July 23, 2007

  • Back from Vacation! and Random Thoughts

    Well, it was a great time away and now back to the grind.  General comments only today and more when I catch up to things around here. 

    On the pile to hear this week is the new LaLaLand Godzilla release of David Arnold's score.  And then a pile of discs for general review that arrived as well. 

    Saw the new Harry Potter film last week.  Interesting overall and not as diffuse as I had expected it to be given the tome's size.  The score seemed to fit well and their was just enough of a hint of previous theme's to create continuity.  Great music for Mrs. Umbridge and a delightful basoon idea that appeared during Mr. Weasley's attempt to go through the turnstyles at the train depot.  It felt like more music or something was needed to increase the tension and excitement of the big finale which felt flatter than I had hoped.

    Watched Dreamgirls and was glad that the second act was far better than the first hour.  Jeniffer Hudson is fabulous in her role and sings the crap out of her two big numbers.  The musical tends to have very little that lends itself to a single or specific standout song though, somewhat surprising.

    Heard Sting's Dowland compilation, Songs from the Labyrinth which is interesting but I don't think it works as a whole.  Still, perhaps it introduced a few people to Renaissance music. 

    My find of the month at a used CD store is a classic Morton Gould disc featuring the London Symphony Orchestra on Varese Sarabande.  This is a re-release of an early digital recording (one of the first) from the defunct Chalfont label and features orchestral showpieces like Shostakovich's "Festival Overture" and Ravel's "Bolero" among music by Ginastera and Weinberger.  The sound is superb, still, and comes close to an audio clarity those of us who grew up listening to LPs would appreciate.  This same recording was issued for a while on cassette using state of the art technology (the incarnation I had).  This is one of those recordings Varese should reissue along with an Enrique Batiz disc of Mexican classical music.