crocodile

Hostage by Alexandre Desplat. Believe it or not, this might be my favourite score from the composer. Or at least very close. It's darkly elegant and interesting even at its most suspenseful spots. Always engaging and beautifully played by the LSO. Not the kind of thing you'd hear in mid-2000s thriller movie. Classy.
 
 
 
Karol

Seen it the second time earlier this week and it worked just as well. Definitely among the strongest entries in the series. They're just so endlessly watchable even if you know what's coming.
 
Karol

Seen it the second time earlier this week and it worked just as well. Definitely among the strongest entries in the series. They're just so endlessly watchable even if you know what's coming.
 
Karol

I can enjoy either, depending on time, mood and preference etc. Sometimes, I get swept away by the grand architecture of the thing and want to hear it unfold in all its glory, sometimes I want a concise overview, sometimes I just want single highlights. Some of the scores work brilliantly while expanded, others don't work at all. Yes, the creation of an album is an art in itself that has often nothing to do with the complete work, similarly to concert composers creating variations on their work. I myself have all sorts of playlist configurations of individual titles. Yet, it is also important to see the entire thing to appreciate the nuance and inherent information contained within the structure. All of it can be relevant.
 
Karol

I can enjoy either, depending on time, mood and preference etc. Sometimes, I get swept away by the grand architecture of the thing and want to hear it unfold in all its glory, sometimes I want a concise overview, sometimes I just want single highlights. Some of the scores work brilliantly while expanded, others don't work at all. Yes, the creation of an album is an art in itself that has often nothing to do with the complete work, similarly to concert composers creating variations on their work. I myself have all sorts of playlist configurations of individual titles. Yet, it is also important to see the entire thing to appreciate the nuance and inherent information contained within the structure. All of it can be relevant.
 
Karol

I can enjoy either, depending on time, mood and preference etc. Sometimes, I get swept away by the grand architecture of the thing and want to hear it unfold in all its glory, sometimes I want a concise overview, sometimes I just want single highlights. Some of the scores work brilliantly while expanded, others don't work at all. Yes, the creation of an album is an art in itself that has often nothing to do with the complete work, similarly to concert composers creating variations on their work. I myself have all sorts of playlist configurations of individual titles. Yet, it is also important to see the entire thing to appreciate the nuance and inherent information contained within the structure. All of it can be relevant.
 
Karol

Interesting. Just sampled some of her stuff on Spotify. It does sound quite good.
 
Karol 

Four album, that I really enjoy from beginning to end.
 
 

When  recently Vol. 2 of Ruth Gipps orchestral work produced by Rumon Gamba came out, I started digging a little deeper into her work and particularly got a crush on her chamber work, which reminds me a lot of Ravel and Debussy in many ways. She started her career as a pianist, and later oboist. In a way she was lucky as a female composer as she started her career at 16 during the war and most of the male composers were in the field and she got a mentor in George Weldon. She took composition lessons at Gordon Jacob and Ralph Vaughan Williams, what you really hear in her orchestral work. But I might even prefer her style over Vaughan Williams' in her dynamic (many3/4, 5/5, 7/8 strokes), her reserved use of percussion and the beautiful little essemble parts in her orchestra pieces with duets, trios of solo instruments.
After the war, when female composers were no longer wanted by the male dominated orchestras she founded her own ones to present her work.
Her work is mostly tonal. During her time as composition professor at multiple colleges she expressed her dislike of the atonal avant garde.
She wrote just one piano concerto, but that micht even become a favourite of mine.  
 
A goody here is the piano concerto and the piano orchestra variations of Dorah Bright, who sounds much more classical. What I like about her music, that she writes clear recognizable humable melodies and embedes that pleasant piano music beautifully onto the orchestra's lap.
 
For the Rombi score I can just refer to the thread I reated last week:
 

@Tallguy it’s finally out!!
 

(From front right to left, that's director Robert Wise — holding hands with his wife Millicent, Director's Edition producer David C. Fein, and Mike Matessino himself.)
 
And, since we waited until March 2023 to put it out, we are able to offer it relatively uncut:
https://goldsmithodyssey.buzzsprout.com/159614/12350625-mike-matessino-on-robert-wise-and-the-director-s-edition-of-star-trek-the-motion-picture
 
Here's a cool group photo Mike gave us permission to share from the Hollywood Bowl performance which premiered some excerpts of the Director's Edition (listen to the podcast episode to hear more about that):

From left to right this time, that's composer Jerry Goldsmith, Associate Producer Jon Povill, Millicent Wise in the foreground, Michele Ameen Billy Povill (Epsilon 9 technician in the film, and secretary to Harold Livingston) behind her, Mike Matessino, Robert Wise, David Fein, and Daren Dochterman (who joined Mike and David as one of the prime movers behind both versions of the TMP Director's Edition).
 
And here's another nice photo courtesy of Mike from the same 2001 concert, with just Robert Wise and Jerry Goldsmith together:

 
Hope you enjoy our in-depth chat with Mike Matessino. Let me know any thoughts/reactions you have to it!
 
Yavar

Didn't win.
 
Karol

About the same?
 
Karol

Having a Jerry Goldsmith Sunday
 

Watched it too and it was really good.
 
Jordan's as a director is really good, he handle the fight scenes really well even though I even prefered his more emotional scenes. Two things bothered me a little bit though: I found there was a bit too much slow-motion in the fight and sometime I found he cut the scene a bit too soon (for instance the first shot of the movie is beautiful and should have last a couple seconds more)
 
The cast is wonderful. After Major's performance in the MCU, I was really looking forward this one and he was again a real standout. The rest of the cast is really good too. The absence of Stallone was a bit weird as they never mentioned why is not there, but overall you don't miss him that much.
 
About the music, I found that some part were better but I kind of regret the large absence of Göransson's theme.
 
It's overall superior to Creed II but slightly inferior to the first Creed

Yeah, I liked the fact that this was Michal B. Jordan's movie from start to finish, but he doesn't do it in a showy way, but letting his character interact with the rest, letting an actor like Jonathan Majors to play such a big role, which is definitely one of the big stand outs of the movie.
 
And his directing is quite astonishing for it being a directorial debut. He has a tight sense of rhythm and pacing during the boxing and training sequences, and that fight in the void between Creed and Dame was cool as hell, adn i really resembled an anime as he mentioned in an interview about the movie.
 
Having watched the three movies in a row, I really like how his relationship with Tessa Thompson's Bianca has been developed, making it the emotional core of this saga, and it shows because in the three films, when he is down on the floor, is Bianca that tells him "Get up, D", right before he rises up again and fights back. Their chemistry is so great and to have this direct, emotional connection between these characters even during the most violent and loud boxing fights is definitely one of the highlights of the saga for me! I hope their relationship, and the relationship between them and Amara is explored more in future entries, because it's one of my favorite parts.
 
And Stallone's absence really wasn't noticeable during most part of the movie, which speaks of how well crafted the new characters are. I just wish they gave away a line explaining where is he or something like that, but the end of Creed II already served as a great sendoff to the character, so I wouldn't be bothered if he doesn't show up no more.

Arrived yesterday. It is the new re-release from Silva Screen this week:
 

 
Karol

Amistad. One of the best expansions in recent years, no doubt about that. It boosted the score from good to great in my book. It's not something I will listen to too often necessarily but I will cherish it whenever I do.
 
As for my appetite for more Williams expansions...
 

 
Karol

Arrived yesterday. It is the new re-release from Silva Screen this week:
 

 
Karol

Amistad. One of the best expansions in recent years, no doubt about that. It boosted the score from good to great in my book. It's not something I will listen to too often necessarily but I will cherish it whenever I do.
 
As for my appetite for more Williams expansions...
 

 
Karol

Picked up some used CDs from a shop in London.
 

 
Karol

Half an hour to go. The venue looks very much like a proper setting.
 

 
Karol

Arrived yesterday. It is the new re-release from Silva Screen this week:
 

 
Karol

So far my favourite track from this year by far:
 
 
By the way, I wish the album featured the actual opening cue from the film. 
 
Karol

Amistad. One of the best expansions in recent years, no doubt about that. It boosted the score from good to great in my book. It's not something I will listen to too often necessarily but I will cherish it whenever I do.
 
As for my appetite for more Williams expansions...
 

 
Karol

Arrived yesterday. It is the new re-release from Silva Screen this week:
 

 
Karol