January 6, 2010

  • Best of 2009: Classic Film Music

    There were some wonderful classic releases this year though one wonders if labels are now moving away from music composed prior to 1960 and are beginning to mine the large field of scores for the latest group of people to reach their nostalgic years of the 1970s/1980s.  That said, thank goodness for Tribute Film Classics and their always superb releases.  So many Silver/Bronze age scores were released last year that it is hard to keep up with them all and so many were limited releases that by the time my own order arrived the disc had sold out (some were selling out in a day!).  So you may have missed La-La Land’s release of the quintessential Bernstein parody score for AIRPLANE!, or the fantastic two-disc Gold set of music from EXODUS re-recorded for Silva, or a bunch of Goldsmith releases among which two stood out and are listed below.  We are also seeing some scores from within the past 20 years finding limited releases among which Howard’s THE FUGITIVE is perhaps a fine example of both restoring a score’s sound and providing a complete hearing of the music.  Intrada has been churning out more releases than you can shake as stick at these days and from odd cult favorites to holy grails the biggest gift for 1980s music fans was their release of BACK TO THE FUTURE, a favorite Silvestri score important for his career as well as featuring some wonderful action music.

     

      Best Golden Age Releases of 2009  

     

    The CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGGADE – Max Steiner (Tribute Film Classics)

    The Prince and the Pauper – Erich Wolfgang Korngold (Tribute Film Classics)

    The 7th Voyage of Sinbad – Bernard Herrmann (Prometheus)

     

      Best Silver/Bronze Age Releases of 2009  

    Airplane! (1980)  – Elmer Bernstein (La-La Land)

    Back to the Future (1985)  – Alan Silvestri (Intrada)

    Exodus (1966)  – Ernest Gold (Silva)

    FREUD (1969)  – Jerry Goldsmith (Varese Sarabande)

    The Fugitive (1993)  – James Newton Howard (La-La Land)

    Jules et jim (1961) / les deux anglaises et le continent – Georges Delerue (Universal France)

    TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE (1983) – Jerry Goldsmith (Film Score Monthly)