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CITIZEN KANE - The Classic Film Scores of Bernard Herrmann SPELLBOUND - The Classic Film Scores of MIKLÓS RÓZSA ELIZABETH AND ESSEX - The Classic Film Scores of ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD NOW VOYAGER - The Classic Film Scores of MAX STEINER SUNSET BOULEVARD - The Classic Film Scores of FRANZ WAXMAN CLASSIC FILM SCORES FOR BETTE DAVIS CLASSIC FILM SCORES - Music of DAVID RAKSIN As promised by RCA last October when they released six titles in the Classic Film Scores series (REVIEW), we now have the remainder of the series, as listed above. For the history of this series and complete listings of contents, check the feature on this site CLASSIC FILM SCORES. As with those previously issued, these have been magnificently remastered and sound better than ever. I might single out the uncommon vividness of the unusual percussion in Herrmann's White Witch Doctor, and stunning sound of 9 harps in Beneath the 12-Mile Reef. And don't miss the Franz Waxman CD which ends with a hair-raising Ride to Dubno from Taras Bulba. If you owned previously issued versions of these famous recordings, you owe it to yourself to hear what you were missing. The "odd-man-out" here is the CD of music of David Raksin. This was issued at the same time as the Classic Film Scores series but it is not conducted by Gerhardt, and the orchestra is the New Philharmonia instead of the National Philharmonic. Gerhardt's only participation was as producer, which is a guarantee of the highest qualty audio.. Welcome though these reissues are, let us hope they are not the end of the story. There are other superlative Gerhardt recordings of film music on RCA that were not part of the Classic Film Scores Series, namely a coupling of a suites from Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Return of the Jedi, and The Spectacular World of Classic Film Scores. The latter for the most part contains highlights from the entire series, but it also includes a suite from Tiomkin's score for The Thing, and Salome's Dance of the Seven Veils by Amfitheatrof, neither of which are available elsewhere. Let us hope! R.E.B. ( February 2011) |