Incanus

RIP a great conductor and larger than life personality.

Well I would certainly love expansions of all the JNH/Shyamalan collaborations.

RIP

Johan De Meij's The Lord of the Rings Symphony. Smacks of the "cashing in on the LotR" craze that flooded the market with all kinds of LotR and Tolkien merchandise (of often questionable quality) when the films came out. The music on the album itself is good but the packaging looks so cheap. Look too long and those beady little eyes will bore into your soul!

Both versions of the soundtrack cover were pretty awful.

Well there is the Evenstar theme which is featured both in TTT and RotK for their relationship. I think Enya was sort of a one scene thing (plus end credits) with no intention of using her theme for the remainder of the trilogy.

Well I found the Blue Max re-recorded by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra to be quite excellent so I have full confidence they will do a fine job with Lionheart if and when they re-record that score.

From the liner notes I got the notion that Townson had this programme planned already when he proposed the project to Williams so I guess they didn't want to change it once they got an OK from the Maestro.

Seconded! I was just thinking how The Blue Fairy theme would have probably been simply gorgeous in this trio form. Just having a first proper listen of the whole CD set and it is quite simply gorgeous and clearly a labour of love for all involved. A few curious arrangement choices aside (combining material for the A.I. piece and the odd opening of the Patriot track) I have no great complaints, only praise. As for the length of the album, I am so very happy we got these 82 and 84 minute discs full of new arrangements!

Great news! Looking forward to this! And as other have said, hope this bodes well for both Atlantis and Treasure Planet expansions.

The opening of The Patriot piece is a curious choice, having a 2-minute opening of the Fort Wilderness/Sins of the Past motif which is entirely divorced from the following standard concert suite rendition of the main themes. Surely there would have been a more fluid way to connect the two. The performance is wonderful but the opening part feels very separate, almost as if included for the sake of completeness. The revised version of Han Solo and the Princess is simply one of the best revisions John Williams has done. While it loses some of its purely romantic edge, the sort of bittersweet quality Williams injects into the arrangement makes it even more beautiful in my opinion. And it works just as well in this trio form as it does with a full orchestra.

There is of course the Williams conducted version of the American Journey that is available on the Call of the Champions album, which I do own, but as far as I know, there isn't any full orchestra version of the certain revised versions of these pieces (e.g. Williams revised the ending of the Civil Rights and the Women's Movement) available on any other recording.

As brass players would say: It's a hoot!. Also contains selections from Williams' An Unfinished Journey, which was the main draw of the album.