The Vogtland Philharmonic, conducted by the music director Stefan Fraas, present their second album with next highlights from famous Hollywood film scores from the recent years, as well as popular classics of the genre film music. Appropriate for Hollywood film music it is presented in spectacular surround sound.
The Film Music Of Alan Rawsthorne / Gamba, BBC Philharmonic
Chandos
CD
$21.99Mar 01, 2000
Alan Rawsthorne's music was the soundtrack to adventure. Between 1937 and 1964, he scored 27 films, most with a military or adventurer's theme. Bold brass and soaring strings characterize his vivid musical illustrations of conflict and courage. His music has a larger than life quality, fitting perfectly with the big screen. The regal style originates from a time when movies were still magic and audiences regarded performances as major events. Rawsthorne captures the essence of drama on the epic scale required by the stories. Recorded in 1999 by Rumon Gamba and the BBC Philharmonic, this album improves upon the original soundtracks with superior sound quality.
The one thing all but one of the works on this recording have in common is that they were used in a motion picture, though only six of the eleven songs were written for a specific movie. They cover a fairly long period of cinematic history with Charlie Chaplin's timeless classic, "Smile" being heard in the earliest and latest films on the list: Modern Times (1936) and Joker (2019). It is interesting to note that the album's leader and drummer, Richard Baratta, was an executive producer on Joker. With this Hollywood connection, Baratta's life has been somewhat cinema-centric, but he actually started out as a jazz drummer, working with Butch Morris, Billy Bang, Hal Galper and others. Today Baratta has returned to his jazz roots and his colorful, propulsive drumming is a real highlight of this recording, a follow up to his 2020 release, Music in Film: The Reel Deal. You won't find any lengthy, indulgent solos here but you will smile approvingly at his keenly executed flourishes and mini-breaks. Back in the studio with Baratta is Grammy-nominated arranger and pianist, Bill O'Connell, his years of Latin jazz experience influencing a number of tracks. Alto saxophonist Vincent Herring also returns providing an athletic lead on many selections and some coruscant solo work. With guitarist Paul Bollenback and bassist Michael Goetz rounding out the rhythm section and Paul Rossman providing some additional percussion colors, Richard Baratta takes you on another imaginative, jazz-filled trip to the movies. But you'll have to supply your own popcorn.
Etta James kindles a roaring fire of pure heart and soul in her 1968 album, Tell Mama. For her seventh studio album (and second for the Cadet imprint,) James agreed to record with Rick Hall at the storied FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. The distraction-free environment paired with the improved technology at the studio resulted in one of the greatest albums of the 1960s. The clarity on the record is remarkable, showcasing the emotion and passion she invokes with her unforgettable voice. Tracks like "Tell Mama," "Just A Little Bit," and one of the most successful tracks of her career, a cover of "I'd Rather Go Blind," paint a powerful portrait of the legendary Etta James. Chess Records Acoustic Sounds Series feature audiophile reissues of classic albums remastered from the original analog tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at QRP. Each disc is packaged in tip-on gatefold sleeves printed on high-grade board.
Many great singers passed through the hands of late great soul/R&B producer Jerry Wexler, from Aretha Franklin to Dusty Springfield, but Etta James was a singer he willingly waited 20 long years to work with. "Etta is a church in herself," he said in his autobiography, adding: "Her voice is a mighty influence, her musical personality able to express an extraordinary range of moods." He further described her as "A woman used but not spent, abused but never defeated, vulnerable but though sheer strength of will, victorious." Her legend lives on in her music. Press play and share her many emotions... 3LP Gatefold white vinyl
Limited 180gm colored vinyl LP pressing including six bonus tracks. "The question of whether Etta James became a pop singer, a jazz singer, or a blues singer needn't detain you long. She was all of those, as At Last bears out, and more besides. James touched on gospel, doo-wop and rhythm 'n' blues with equal facility. "Dance With Me, Henry" was a hit, but renamed "The Wallflower" and covered by Georgia Gibbs. Because James had a composition credit, it made her some money, but she didn't like to be bested. She made sure that the next time it would be her name on the label. " Penguin Guide to Jazz "At Last!, her debut LP, made for the celebrated Chicago label Chess, certainly is one of her most memorable. It's impossible to not be moved by the power of her voice, beginning with the opening notes of "Anything to Say You're Mine". Every phrase, every word is attacked with an energy that commands respect. But beware, this young woman (she was only 22 at the time) could also take on the sweetest forms of a melancholy ballad, such as "Stormy Weather", and manage to achieve tenderness. At Last! Is one of the key soul music albums of the early 1960's." Jazz Magazine ETTA JAMES, lead vocals; The Riley Hampton Orchestra. Arranged and conducted by Riley Hampton. Recorded in Chicago, Illinois, 1960 and 1961. Original sessions produced by Phil and Leonard Chess.
BUXTEHUDE Membra Jesu Nostri • Harry Christophers, dir; The Sixteen • CORO COR 16082 (61:23 Text and Translation)
After a thorough look at the extensive representation of this work on disc (Fanfare 31:5), we get a reissue of an earlier version first reviewed by colleague Michael Carter (25:5), who described as “a smattering of recordings” a Buxtehude discography that has embraced more than 80 of the 120 cantatas stretching back to 1937, a count that is now up to 90, with more than a dozen versions of some of the more familiar works. This version’s performing forces were almost exactly replicated by Alexander Weimann in that recent disc, with five solo singers, nine string players, and organ (Weimann had eight Baroque string instruments). While Weimann delivered one of the two fastest performances in my collection, Harry Christophers hits the median timing, never a bad thing in ranking any competitive series. The recent solo-voice performances include René Jacobs (both versions), Konrad Junghänel, and Jos van Veldhoven in addition to these two, so that will narrow the field for purists. Otherwise, there are some fine performances among the more recent versions cited in the previous review. If I had to limit my choice to a single version, however, it would be Harry Christophers and his sterling group of soloists.
In this musical, the team of Andrew Lloyd Webber (music) and Tim Rice (lyrics) turns the Biblical story of the founding of Christianity into a human tale that has continued to delight and inspire listeners since it's premiere in 1970. Starring Ian Gillian (Deep Purple) as Jesus, this release features the original London cast and includes the Libertto. This title is one of MCA's conversions of Classic Ultimate Master Disc to frontline pricing and is now available in a trim line double CD package.
Vinyl LP pressing. Contradictory accounts of Miles Davis' creation of the soundtrack to Louis Malle's film noir Ascenseur pour l'Echafaud have all become part of it's legend. Rarely has a soundtrack been so decisive. Nearly 70 years on, beyond the myth, this taut, feverish recording, imbued with extreme dramatic tension, remains one of the Miles' finest records. This beautiful re-issue of the original recording is pressed on 180g vinyl at GZ, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket with Boris Vian's original liner notes and Jean-Pierre Leloir's iconic studio photo of Miles and Jeanne Moreau, and an essay on the circumstances that led to this out-of-the ordinary music by Franck Bergerot.
Unavailable in the U.S.! Miles Davis' moody, evocative music for the Louis Malle movie (translation: The Lift to the Scaffold) comes in two different forms on this reissue. There is a chronological sketch pad of tracks which didn't appear in the original release, or appeared in altered form, and tracks 16-26, which comprise the body of the original release, complete with the odd dollop of post-production echo to italicize the film's dramatic content. Recorded on December 4-5, 1957, the music for the film has an elegant, romantic air to it. In the company of such French jazzmen as Pierre Michelot and tenor saxophonist Barney Wilen, this soundtrack is something of a throwback to the feel of Miles' early '50s Blue Note recordings with drummer Kenny Clarke. Rarely has Miles' open tone been more poignant, and that bittersweet quality probably owes something to Miles' ongoing affair with the film's leading lady, Jeanne Moreau.
Integrale John Barry - Rock n’Roll, Jazz & Musiques de Films
Frémeaux
CD
$32.99Jan 23, 2026
John Barry est l'un des plus grands compositeurs de musique de film du XXe siecle. Olivier Julien, dans une anthologie 3 CD retrace le fil de la jeune carriere d'un orchestrateur de genie. en effet, avant de composer les bandes originales legendaires de James Bond et d'être maintes fois recompense aux Oscars, John Barry posait dejà les fondations d'un style qui allait non seulement revolutionner la musique de film, mais aussi marquer de son empreinte un rock britannique qui allait conquerir le monde. Patrick FReMEAUX John Barry is one of the greatest film composers of the 20th century. In a 3-CD anthology, Olivier Julien traces the early career of a masterful orchestrator. Indeed, even before composing the legendary James Bond soundtracks and receiving numerous Oscar awards, John Barry was already laying the foundations of a style that would not only revolutionize film music but also leave it's mark on British rock, which would go on to conquer the world. Patrick FReMEAUX CD1 : JOHN BARRY AND THE SEVEN : LET'S HAVE A WONDERFUL TIME - ROCK-A-BILLY BOOGIE - ZIP ZIP - THREE LITTLE FISHES. THE JOHN BARRY SEVEN : EVERY WHICH WAY - YOU'VE GOTTA WAY - BIG GUITAR - RODEO - PANCHO [THE JOHN BARRY SEVEN WITH LATIN-AMERICAN RHYTHM ACCOMPANIMENT] - HIDEAWAY [THE JOHN BARRY SEVEN WITH LATIN-AMERICAN RHYTHM ACCOMPANIMENT] - FARRAGO - BEE'S KNEES - WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN - LONG JOHN - SNAP 'N' WHISTLE - LITTLE JOHN - FOR PETE'S SAKE - LITTLE JOHN (LIVE) - REBEL ROUSER - GOOD ROCKIN' TONIGHT (LIVE) [THE JOHN BARRY SEVEN AND BOB MILLER AND THE MILLER MEN] - MAB MAB - TWELFTH STREET RAG - CHRISTELLA. JOHN BARRY AND HIS ORCHESTRA : MOOD ONE - MOOD TWO - MOOD THREE - MOOD FOUR - SMOKY BLUES. CD2 : THE JOHN BARRY SEVEN PLUS FOUR : HIT AND MISS - ROCKIN' ALREADY. JOHN BARRY AND HIS ORCHESTRA : BEAT FOR BEATNIKS - BIG FELLA - BLUEBERRY HILL - NEVER LET GO. THE JOHN BARRY SEVEN : WALK DON't RUN - I'm MOVING' ON [THE JOHN BARRY SEVEN PLUS FOUR] - BLACK STOCKINGS - GET LOST JACK FROST - SATURDAY'S CHILD - MAGNIFICENT SEVEN - SKID ROW. JOHN BARRY - BEAT GIRL : MAIN TITLE - BEAT GIRL - THE OFF BEAT - I DID WHAT YOU TOLD ME (CHANTe PAR ADAM FAITH) - LINDON HOME ROCK - TIME OUT - THE SHARKS - THE BEAT GIRL SONG (CHANTe PAR ADAM FAITH) - THE CITY 2000 A.D. - THE STRIPPER - THE CAVE - BEAT GIRL - KIDS STUFF - MADE YOU (CHANTe PAR ADAM FAITH) - CAR CHASE - NIGHT CHASE - CHICKEN - BLUES FOR BEATNICKS - IT'S LEGAL (CHANTe PAR SHIRLEY ANNE FIELD) - THE IMMEDIATE PLEASURE - BLONDIE'S STRIP - END SHOT - SLAUGHTER IN SOHO / MAIN TITLE - BEAT GIRL. CD3 : JOHN BARRY AND HIS ORCHESTRA : THE MENACE - RODEO. THE JOHN BARRY SEVEN : STARFIRE - A MATTER OF WHO [THE JOHN BARRY SEVEN PLUS FOUR]. MICHAEL ANGELO AND HIS ORCHESTRA : ROCCO'S THEME - SPINNEREE. THE JOHN BARRY SEVEN : WATCH YOUR STEP - TWIST IT. JOHN BARRY - STRINGBEAT : IT DOESN't MATTER ANYMORE - SWEET TALK - MOODY RIVER - THERE'S LIFE IN THE OLD BOY YET - A HANDFUL OF SONGS - LIKE WALTZ - RODEO - DONNA'S THEME - STARFIRE - BAUBLES BANGLES & BEADS (FROM KISMET) - ZAPATA - RUM-DEE-DUM-DEE-DAH - SPANISH HARLEM - MAN FROM MADRID - THE CHALLENGE. MICHAEL ANGELO AND HIS ORCHESTRA : TEARS - THEME FROM "THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS STONE". THE JOHN BARRY SEVEN AND ORCHESTRA : CUTTY SARK - LOST PATROL - THE JAMES BOND THEME - THE BLACKSMITH BLUES - THE LOLLY THEME - MARCH OF THE MANDARINS. DIRECTION ARTISTIQUE : OLIVIER JULIEN
3 CD/3 DVD. THE PROMISE: THE DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN STORY comprises over six hours of film and more than two hours of audio across 3 CDs and 3 DVDS. The music and film are packaged within an 80-page spiral-bound notebook containing facsimiles from Springsteen's own notebooks from the original recording session, which include alternate lyrics, song ideas, recordings details, and personal notes in addition to a new essay by Springsteen and never-before-seen photographs. Containing a wealth of previously unreleased material, THE PROMISE: THE DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN STORY offers an unprecedented look into Springsteen's creative process during a defining moment in his career.
Also featuring the BBC National Chorus of Wales is several selections.
Brian Easdale was a prolific composer whose extensive output covered most genres, from orchestral pieces, concertos, and choral works, including a mass for the new Coventry Cathedral, to chamber compositions. However Easdale is today most well-known for his film scores, particularly The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus
Part of Chandos’ film music series with Rumon Gamba, the works on this release showcase Easdale’s career in film with music from, among others, The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, and The Battle of the River Plate.
In his youth, Easdale attended the Royal College of Music, where he studied composition with such prominent figures as Cecil Armstrong Gibbs and Gordon Jacob, conducting with Malcolm Sargent, and organ with Arnold Goldsborough. As a jobbing musician he undertook arranging projects, working most notably on such scores by Benjamin Britten as the Soirées musicales and the Piano Concerto. He also orchestrated Britten’s On the Frontier for a production at the Arts Theatre in Cambridge in 1939, before spending much of the war in Ceylon and India working on documentaries for their governments’ film units. Returning to Britain in 1946, he was invited by the masterful film making team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, also known as The Archers, to write an exotic dance for Jean Simmons to perform in their forthcoming film, Black Narcissus, and ended up composing the whole score. The film is a veritable masterpiece of melodrama with highly dramatic music to match.
The involvement of Easdale in Black Narcissus effectively launched his career in film music and led him to other projects, most notably The Red Shoes (1948) for which he won an Academy Award for Best Original Music Score. This is one of the most iconoclastic films in the Pantheon of British Cinema. Given a highly atmospheric score, the film concerns a traveling ballet company and tells the story of a young hopeful ballerina, catapulted into stardom and wrestling with her love for a composer and the pull of her career. In the end it becomes too much of a fight and while on tour with the company in Monte Carlo, she leaps to her death.
The Battle of the River Plate (1956) is also worth a separate mention. A semi-documentary account of the trapping of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee in Montevideo harbour, and her subsequent scuttling, the film was commercially very successful. The two movements recorded here are the Prelude (heard over the main titles and opening scene with narration) and a March, the concert version of which was created by Easdale after the film’s release.
Romantic music for the screen - smooth and touching.
3453190.az_GUNNING_Poirot_Variants_1.html
GUNNING Poirot Variants.1 La Móme Piaf.2 Under Suspicion. Cold Lazarus. Rosemary and Thyme Caprice.3 Rebecca.4 Pollyanna. Firelight. When the Whales Came.5 The Hollow. 5 Little Pigs.6 Lighthouse Hill • Rumon Gamba, cond; BBC Phil; 1Martin Robertson(sax); 2,5Nicole Tibbels (sop); 2Matthew Compton (acc); 3Craig Ogden (gtr); 4Julia Bradshaw (vc); 6Yuri Torchinsky (vn) • CHANDOS 10625 (75:50)
Some 20 years ago a friend alerted me to a limited-edition recording of the score for a British television documentary, Yorkshire Glory. This gloriously lyrical music in a richly pastoral vein was my introduction to the work of Christopher Gunning (b.1944), a composer who is reinvigorating the timeless tradition of Vaughan Williams, Holst, Finzi, et al. However, this pupil of Richard Rodney Bennett as well as Edmund Rubbra can, when appropriate, also demonstrate an acute awareness of postwar developments in English music, as this generous and varied compendium of his film and television music over the past two decades makes clear.
This collection marks the first time in Chandos’s indispensable movie-music series when a living composer has directly participated in the presentation of his scores. Gunning has prepared special versions for this particular project in the form of small-scaled but through-composed tone poems, not the customary sequence of disconnected excerpts. So the listener can experience this disc as a kind of multimovement suite of diverse moods, because of the high consistency and individuality of the writing.
Although only a few of the films and television series will be familiar to American audiences, two of the well-known highlights open the program. The Poirot Variants for saxophone and orchestra—a totally independent work from the composer who gave us the lovely Thames Rhapsody for the same combination (available on a Dutton Epoch disc of several years ago)—is based on the well-known wily and insinuating theme that introduced the popular BBC series starring David Suchet. The following piece, for accordion and orchestra, is derived from music for the acclaimed film biography of French legendary singer Edith Piaf, La Vie en Rose. The alternation of film and television scores continues with the 1990s thriller Under Suspicion starring Liam Neeson, and the great television dramatist Dennis Potter’s final effort, Cold Lazarus. Both of these illustrate Gunning’s darker and more melodramatic side.
Then follow a number of lesser-known television productions: a sprightly, folk-inflected caprice for the series Rosemary and Thyme; yet another adaptation of the romantic perennial Rebecca (a haunting prelude for cello and orchestra); the family-styled Pollyanna (full of the usual good tunes); two individual Poirot episodes—The Hollow and Five Little Pigs—and finally an obscure British film (never issued here), Lighthouse Hill.
The most impressive compilations here are drawn from two somewhat better-known films, the romantic dramas Firelight of 1997 and When the Whales Came, the earliest score included, from 1989, where Gunning’s use of an eerie soprano vocalise recalls Vaughan Williams’s Scott of the Antarctic music. Both of these emphasize Gunning’s exceptionally scenic imagination and his natural gift for the telling and memorable theme garbed in a lustrous orchestration.
As always in this series, conductor Rumon Gamba, the BBC Philharmonic, and the Chandos recording staff offer this endlessly appealing music in the best possible light. Anyone who loves the traditional school of English music will not be disappointed.
FANFARE: Paul A. Snook
The case of Christopher Gunning has been well and truly taken up by Chandos. Last year we had two of his six symphonies and the oboe concerto (review). Now the genre that brought him to wide attention is tackled.
It's mostly suave music for television. We start with the Poirot Variants for sax and orchestra. This is a combination he has tackled before in On Hungerford Bridge on ASV (review). A smooth fantasy touches on train rhythms, Buenos Aires dance-halls and a worldly romantic lassitude. Martin Robertson's saxophone presents the music without rough edges, subtle and undulating: not a trace of rasp. La Môme Piaf - 2007 film – quite rightly fears no cliché in deploying the accordion. It's all very romantic. Under Suspicion leaves such smoothness behind in a gruff nightmare-image speaking of the ruptured emotional landscapes of late Malcolm Arnold … though tenderness does arrive. The Cold Lazarus (1996) music is at first ascetic and doom-laden with whip-like dactyls reaching out. From this Fahrenheit 451 chill arises the most glorious romantic theme - almost Born Free or Howard Hanson Second Symphony. The Rosemary and Thyme Caprice has the closely recorded Craig Ogden confiding Scarborough Fair to the listener in an English countryside evocation. Rebecca showcases the cellist Julia Bradshaw in another dark-clouded piece completely in keeping with the brooding and intensely romantic spirit of the Daphne du Maurier book. It's well worth hearing. Innocent folk voices abound in Pollyana which is heavily freighted with charm. Woodwind solos and piano are prominent. Firelight - 1997 film - is among his most popular scores yet is quite low key and contained. This is not a grand statement and the music is heavily characterised by Yuri Torchinsky's tremblingly vulnerable violin. When the Whales Came - 1989 film - is quite naturally threaded through with the spirit of the sea. There are added elements such as a slowed whale-song recording (like Hovhaness and George Crumb, in that sense only) and a vocalising soprano. The Hollow and Five Little Pigs are from Poirot episodes. The first is very romantic and memorable. The second is sly and ambivalent in mood as voiced by the solo violin. Lighthouse Hill - film, 2004 - is again hyper-romantic and rounded in its progress. I was rather sad that there was nothing here from Geoffrey Household's Rogue Male or from Porterhouse Blue or from Middlemarch.
A wide soundstage complements a lavish audio image each of which articulates the often simple textures yet meets with a fierce embrace the grander statements.
Movies - Rota: La Strada, Sinfonia, Waltzes, Etc / Conti
Chandos
CD
$21.99Jun 01, 2003
Nino Rota achieve international recognition primarily as a composer of film music. His most admired and enduring work in this field sprang from his collaboration with Federico Fellini. However, his orchestral music has recently undergone a reappraisal. Much of this music is rare on CD and this programme is unique. Recorded in: Teatro Massimo, Palermo, Italy 19-21 July 2002 Producer(s) Gian Andrea Lodovici Sound Engineer(s) Matteo Costa
2018 release. World renowned Tony nominee, New York Cabaret Award "Best Jazz Vocalist" winner and Theater World Award winner Ann Hampton Callaway delivers a must have album. "Jazz Goes To The Movies is a spectacular collection of all-time great movie songs lovingly performed by Ann and her ensemble led by Ted Rosenthal, winner of the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition." Jazz Goes To The Movies" conjures stirring images from the golden age of Hollywood. Highlights include the iconic "As Time Goes By" from Casablanca, Irving Berlin's immortal "Blue Skies" from The Jazz Singer, Jerome Kern's "The Way You Look Tonight" from Swing Time and many more movie classics!
