Yes, it is almost halfway through September, but after a month of houseguests and a backlog of things for review here are some highlights from last month that were "new".

I'll start with the only classical release in the bunch.  Naxos released this 2-disc set, Lincoln Portraits, which is a superb collection of pieces about our 16th president released last February.  Yes, Copland's familiar work is there, but of the 8 pieces represented, it is just another fine performance of one of that master's pieces.  It's the amazing work by George Frederick McKay that will give you the most pleasure on this disc of music that includes pieces by Ives, Persichetti, Harris, Bacon, Turok and Gould.  Why is one of our great conductors, Leonard Slatkin not better recognized?  Here he reminds us of those great RCA Copland collections made with St. Louis.  Here he has gone a bit further east to another great regional orchestra in Nashville.  It's a great release of some fine American Music.

Dr. Kildare is a bit before my time, and I waited a bit before picking up this Film Score Monthly 3-disc survey of music from the series.  The Goldsmith theme is one of his more familiar and the underscoring for the series is superb throughout.  It makes for a lot of medical music but is a great set.

I almost missed La La Land's release of Airplane!  This quintessential Elmer Bernstein comedy score fills out any collection of the composer's work.  It's great fun hearing this music on its own while recalling what scenes it goes with along the way.

And now two new scores are also worth noting.  Marco Beltrami's score for Knowing is a great listen that feels at times like it is haunted by the ghost of Goldsmith.  Beltrami's signature sinous melodic ideas are also on display and this is probably one of his better scores in some time.  Fascinating orchestral colors and exciting rhythmic ideas are on display throughout.

Finally, Christopher Young returned to all out horror scoring with his over-the-top score for Drag Me to Hell.  This is great horror movie music complete with organs and full orchestral writing reminiscent of the composer's Hellraiser days.

It's almost time to do this again for September!  But if you've missed any of the above, enjoy! 

For those tired of being interactive with their video game, the new film adaptation Max Payne allowed for a particular live-action view point.  The storyline for Max Payne is much like the comic book character The Punisher, though this time it’s a maverick cop out to track down and revenge the murderer of his family and partner.  Beltrami has invited his assistant, Buck Sanders, to take partial credit for the score cues here (Dennis Smith is also given an “additional music” credit.  Sanders has worked on programming synthesizers and occasional additional cues for Beltrami over the past ten years and has scored a few films of his own including more recently The Hurt Locker.  The score is for string orchestra with harp, and horns, trombones, and percussion and a detuned piano.

The disc starts with a slowly unfolded melodic idea in “Max Attacks” that disappears briefly to make room for electronic pulses.  This pattern continues underneath a texture that is mostly atonal, filled with small dissonant ideas with a modern rock beat.  It takes a while before a slowly climbing chromatic idea asserts itself in low strings with brass taking it on towards the end of the track.  The score will take on aspects of Beltrami’s horror style with hints at his action music style.  Predominantly filled with ambient sounds and other electronic ideas sometimes communicating the character as a contemporary James Bond, Max Payne can be a difficult but always fascinating listen.  When the sweeping melodic idea appears in “Investigations,” we are back on firmer Beltrami territory with an idea reminiscent of his work in Mimic.  For the most part, the score is filled with odd sounds mixed with some action music that alternates with brief moments of intrigue.  The drum machine sounds too artificial though in this texture for some reason sometimes to distraction.  “No Respects For You” is a calm in the storm with subtle harp and string writing surrounded by ambient sounds as the thematic idea is more exposed.  It offers a welcome respite from the harsher moments of the score surrounding this track but the second half of the disc leans toward more lyric and tonal writing.  “Window Payne” is the beginning of this shift on the disc which features the closest Beltrami sound in terms of thematic statements and orchestration.  It marks a turning point in the disc which moves to a gentle, and quite beautiful thematic statement in “Dark Heaven.”