 2. L.A. Confidential - Bloody Christmas (Jerry Goldsmith) (2:51) • 3. Rounders - Rounders (Christopher Young) (3:46) • 4. The Score - Main Title (Howard Shore) (3:49) • 5. The Replacements - The Replacements Remix (John Debney) (5:48) • 6. Gone in 60 Seconds - The Last Car (Trevor Rabin) (4:47) • 7. The Bourne Identity - Drum and Bass Remix (John Powell) (2:14) • 8. Rush Hour 2 - Main Title (Lalo Schifrin) (2:21) • 9. XXX - Prague Arrival (Randy Edelman) (1:52) • 10. Die Hard - Gruber's Arrival (Michael Kamen) (3:47) • 11. The Last of the Mohicans - Main Title - re-recording (Trevor Jones) (1:51) • 12. Moby Dick - Moby Dick Theme (Christopher Gordon) (2:05) • 13. The Mists of Avalon - Morgaine's Journey (Lee Holdridge) (6:25) • 14. Cleopatra - Main Title (Alex North) (2:51) • 15. Life as a House - If I Could Kiss You (Mark Isham) (3:37) • 16. Emma - Emma - re-recording (Rachel Portman) (2:55) • 17. In the Bedroom - End Title (Thomas Newman) (4:21) • 18. Cast Away - End Credits (Alan Silvestri) (3:44) • 19. One True Thing - One True Thing (Cliff Eidelman) (2:18) • 20. Unfaithful - Unfaithful (Jan A.P. Kaczmarek) (2:35) • 21. Far from Heaven - Autumn in Connecticut (Elmer Bernstein) (3:08) • 22. Ice Age - Opening Travel Music (David Newman) (1:15) • 23. Shrek - Transformation/The End (Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell) (3:26)

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Volume Two::
Total Time: 306:27

CD 1: (75:55) • 1. Kings Row - Main Title - re-recording (Erich Wolfgang Korngold) (1:55) • 2. Mr. Destiny - Mr. Destiny (David Newman) (5:04) • 3. Gold Diggers - Bear Mountain (Joel McNeely) (3:39) • 4. The Boy Who Could Fly - In the Air - re-recording (Bruce Broughton) (4:31) • 5. The Adventures of Huck Finn - Main Title (Bill Conti) (4:44) • 6. Animal Farm - End Title (Richard Harvey) (3:41) • 7. Paulie - Medley (John Debney) (6:48) • 8. Mouse Hunt - Main Title (Alan Silvestri) (2:39) • 9. My Dog Skip - Main Title (William 'Bill' Ross) (3:21) • 10. Diamonds - Main Title (Joel Goldsmith) (1:51) • 11. Amazing Grace and Chuck - Hometown (Elmer Bernstein) (5:24) • 12. Bed and Breakfast - End Credits (David Shire) (2:42) • 13. Kimberly - Main Title (Basil Poledouris) (2:37) • 14. Free Willy 3 - Awakening (Cliff Eidelman) (4:04) • 15. Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael - In Her Limousine (Thomas Newman) (1:57) • 16. I'll Do Anything - Matt (Hans Zimmer) (7:15) • 17. War of the Buttons - Front Titles (Rachel Portman) (4:32) • 18. Lionheart - King Richard (Jerry Goldsmith) (8:34) CD 2: (77:06) • 1. Deep Blue Sea - Aftermath (Trevor Rabin) (2:47) • 2. Evolution - Our Heroes (John Powell) (2:22) • 3. The 'Burbs - End Titles (Jerry Goldsmith) (4:10) • 4. Dragonheart: A New Beginning - Main Title - contains Randy Edelman's Original Theme (Mark McKenzie) (4:49) • 5. Amazing Stories: The Mission - The Landing - re-recording (John Williams) (5:11) • 6. Sky Bandits - End Title (Alfi Kabiljo) (3:56) • 7. Kull the Conquerer - Kull the Conquerer (Joel Goldsmith) (2:01) • 8. Terminal Velocity - Cadillac Freefall (Joel McNeely) (5:43) • 9. Vertical Limit - Three Years Later (James Newton Howard) (4:28) • 10. Drop Zone - Too Many Notes (Hans Zimmer) (4:14) • 11. The Watcher - Driven (Marco Beltrami) (3:26) • 12. Alien 3 - Adagio - re-recording (Elliot Goldenthal) (4:21) • 13. Man on Fire - Man of Fire (John Scott) (4:40) • 14. We're No Angels - Introduction and Main Title (George Fenton) (3:59) • 15. The Big Kahuna - The Big Kahuna (Christopher Young) (6:10) • 16. This World, Then the Fireworks - The Pick-Up (Pete Rugulo) (3:24) • 17. Touch of Evil - Main Title (Henry Mancini) (3:28) • 18. The Man Who Knew Too Little - The Man Who Knew Too Little (Christopher Young) (2:39) • 19. Cool World - The Cool World Stomp (Mark Isham) (4:38) CD 3: (75:41) • 1. Triumph of the Spirit - Main Title (Cliff Eidelman) (2:23) • 2. On the Beach - From the Beach, Silently Weeping (Christopher Gordon) (6:33) • 3. The Last Butterfly - End Title (Alex North) (4:24) • 4. Crossing the Line - End Titles (Ennio Morricone) (3:26) • 5. And the Band Played On - And the Band Played On (Carter Burwell) (4:33) • 6. It's My Party - It's My Party (Basil Poledouris) (3:19) • 7. Careful, He Might Hear You - Main Theme (Ray Cook) (3:59) • 8. Return to Paradise - Looking at You (Mark Mancina) (4:28) • 9. Instinct - Everybody Goes (Danny Elfman) (3:06) • 10. The Tailor of Panama - Harry Pendel: The Tailor of Panama (Shawn Davey) (4:13) • 11. The Linguini Incident - Habanera (Thomas Newman) (3:08) • 12. Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle - Into Love and Out Again (Mark Isham) (4:59) • 13. Mobsters - Theme for Mara (Michael Small) (4:46) • 14. Guilty by Suspicion - End Title (James Newton Howard) (3:45) • 15. White Palace - Main Title (George Fenton) (3:06) • 16. Lover's Prayer - Main Title (Joel McNeely) (4:16) • 17. Lovesick - Main Theme (Philippe Sarde) (5:58) • 18. Zelly and Me - Zelly and Me (Pino Donaggio) (4:31) CD 4: (77:45) • 1. Dead Again - The Headlines (Patrick Doyle) (3:24) • 2. Dolores Claiborne - End Credits (Danny Elfman) (5:14) • 3. Pacific Heights - Part II (Hans Zimmer) (7:27) • 4. Bloodline - Out of the Past (Ennio Morricone) (2:47) • 5. Bliss - Wedding (Jan A. P. Kaczmarek) (4:14) • 6. Cruel Intentions - Pussy (John Ottman) (2:17) • 7. Wild Things - Main Title (George S. Clinton) (2:56) • 8. Presumed Innocent - Presumed Innocent (John Williams) (4:12) • 9. Damage - The Last Time (Zbigniew Preisner) (3:01) • 10. The Stars Fell on Henrietta - Theme and Variations (David Benoit) (4:18) • 11. Rich in Love - Stop Thinking About Her (Georges Delerue) (3:50) • 12. The Stand - Ain't She Beautiful (W.G. Snuffy Walden) (6:00) • 13. Golden Gate - Golden Gate (Elliot Goldenthal) (3:36) • 14. M. Butterfly - M. Butterfly (Howard Shore) (2:01) • 15. Pavilion of Women - Together Forever (Conrad Pope) (2:52) • 16. Tai Pan - Main Title (Maurice Jarre) (3:48) • 17. Othello - Main Title (Charlie Mole) (3:13) • 18. Much Ado About Nothing - Overture - re-recording (Patrick Doyle) (4:19) • 19. Christopher Columbus: The Discovery - A Hero's Welcome (Cliff Eidelman) (7:27)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The first volume insert includes a note by Robert Townson about the record label and the general field of film music, as well pictures of several composers from past and present. The second volume contains composer pictures as well, with the following note from Townson:

"First, a confession: this Volume Two to the Varèse Sarabande 25th Anniversary CD is much less about continuing to celebrate Varèse's anniversary and is more directed to taking advantage of Varèse's anniversary in order to present a selection of music that explores our archives even more deeply. While pouring through the volumes of scores to select the eighty-four tracks that would make up our official anniversary celebration, I found myself having to leave off some of my favorite cues from many of my favorite scores. To make the cut of the first set, a great or successful score generally required the accompaniment of a great or particularly successful film. After all, celebrating our history by compiling themes from a bunch of films that no one has ever heard of (regardless of how wonderful the music may be) wouldn't exactly show either ourselves or the composers in the best light. I certainly made a few exceptions Š bent the rules here and there, but, by and large, the anniversary set featured an extraordinary number of great scores from extremely successful films. And it was an absolute joy to put it together, looking back on all of those productions and, in some cases, listening to music that I hadn't heard in many years.

At any rate, after completing the first set I knew that I couldn't stop there. There was just too much good music. So, here we are again Š the continuing voyage, so to speak! Here's the big difference between the sets: when selecting music to fill these four CDs I gave absolutely zero consideration to either the quality or the popularity of the films for which it was written. That's not to say that there aren't some great films represented here, but it wasn't a requirement. And what a liberating experience that was! All of a sudden, Elmer Bernstein's wonderful score for Amazing Grace and Chuck, which didn't even make the cut for the Elmer Bernstein CD in our Great Composers series, was fair game. So was the remarkable End Title from Alex North's final film score, The Last Butterfly. From Cliff Eidelman's Free Willy 3, to Basil Poledouris' It's My Party, from Christopher Gordon's On the Beach, to David Shire's Bed and Breakfast, the one thing that ties all of these scores together is that they all deserve more attention and deserve to be heard again. For all but the most die hard film and film music fans, I think there are bound to be a great number of films represented here that most people have never even heard of. There is certain to be a musical discovery contained herein for just about everyone.

Together, the two volumes of our 25th anniversary CDs present over ten hours of music. While I could certainly fill another four CDs, and then another four after that and still not come anywhere near a shortage of material, I think we'll stop here. Once again, it was, amidst all the work, a whole lot of fun compiling this music and I am very excited about the prospect of introducing these scores to anyone who may discover among them some of the best film music they've never heard."

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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Varèse Sarabande: A 25th Anniversary Celebration are Copyright © 2003, Varèse Sarabande (Volume One), Varèse Sarabande (Volume Two) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 5/6/03 and last updated 3/22/09.