8/24/2005
This recording of Samuel Barber's colorful and majestic work for orchestra is a great introduction to the composer's music. Naxos' American Classics Collection have provided important American works by American composers of the 20th Century at affordable prices. There is a wealth of material on...
7/19/2005
Danny Elfman's first score of the year is the updated version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The composer's longtime collaborator Tim Burton directs the classic Roald Dahl book into a film that delivers with a memorable music score. The 1971 Leslie Bricusse musical will still be fondly...
7/5/2005
The Last Starfighter is a popular soundtrack among sci-fi film lovers. The 1980s were full of some of the cinema's greatest orchestral scores and themes. Craig Safan's beautiful and heroic fanfare--which also acts as the film's main theme and love theme--is one of the best. While the music is...
6/30/2005
War of the Worlds hits the big screen this summer in an updated version of the Sci-Fi classic from director Steven Spielberg. Along for the ride again is the director's famous composer and 're-write artist' John Williams. In a stunning move the latest score from the maestro is now in a dense and...
6/12/2005
John Barry's score to the 1972 Nicolas Roeg film Walkabout contains one of the most beautiful themes written for a motion picture. The score is one of composer Barry's most artistic and memorable, containing that familar lushness found in such classics as Midnight Cowboy and Out of Africa. The two...
5/24/2005
The 1997 film Contact was an intelligent drama based on Carl Sagan's book about one scientist's discovery of life in outer space. Fortunately the movie gets a very simple but moving score from composer Alan Silvestri. The music is very unobtrusive and with the streamlined orchestration the score is...
5/24/2005
David Arnold came onto the big Hollywood film music scene with this exciting and action packed sci-fi score for Stargate (1994). The film started Arnold's collaboration with Roland Emmerich who would again work with the composer on the summer blockbuster Indepedence Day. Stargate's music is...
3/23/2005
The Hunt for Red October was one of the last of the Cold War action thrillers. The film's music is a fine mix of choral and action music composed by Basil Poledouris. The opening men's chorus sings in Russian for a stunning beginning to the film. It's much more memorable than the other submarine...
3/23/2005
This classic recording with Charles Gerhardt and the National Philharmonic is a wonderful compilation of classic suites of themes by Miklos Rozsa. All the music is from the classic days of Hollywood epics. Nine films are represented with gorgeous orchestral suites which include The Red House,...
2/3/2005
Jerry Goldsmith may be gone but his importance to the art of scoring movies will never be lost. Tora! Tora! Tora! is an orchestral masterpiece written for this classic picture, about the attack on Pearl Harbor. The magazine Film Score Monthly has issued many limited run soundtrack CDs over the past...
