Hollywood Blockbusters

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Nick Ingman, Nic Raine
RPO SP 034
Disc One: Total Time:  60:56
Disc Two: Total Time:  70:51
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

The Royal Philharmonic feature annual concerts celebrating film music and some of their Here Come the Classics series have included some film music along the way.  Many of their concert recordings are available solely through their website which makes them a bit harder to come by outside the UK.  The present release features selections from some of these earlier compilations recorded with Nick Ingman back in 2002, and with Nic Raine in 2009 and 2010.  Many of Raine’s own arrangements are featured here and parallel selections available on the Silva label which has been associated with over the past 20 years.

The music is not really presented with any sort of program in mind, not even chronology.  One might be hard pressed to think of something like Chocolat as a “blockbuster” and a few other films sort of seem odd in that respect as well, but regardless, there is an interesting collection of film music all the same featuring mostly music from more recent films, though it runs back to some early Mancini (1958’s Peter Gunn theme) to Horner’s Avatar (2009).

Disc One opens with Schifrin’s Mission Impossible TV theme in a more extended version, which seems a bit odd (disc two also opens with a TV theme).  But then we are off through a host of familiar melodies from Avatar, Gladiator, Forrest Gump, Out of Africa, The Pink Panther, The Thomas Crown Affair, Titanic, and License to Kill.  Some of the nice surprises in the programming are suites from Chocolate and Ratatouille.  Equally interesting is music from Desplat’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Zimmer’s The Da Vinci Code (oddly the least interesting piece here), and Horner’s A Beautiful Mind.

An interesting mix of popular melodies (like Lai’s Love Story theme, Hamlisch’s “The Way We Were” and Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You”) are dispersed among more serious fare like the beautiful “Elegy for Dunkirk” (Atonement) and the theme from Schindler’s List.  A bit of music from the first Lord of the Ring’s films allows for some fantasy music that returns at the end with two familiar selections from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.  Interesting items also include a suite from Warbeck’s Shakespeare in Love and interesting music from Zimmer’s King Arthur.  Action music comes from the main theme for Elfman’s Batman and Arnold’s Quantum of Solace (though this is a more lyrical “A Night at the Opera”).  Morricone’s beautiful theme from Cinema Paradiso is also paired here with Leonard Rosenman’s arrangement of a Handel “Sarabande” as used in Barry Lyndon (1975).

Overall, then this is a rather unusual mix of mostly contemporary film music.  There is plenty of familiar territory here for new or casual listeners, but also some good choices of less familiar composers and films.  They may not quite be “blockbusters” in the way we might think, but the music making is engaging enough to make it a disc that might make a great gift to a new film music enthusiast.  The second disc actually feels like it features the stronger program.  Something also to note is that there seem to be three distinct musical “approaches” here that come across in these studio recordings.  Some of the pop-like themes have a more easy listening feel to them while the jazz selections tend to be a bit hotter in the audio picture.  The more larger-scale orchestral arrangements fall closer to traditional film music recordings.  All of these feel multi-miked which takes away some ambience one might hear in a hall.  However, the performances are excellent throughout.  The booklet itself is pretty barebones with no real information about any of the films or pieces used here.

Film music fans may recall Terence Blanchard’s 1999 album, Jazz in Film for its interesting program of film themes treated to semi-improvisational noir-like musical explorations of music that had already a jazz-template from which to work.  This new release from Pirouet Records, Germany, takes its title from a Morricone score, Cinema Paradiso, and features tenor saxophonist Jason Seizer in an equally intriguing program whose jazz roots may be a little sketchier.  Seizer’s combo here features pianist Pablo Held with bassist Matthias Pichler and Fabian Arends on drums.  The arrangements are not credited here, but they do take a page from  the noir-like styles of Blanchard’s album with a Stan Getz-like style that suggests smoky backrooms.

This impression is set as the album begins with “Carlotta’s Portrait” from Herrmann’s Vertigo score.  Though a seeming unlikely candidate for improvisation, this is a rather convincing atmospheric take on the music.  The title track, from Morricone’s 1988 score, has a more relaxed approach that unfolds over almost 8 minutes of dreamy playing.  One of the marks of this album, and also why it is so interesting, is that Seizer has chosen some equally unique music alongside some of the more familiar pieces.  Among the former of these is Roque Banos’ score for The Machinist (2004) in the dark exploration of “Steve’s Care.”  The primary theme from On the Waterfront (1954) picks up the pace just slightly as the melody here allows for interesting interpretations and accents.

Stanley Myers’ beautiful “Cavatina” from The Deer Hunter undergoes a bit more deconstruction and re-emphasis of the familiar melody with interesting harmonic shifts and a chance for a central improvisational area for the combo.  Another unusual choice, but one perfectly suited for this setting is “Jungle Beat.”  This less familiar musical exploration from The Jungle Book might seem an unlikely first choice from George Bruns’ score, but it works very well here and allows for a slightly faster-paced interlude from the dreamier opening free jazz improvisational ideas.  The same approach also makes “Children’s Games” from Desplat’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button a great jazz number again allowing perhaps greater room for flexibility in a lesser known film score.

The last two selections are worlds apart in their respective film’s genres, but much closer than one might think.  A double take was in order when reading the track listing to see Jerry Goldsmith’s “Alien Main Theme” as the penultimate track.  How would or could one translate this intriguing slowly unfolding melody to both make it recognizable but also allow room for Seizer’s exploration of the music.  Well, the result here is quite compelling as the harmonic ideas of Goldsmith’s theme are easily stripped down as elongated jazz harmonies.  His wavering melody works very well to launch into slight improvisational ideas and somehow the mysterious character of the music itself is not lost.  The choice of the “Love Theme” from Alex Noth’s Spartacus score then becomes all the better as parallels can be closely made in the way the same expanded harmonic palette created this rich melody.

Cinema Paradiso is not an album for film score purists.  But, Jason Seizer’s sensitive and languid approach to this music shows his own appreciation for their sources.  The result is some very fascinating musical interpretations perfect for unwinding after a late night at the movies.