As with last month, I thought I would share the top 5 favorite CDs I picked up this month. It has been a pretty full month with a couple of surpise shopping trips to big cutout and discount places. A few sales here and there did not hurt either, unless you were my pocket book!
First, I finally picked up a copy of Jan Kaczmarek's beautiful score to Unfaithful (2002). I had seen this particular film a while back and had really admired the score. It is a wonderful piano theme that graces this particular piece and I realized after raving over his score for Finding Neverland (2004) that I had somehow missed picking up this other release. Problem corrected.
Earlier this month I mentioned that DRG was reissuing the Alex North score for Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolff? (1966). This release is a chance to hear the original soundtrack and it is revelatory. First, if you have Jerry Goldsmith's re-recording, this will not replace it by any means. But what does happen here is that you really get a sense for how North's music matches perfectly to the moods of the film. This is made most apparent by the inclusion of dialogue in key places on this disc. At first I was a little irritated that this was there, but then I realized how very important it was for it to be there. It puts all the music in a completely different context than just listening to the stuff on its own. Also interesting is that the guitar melody, played with more classical tenderness in the Goldsmith recording and in many recordings of this primary theme, changes in character throughout the original soundtrack. Sometimes it is tender, other times it is harsh, and always that theme pulls more out of the action on screen and really says more than what you think at first. Highly recommended!
If you have not had a chance yet to hear The Black Dahlia it is time! I am growing to enjoy Mark Isham's music quite a bit after years of hearing mostly his electronic and ambient new age recordings--a style that I can appreciate but does not resonate with me. This is one of those scores that utilizes some of Isham's jazz background and creates an amazing updated film noir style that continues the extension of works like Goldsmith's L.A. Confidential. This one slipped by most people because the film was just not very good. But Silva's release makes a good case that this is one for the history books of great film music.
I have not had a chance to see Zodiac yet, but I did pick up David Shire's score. I have been a fan of Shire's music ever since hearing his great score for The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 (also a great movie!). What this score reveals is that Shire needs to be offered more visible work more often. His score is a difficult one to listen to the first time because the approach for the film was to create moods without hammering out a distinct theme. So the best way to appreciate this score is to jump first to the thematic track, "Graysmith's theme" and the two piano tracks first. This makes hearing the way Shire employs these various motifs in the rest of the score far more interesting. It is not a score that you run around whistling a tune, but it is one where you can appreciate a master at work. I was struck by how this music feels composed and not cut and pasted from a sample of sounds like so much other music lately. It is a master at work.
Last year was the Shostakovich centenary. You may have missed it but there were several great releases of his music. His film music is gradually being discovered and recorded and last year Hanssler Classics released a 2-disc set featuring one of his very earliest scores, music for the 1929 silent film The New Babylon. The recording is done in "acts" rather than multiple segments and intends to recreate the score as it was intended for the final director approved cut of the film. This is classic early Shostakovich that makes for great listening. It is engaging music that also illustrates silent film composing techniques as well. Here you can hear some of the borrowed classical melodies and folk songs which was a common technique for silent film music, but Shostakovich manages to take those tunes and reform them into something entirely his own. You hear the reference but then it takes off into new directions. The second disc is filled out with a suite from a later film, A Year is Like a Lifetime. This suite is great late 1950s/60s Shostakovich with an opening overture that has similar musical gestures to his more popular Festive Overture. Good stuff.
Finally, I ordered the Silva "Film Music of John Williams" cd. This is from a series of single-disc composer re-recordings by the Silva house orchestra, the City of Prague Philharmonic. This release is made up of a series of re-orchestrated and arranged music that actually turns out to be a very good compilation disc that also features music from several more recent Williams scores. There is "Hedwig's Theme" from the Harry Potter films, a specially arranged suite from War of the Worlds, music from Memoirs of a Geisha and a gorgeous performance of the "Prayer for Peace" from Munich. There is are a couple of Star Wars related tracks, the ubiquitous "Main Title", the "Battle of the Heroes" from the "last/third" film, and the "Duel of the Fates" from the "first" film. It is even at a reduced price. It's not the originals, but like many of these Silva releases, it is a great disc to have in the car and puts together some newer music. Only gripe is that there was no music from Catch Me If You Can.
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