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Author	Topic: Silva's Film Music Masterworks

tjguitar Standard Userer	James Horner and John Williams CD are the next two discs in this series. The Horner looks to be all recycled tracks, but the Williams disc has tracks from Episode III, Munich, Geisha and War of the Worlds. Cool deal. Crazy that four of the 13 tracks are from 2005, but for ten bucks, a cheap way to get those tracks, I think.
posted 06-13-2006 01:16 AM PT (US)

sakman Standard Userer	That's a good price considering that most of that has appeared on some Silva compilation or another. But it at least brings in some of the newer scores that appeared on the last Williams 2-disc set plus music from Munich and Memoirs. Fitzpatrick has been recording a lot lately with the orchestra and his recordings are equal to Nic Raine's across the board.
posted 06-13-2006 02:27 PM PT (US)

tjguitar Standard Userer	I agree. I know that many don't enjoy these compilations, but I probably have more Silva Screen CDs than any other label, except perhaps Varese. I think the recordings made in the past few years (namely Harry Potter films, the 4 CD EPICS, Essential Bernstein, 4 CD Goldsmith) have been quite good. Amazon.com is also showing a "Comic Strip Heroes" coming out in July, but no track listing, I'm excited about that one, will look nice next to the three space and beyonds and "The Fantasy Album" on my shelf, even though most of it is probably stuff I already have in original recordings, its nice to hear other arrangements and such. There are some cases where I don't really desire the whole CD and a end titles suite is plenty for me, Ottman's X2 is one such score which I'm sure will be on that comic strip disc.
posted 06-13-2006 04:39 PM PT (US)

John C Winfrey Standard Userer	That essential Bernstein has some good stuff on it, epecially the Werewolf one. Very good. Also that Tiomkin set has some really good stuff on it. J.
posted 06-16-2006 09:44 PM PT (US)

John C Winfrey Standard Userer	From what several folks told me the essential one on Newman was so-so mostly. I know that the Mark of Zorro one is much better on the Roy Budd CD than on the Silva one. I have both of those. J.
posted 06-17-2006 05:49 PM PT (US)

Camillu Standard Userer	This series continues to grow, and will soon have covered Alan Silvestri http://www.moviemusic.com/soundtrack/filmmusicbyalansilvestri Ennio Morricone http://www.moviemusic.com/soundtrack/filmmusicbyenniomorricone James Horner http://www.moviemusic.com/soundtrack/filmmusicbyjameshorner John Williams http://www.moviemusic.com/soundtrack/filmmusicbyjohnwilliams Jerry Goldsmith http://www.moviemusic.com/soundtrack/filmmusicbyjerrygoldsmith John Barry http://www.moviemusic.com/soundtrack/filmmusicbyjohnbarry Coming Soon: Elmer Bernstein Bernard Herrmann How many of you have heard these? Regardless of whether tracks are recycled or not (I only have about 5 Silva compilations myself), how good are they? The only comment I read so far that got me interested was the review over at Soundtracl.net which said the Henry Mancini arrangement of the Untouchables track is the best he's ever heard. Are there any other noteworthy suites or arrangements? The bottom line - if I already have most of the original stuff, are these worth getting? The price is quite tempting... [Message edited by Camillu on 03-15-2007]
posted 03-15-2007 11:30 AM PT (US)

Dinko Standard Userer	It depends. The recycled stuff is assembled from the older recordings. Meaning: crap. The ugliest, most obnoxious brass section in the world; cold, steely strings; screetching woodwinds; with loud out of place percussion with loads of fake-sounding reverb. The new recordings: top notch. The overall recording is more recessed. The whole orchestra is balanced in a more natural way. Brass is warmer, more velvety. Strings are rich. Winds are lovely. Percussion gets the right amount of reverb and impact. The cohesion of the orchestra is finally at world-class levels. Epecially for the items credited as being conducted by James Fitzpatrick. On the Williams album, I'll admit to preferring the Memoirs of a Geisha recording to the original soundtrack. I also enjoyed Battle of the Heroes - where an excellent Czech chorus actually sings and substitutes the usual loud yelling of the Crouch Enders. I find the War of the Worlds suite more listenable than the OST, too.
posted 03-15-2007 04:13 PM PT (US)

tjguitar Standard Userer	As far as the Morricone and Barry albums go, they are a waste of time. You are better served with Silva's Essential Ennio Morricone (my only Morricone CD and I love it) which has all the tracks on the Film Music Masterworks plus a bunch more. Barry is covered by the 4 disc 40 years of film music, so why they chose to release 2 unnecessary ones first makes no sense. I didnt even bother to buy those. Williams is sweet it has 5 or 6 tracks that are new. Silvestri is good in that is the first release that packages their Silvestri tracks together. They still managed to leave some out. The Goldsmith added Planet of the Apes, that was cool. The Horner could have been a sweet companion to the Essential Horner, by adding tracks not on the latter, such as Mask of Zorro, Troy and Aliens. They included the first two but Aliens. The Bastards.
posted 03-15-2007 04:36 PM PT (US)

tjguitar Standard Userer	quote: Originally posted by John C Winfrey: From what several folks told me the essential one on Newman was so-so mostly. I know that the Mark of Zorro one is much better on the Roy Budd CD than on the Silva one. I have both of those. J. The Newman one is my least favorite, but thats mostly due to track selection. Half the 2nd disc devoted to a cantata? No thanks.
posted 03-15-2007 07:19 PM PT (US)

sakman Standard Userer	The Herrmann and Bernstein discs are essentially half of the more recently released "Essential" 2-disc sets. The Herrmann was a re-release of a previous 2-disc set ("Citizen Kane" was the sub title) but had added music from "Twisted Nerve" so if you passed on the "newer" 2-disc set you may want to pick the cheaper single disc. The Bernstein is actually a good set worth the extra few bucks.
posted 03-16-2007 09:42 AM PT (US)

tjguitar Standard Userer	quote: Originally posted by sakman: The Herrmann was a re-release of a previous 2-disc set ("Citizen Kane" was the sub title) but had added music from "Twisted Nerve" so if you passed on the "newer" 2-disc set you may want to pick the cheaper single disc. There was more added than jsut Twisted Nerve. There were additional cues from other films suchas On Dangerous Ground.
posted 03-16-2007 10:30 AM PT (US)

sakman Standard Userer	From my 2006 FSM review: "Also added for this release are the �Nocturne� from �The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,� �Romance� from �The Snows of Kilimanjaro,� and a seven minute segment from �Fahrenheit 451� of the cues �The Road� and �The Search.� The suite from �On Dangerous Ground� has been filled out an additional four minutes over the music from the previous release. The �Prelude� from �Marnie� has had the �Farewell� sequence edited onto the selection." If these are on the new cheap release it would be worth picking up as most of them are more recent. So that is the "other music" here. The other thing different is that sometimes Silva edits all the individual cues into a single entity. This is gets confusing if you have some of their other compilations but sometimes the cues are individual tracks and sometimes they are not.
posted 03-17-2007 04:12 PM PT (US)

PeterK FishChip	More coming! In two weeks: Maurice Jarre http://www.moviemusic.com/soundtrack/filmmusicbymauricejarre Nino Rota http://www.moviemusic.com/soundtrack/filmmusicbyninorota
posted 08-03-2007 03:11 PM PT (US)

PeterK FishChip	You can keep up to date on all titles in the series with this link: http://www.moviemusic.com/search/results.asp?q=masterworks
posted 08-03-2007 03:14 PM PT (US)

tjguitar Standard Userer	<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=1 face=arial>quote:</font><HR size=1>Originally posted by PeterK: More coming! In two weeks: Maurice Jarre http://www.moviemusic.com/soundtrack/filmmusicbymauricejarre Nino Rota http://www.moviemusic.com/soundtrack/filmmusicbyninorota <HR size=1></BLOCKQUOTE> Yeah...I posted this a while back, maybe not at this board, probably cause nobody's interested in the series. It'd be one thing if they recorded new tracks, but its the same old stuff from the "Essential" Sets. The only composer not represented already was Silvestri. btw the tracks dont seem to be listed here. Theyare : Tracklisting : 1. Lawrence of Arabia 2. Jesus of Nazareth 3. A passage of India 4. Mad max beyond thunderdome 5. Is Paris burning ? 6. Ghost 7. The man who would be king 8. Witness 9. Ryan's daughter 10. Doctor zhivago Tracklisting : 1 The Godfather Waltz � The Godfather 2 Overture � The Taming Of The Shrew 3 Legend Of The Glass Mountain � The Glass Mountain 4 Love Theme � Romeo And Juliet 5 Nile Journey � Death On The Nile 6 Giulietta Degli Spiriti � Juliet Of The Spirits 7 Suite � La Strada 8 Fellini Satyricon � Fellini Satyricon 9 Suite � La Dolce Vita 10 Il Casanova - Casanova 11 8 � - Otto E Mezo 12 Suite - Amarcord 13 Speak Softly Love � The Godfather [Message edited by tjguitar on 08-03-2007] [Message edited by tjguitar on 08-03-2007]
posted 08-03-2007 03:19 PM PT (US)

PeterK FishChip	It'd be another thing if they made these Masterworks really cheap... which is what they've done! It's for people who don't go for the "Essential" sets... which I guess everyone here does if "there's no interest" in these (I have to disagree there... the MM store sells a bunch of these Masterworks, some from people who post on these boards. GASP!!!)
posted 08-03-2007 03:23 PM PT (US)

tjguitar Standard Userer	quote: Originally posted by PeterK: It'd be another thing if they made these Masterworks really cheap... which is what they've done! It's for people who don't go for the "Essential" sets... which I guess everyone here does if "there's no interest" in these (I have to disagree there... the MM store sells a bunch of these Masterworks, some from people who post on these boards. GASP!!!) Since people seem to care about these (they don't post about htem!) I'll have to remember to add the next ones to this post when I see them--this batch was released in France a month before England. Crazy. I don't remember how I stumbled upon that info. I'm a bit surprised that you sell a lot of these. Especially when you figure someone can go to Amazon and do the 4-for-3 deal. As far as them being cheap, I guess that's true, but I've seen used copies of the "Essential" stuff for the same price as these go! TJ
posted 08-03-2007 03:28 PM PT (US)

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