January 5, 2011

  • Best of December (2010): New to the "Collection"

     

    Catching up now after a full week of vacation here.  The last month of 2010 was filled with many amazing releases as labels dangled the perfect gifts of "holy grail" scores from practically every direction.

    La-La Land wins the month with three fabulous releases of music from the last quarter-century of film music.

    First up was the release of music from John Williams' delightful holiday score to Home Alone.  Now expanded to include more underscore than the commercial release, and re-edited to follow the film more closely, the music reveals an entirely new direction of musical ideas apart from the engaging themes Williams created which made up the bulk of the commercial CD release when the film first appeared.  That disc is still worth keeping around to compare the composer's own editing choices for listening with this more complete presentation.

    Hands down, the best release of the month, and one of the best of the year, was that of Jerry Goldsmith's score for Star Trek V.  This least favored of the six Trek films with the original cast turns out to have one of the series' finest scores.  La-La Land's mastering here is superb and the first fifteen minutes of the first disc grab a hold of the listener's attention and draw one into the score.  One recalls how so many awful films received such top-notch efforts from Goldsmith that fans can at least be glad this score is available to enjoy without having to sit through the film. 

    Fans of Danny Elfman also got a second gift in 2010 with the release of Batman Returns in a two-disc set from La-La Land.  This score had an unusual presentation upon its CD release.  The oddest things was that all the titles for tracks appeared only on the CD itself and no where else in the booklet design.  That presentation was interesting but seemed quite incomplete.  This new release brings together all the music and resequences it in film order in another fantastic remastering effort.

    Christopher Gunning may not be as familiar to American film music fans or listeners.  But if you have ever watched the Poirot mysteries on PBS you have heard his wonderful theme and additional underscoring style.  Chandos released an ample disc featuring an overview of many of the composer's most requested music from a variety of films in stellar sound.  The album was reviewed here in December so take a look at that review for more details of The Film & TV Music of Christopher Gunning.

    Finally, Williams fans got another great surprise from that master's back catalogue.  After the appearance of Black Sunday and Images on disc, it was perhaps inevitable that Family Plot would soon appear.  Varese Sarabande released this interesting score from what would be Hitchcock's last film.  Here we get to listen to some of the comedic and light dramatic underscoring that would be further developed in later Williams' works on display.  The engaging primary theme turns out to be just one of many fascinating ideas and scoring choices in this fun little score.  In retrospect, the chance to work with Hitchcock must have seemed like a career maker.  But history is a bit odd as Williams' reputation would not be made with this film but with two "little" sci-fi films released back-to-back, Star Wars and Close Encounters.  Family Plot becomes another filled in hole to follow the composer's style and approach to scoring.

    Coming up this week will be, with any luck, the beginning of a few "best of 2010" lists.

    3.      Batman Returns (Elfman)                                                                                  LLL

    4.      Film & TV Music of Gunning                                                                     Chandos

    10.  Family Plot (Williams)                                                                                  Var. Sar.