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! 

It's been a crazy couple of weeks with the semester ending and lots of grading to do.  After all that, and a few reviews here and there there is not much energy left for the blog here.  So, sorry about that.  Though there is still mail to get today, none of it would get listened to until May.  So here is the monthly personal favorite additions to my collection here.

I did pick up the Intrada Goldsmith release of Baby, but since it sold out there is no reason to lift it up here again.

First off then is Film Score Monthly's release of Heavy Metal.  This Elmer Bernstein score is a great opportunity to hear some of the thematic material in its original garb, away from the concert versions the composer often used.  The lyric quality of the music coupled with Bernstein's orchestral style provides a great contrast to other Sci-Fi scores.  As is usual it features great notes and stellar sound.

A surprise for the month was Kevin Manthei's score for the Direct-to-video Justice League: The New Frontier.  Though the low budget meant Manthei has to use mostly sampled sounds, his addition of acoustic brass helps blur the fact that this is essentially high end electronic music.  But there are plenty of great themes and classic action adventure music in that superhero vein that many fans should enjoy.  The disc is a limited pressing from La-La Land Records.

Somehow I missed Naxos' release of two critical Virgil Thomson scores from the 1930s.  The recording of The Plow that Broke the Plains is really quite well done and features the complete score (an earlier E.SS.A.Y. recording was essentially an extended suite version of this music as was a Hyperion release).  At nearly half the price of most CDs, this is a wonderful way to hear Thomson's music and add to one's collection two important film scores (the other is The River).  There is a DVD release of the films as well from Naxos that might be helpful to teachers of film history as well.

From the audiophile end and back catalog comes my next recommendation, music of George Gershwin.  This RCA SACD release of 2 classic albums is the quintessential performances of classics like Rhapsody in Blue, American in Paris, and the Piano Concerto, as well as Cuban Overture, and the I Got Rhythm Variations.  Yes this is the Arthur Fiedler and Boston Pops recording.  It's a classic putting to shame most any release and an essential addition to anyone's music library.  Gershwin's music feels like it is disappearing from concerts again.  Even the standard music text I do puts Gershwin as a footnote to music history.  This is unfortunate.  The RCA release is at a reduced cost and should be in your collection if it is not already...words I finally listened to as well!

Though I do not know if John Morgan stops by this blog much, I finally can add my appreciation for his and Bill Stromberg's production of Fahrenheit 451 easily one of the best releases of 2007 that couldn't make my list only because I never got a review copy.  But it was money well spent, as is my subsequent order of their recording for Mysterious Island--most likely next month's top 5 addition!  Herrmann's score here is given loving attention in fantastic sound.  There is more orchestral color and nuance in one measure of Herrmann's music than we often hear in entire cues in today's cinema.  Truly one of music's great masters and this score is one of his finest.  A crisp and clean recording overall with perfect notes to boot. 

In some other news, there are new scores anticipated in May including the next Narnia score, Giacchino's music for Speed Racer, oh, and a little film featuring music by some guy called John Williams.