Music from the Batman Trilogy ****1/2

Silva Records 1390

15 tracks – 73:54

Also available as a digital download.

Silva’s last Batman compilation in 2009 featured a bit of music from the original 1960s television series, the Burton films and their subsequent sequels, a couple animated series, and one track each from the newer reimaginings by Christopher Nolan.  This new release focuses entirely on music from the “new” Nolan trilogy.

There are five tracks for each of these films presented on the release.  Some of these have appeared on any number of previous Silva-themed releases, but it appears that most of these are essentially new.  The two selections found on the 2009 release (“Eptesicus” and “Aggressive Expansion”) are the sole performances featuring the City of Prague Philharmonic.  The remainder are by the London Music Works—smaller ensemble of acoustic, sample, and electronic instrumentation that allows for more studio manipulation and manages to recreate very well the sound of the original soundtracks. 

The primary thematic statement from Batman Begins is heard well in “Antrozous,” one of the newer additions to the Silva catalogue.  The performance is well done and remarkably similar to the original.  Another new highlight is “Like a Dog Chasing Cars” from The Dark Knight.  The other tracks included from that score are: “Introduce a Little Anarchy” and “A Watchful Guardian.”  The music from The Dark Knight Rises is still a bit fresh in the ears for fans of the series but having some of these newer takes on this music will be interesting for comparison all the same.  The sequencing allows for a quite dramatic presentation of the music from these films unlike the more random approach that has appeared on some of the other film-series compilations from the label.

With some of the latest technology and a commitment to faithful recreation of film music, this latest release is another of the label’s finer efforts of late.  Easily recommended for fans of the new Batman films, though it is hard to imagine why one would not just opt for the originals to download to their iPods themselves.  If it ever makes it to CD it will make a nice companion for the 2009 release and certainly is a full presentation of score material.

With the holidays behind us a bit, I am catching up with a few "best of" lists.  I'll start with my picks of "new" discs added into my personal library last month.  The pickings were slim so I only have 4 choices this time.  I have not picked up Avatar yet though Horner's score is a strong one and likely an Oscar contender.  I found Zimmer's score for Holmes plain annoying in the film but it probably will play well by itself.

Big news in December came from limited and special release labels.  Intrada wins hands down with its 2-disc set of Back to the Future.  This "holy grail" of 1980s film music fans gets royal treatmant from the label and apparently is still available.  Silvestri fans likely already have their copy.

La-La Land's "gifts" were a complete release of Goldsmith's Innerspace with fantastic sound for this other odd sci-fi film with a great score.  And they released a 2-disc set of Howard's The Fugitive.  The latter is a stellar reissue of the original album remastered and with fixes to sonic imaging as well as including a complete presentation of music for the film.  You really get to appreciate the music from both these films which also include good booklet annotations as well. 

Varese Sarabande's own "club" selections were a bit less overwhelming but finally we got a legitimate release of Goldsmith's Freud.  The sound is fascinating and the experiments that the composer tries out are always fascinating while he always seems to maintain a little connection to previous dramatic scoring.  A superb limited release with just a few copies remaining last I looked.