Tom Guernsey

It's probably my favourite Dvorak work and favourite cello concerto.

In amongst the endless Andre Rieu concerts (sorry if you're a fan...), Sky Arts has a proper classical music documentary; a four part series focussing on the London Philharmonic Orchestra rehearsing and performing Mahler's 2nd Symphony, conducted by Edward "Ed" Gardner. Obviously, some of the information is pretty basic if you're a musician (which I am) or have a good knowledge of classical music (ditto), but the balance between that and decent insight into the music is well judged. Just seeing the orchestra rehearsing and how the conductor shapes both the small and large moments is fascinating. There's no annoying narrator or celebrity presenter to make it relevant, just the conductor and a few of the musicians talking about the music, their instruments, their role in the orchestra, as well as how they prepare for the performance etc. One bit of insight you get is that you can't help but notice that, while the musicians appear to live in smart, if modest, flats, Edward Gardner appears to live in a gorgeous house, all exposed brick, huge windows and a kitchen that has given me serious stove top envy. The life of being a conductor... https://www.sky.com/watch/title/series/9a8b80aa-47d8-3c4d-80e0-7b20e3788e62/backstage-with-the-london-philharmonic-orchestra-9a8b80aa-47d8-3c4d-80e0-7b20e3788e62/episodes/season-1/episode-1

In amongst the endless Andre Rieu concerts (sorry if you're a fan...), Sky Arts has a proper classical music documentary; a four part series focussing on the London Philharmonic Orchestra rehearsing and performing Mahler's 2nd Symphony, conducted by Edward "Ed" Gardner. Obviously, some of the information is pretty basic if you're a musician (which I am) or have a good knowledge of classical music (ditto), but the balance between that and decent insight into the music is well judged. Just seeing the orchestra rehearsing and how the conductor shapes both the small and large moments is fascinating. There's no annoying narrator or celebrity presenter to make it relevant, just the conductor and a few of the musicians talking about the music, their instruments, their role in the orchestra, as well as how they prepare for the performance etc. One bit of insight you get is that you can't help but notice that, while the musicians appear to live in smart, if modest, flats, Edward Gardner appears to live in a gorgeous house, all exposed brick, huge windows and a kitchen that has given me serious stove top envy. The life of being a conductor... https://www.sky.com/watch/title/series/9a8b80aa-47d8-3c4d-80e0-7b20e3788e62/backstage-with-the-london-philharmonic-orchestra-9a8b80aa-47d8-3c4d-80e0-7b20e3788e62/episodes/season-1/episode-1

Or based on this… which was genuinely hilarious at times (and had pretty music from what I recall). I mean they had a car called Subaru McClanahan…

It only shows the artist alongside the track if it’s different to the album artist. If the entire album is the same artist or album artist it only appears under the album name and artwork. See screen shot. Does that help?

Does anyone have any suggestions on reordering Quartet's release of La Califfa to something approximating film order? I assume the first 14 tracks replicate the OST programme with the finale oddly programmed halfway through as it appears at the end of the first side on the LP it seems. There's an earlier expanded release that puts the finale at the end, suggesting the music is more closely matched to the film. Of course if it's one of those Ennio scores where he wrote stuff in advance and the ordering isn't that crucial, I'll just enjoy it as it is, but figured I may as well ask...

Thank you. I clearly didn’t read carefully enough!

Well I didn't try downloading track by track as I got the downloader app to work fine and based on how quickly the files were downloading, it didn't really seem any slower than when it was ZIP files. I would also add that I often buy quite a few albums at a time to take advantage of a sale and if I tried to download them all at once, several of the downloads would fail so I usually download them in batches of 3 or 4 at a time. I kinda enjoyed the ritual and anticipation of doing it that way, but practically it's not ideal so I assume the download manager app will alleviate this issue. I have just looked and all of my downloaded files are already cleared (screenshot below) and I just get a prompt to refresh. Sounds like a glitch with your downloads, I'm sure I've had similar issues with other downloaders. Annoying though. I have bought stuff in Hi-Res if it was on sale but generally just go for CD quality. I guess the file size was an issue for downloading as a ZIP for them maybe? I still maintain you should keep feeding back as they are more responsive than most companies and I'm sure they wouldn't want to piss off their user base too much.

Anyone heard Peter Boyer's Rhapsody in Red, White and Blue? I got it the other day as Boyer's other stuff is great if you want more JW in Olympics mode (sometimes surprisingly close) and his new Rhapsody was written to celebrate/coincide with the 100th anniversary of Gershwin's original. For me it's one of those frustrating works that is enjoyable enough, but the level of invention pales compared to the original. Each different section of the Gershwin has a great tune, it's almost an embarrassment of riches. Now Boyer isn't a bad tunesmith at all, but it doesn't dazzle with invention and variety, and the jazzy element almost feels like afterthought and doesn't infuse almost the entire thing. I have frequently expressed my frustration at those who complain that followups to classics aren't as memorable (see Mary Poppins Returns) especially when there's been literally a century for a work to enter the public consciousness, but even by that benchmark, it still feels a touch underwhelming, notwithstanding that it's very enjoyable. Buying warning... it's been released as a single and don't believe it's being released as such ahead of a full album. If you buy the "full album" at Presto it's full album price, but you can buy it as an individual track for individual track price. Otherwise £8 for a 16 minute track is... ambitious.

Placed a spontaneous Presto order to take advantage of a few things on my wish list being on sale and have installed the downloader - looks like my last order a few days ago was near enough the last day for zip file downloads. First up, downloads don't seem to be any slower but then my broadband isn't super fast, but the 4 lossless albums didn't take more than 10 minutes (approx) to download. My main complaint is that against each album you ordered you have to click a link for download options, go to another screen and click on another link for the actual download. Then you have to click back to get to the other things on your order. That's obviously more of a website layout thing but it does seem quite clunky. One benefit of using an app would be to have a single "download all my orders" button which does everything for you in the background. I might suggest that since it would make having the app more worthwhile. I do like that it downloads each album into a separate folder (so you don't need to unzip them). Having said that, and notwithstanding that it doesn't take up much space on my computer, it's basically replicating what a browser does and becomes yet another downloader app (to add to Chandos, Qobuz and HD Tracks) in my Applications folder. I don't know if you had the option to choose before, but the download page now gives you the choice of download format; mp3, FLAC and Apple Lossless (ALAC). I usually download things in FLAC and convert to Apple Lossless. When downloading in Apple Lossless from Chandos, iTunes wouldn't convert those files to lower bitrate to go on my iPhone (I convert everything down to 256 kbps to save space on my phone) as I assume the files have some kind of DRM or whatever in them. Not an issue when you just convert tracks from FLAC using the converter and the sound is otherwise identical, so curious as to whether Apple Lossless tracks from Presto will have the same issues. If so, will just re-download into FLAC. All in all, not a terrible experience, but agree that these downloaders become quite annoying after a while, adding yet another layer onto buying digital music. It's a shame there isn't a generic downloader app that was used by a whole range of companies and you just logged in for all the different sites you used.

Yeah, Papillon had a number of releases (imagine that... a Jerry score with a number of releases, that'll never happen again...), but I think the last one is essentially definitive and in excellent sound. Such a gorgeous score again showing his extraordinary range - i.e. not just the action and sci-fi guy. I have to admit that TWATL isn't one I listen to that often, but it is undeniably excellent. Having joked about it, this is perhaps one of his classic older scores that could do with a re-release. The Intrada release from 2007 is fine enough but is (I assume) long out of print and would likely benefit from a new transfer and mastering using the latest technology. Funnily enough, I listened to The 13th Warrior recently and really enjoyed it. It's not quite as much fun as The Mummy and the main theme sounds a bit - stifles a technicolour yawn - like HZ (Crimson Tide as I recall), presumably a bit of temp track bleed, but some fine stuff there. I guess I can't comment as I've not seen it, but I would say that Star Trek V (as a film) aspires to be something more and Jerry scores that aspiration, whereas (sounds like) more of a straight up action movie. To that end (and notwithstanding that Damnation Alley is great), I'd say STV more closely fits my (slightly tongue in cheek) description of a score that's for the film the filmmakers had in their head rather than the one their budget and abilities achieved. Agreed that the synth orchestra mockup does indeed sound great! I'll have to root out the original cue to compare it. However, I'm pretty sure that Criminal Law usually gets voted as one of his most poorly regarded efforts. Sometimes a film is so shit even Jerry phoned it... I don't think I'd realised it was technically 10 cues by Fred Steiner, but putting it like that does rather overstate how much music he actually wrote/arranged/adapted. A couple of the early incidental cues are certainly not essential, but I hadn't really noticed his hand in the later ones. As I've said a few times, the programme from the 1999 release is perhaps my ideal presentation of this score as it just trims the handful of incidental cues and leaves all the best parts. I guess less interesting incidental cues amongst a great work and "additional music by" are the price we pay for the way film composers are required to write, but I don't think they detract sufficiently from the full work. I'm easily a fan of both aspects of the score. The Enterprise and Starfleet music appeals to the side of me who loves something rousing and upbeat while the V'Ger music appeals to my Bernard Herrmann loving side who revels in those darker timbres, the arpeggios and the unusual orchestration (notably the Blaster Beam, the inclusion of which was a stroke of genius). To some extent TMP is two different scores, but the thematic and harmonic connections link everything together so it never feels like that. I sort of agree (and don't get me wrong, I love STV, it was one of my first Jerry scores and The Mountain features my favourite ever performance of the TMP theme and the ensuing music is Jerry at his pastoral finest). However, I have a playlist that cuts out The Big Drop, which works in the film but is very much an incidental 28 seconds for a specific moment, and used the album edits of Without Help and An Angry God which are both examples of why the oft bemoaned micro edits can, in the right hands, turn a great cue, into an even better album track. Cutting out those looped bits and tightening the pacing makes them much more satisfying musically than they were originally written and performed, without missing anything substantive. Oh and STV has A Tall Ship which, at a modest 128 plays to date, is one of my all time favourite 1 minute and 45 seconds of Jerry. The closest he ever got to another take on The Enterprise in one of his later Trek scores. One of those cues which can perk me up any time.

Am I right in thinking that there is a re-recording of Lee Holdridge's score to Splash as well as a release of the original tracks? I've been looking at buying it but there seem to be two versions at BSX, but I can't work out if one is just an expanded version of the other. Original Tracks: https://buysoundtrax.myshopify.com/products/lee-holdridge-splash-original-soundtrack-recording Re-recording(?): https://buysoundtrax.myshopify.com/products/splash-music-from-the-motion-picture-by-lee-holdridge-1

Obvious answer, as so many have said, is ST:TMP. I don't know how someone who claimed to "not understand" Star Trek could have written a theme so absolutely perfect for it. It's not a heroic swashbuckling march like Star Wars, but one that still suggests adventure and heroism, but a different type of heroism. A friend of mine, on hearing The Enterprise cue, commented that he didn't like it as he didn't like it when themes were played slowly like that. He's under the patio now of course*. Maybe more films need to be poorly edited with long sections that need to propped up by music... of course there aren't really any composers who'd write something that sounds like Ravel on steroids (see also Secret of NIMH). If ST:TMP weren't an option, I'd have probably struggle to narrow it down to fewer than 10 favourites and probably none that are especially left field choices. Deep breath... Gremlins/Gremlins 2 (anything Joe Dante, all those scores are such fun and have a myriad of superb tunes - JW gets all the credit for great themes but even Jerry's middling scores have decent themes, his best ones have superb themes) Omen Trilogy (first and third being the standouts) Papillon (Jerry does Debussy and another example of his exemplary skill as a tunesmith, the main theme is as haunting as any committed to film) Star Trek V (the ultimate "scoring the film it should have been rather than what was on screen") Hoosiers/Rudy, Poltergeist/Alien (so many ways to score horror, all of which are tuneful and not just screeching and jump scare chords) Legend/NIMH (more Jerry does Ravel and Debussy) Patton (it's a bit too literal in the way he characterises the different sides to Patton, but it's still brilliant, plus echoplex... echoplex... echoplex... Mulan (WHERE IS THE EXPANDED VERSION YOU DISNEY BASTARDS? Sorry... need a lie down) The Mummy (we loved it even if you didn't Jerry) Night Crossing (inventing half of James Horner's 80s scoring tropes plus my only signed Jerry score as I've talked about before), Rambo trilogy (gotta love some farting synths, but the It's a Long Road theme is another underrated classic theme) Total Recall, Under Fire, The Wind and the Lion (how can you not love a title with the acronym TWATL?) Criminal Law of course*. Oh you wanted one? Sorry. *obviously a joke

Publicly... He's too sensible to actively shit on his predecessor. Plus it's DW, he can acknowledge it and maybe write round it but also effectively ignore the bits that make no sense or hamstring the character.

I think having her become Bond would be a mistake but she'd be great for some more lighthearted adventures as a companion to the main series. Especially if they continue with Bond as gritty and dour. In other news, ATJ seems to have "distanced himself" from the news of him being cast... although wouldn't be surprised if it's a red herring (what you might call the Steven Moffat Manoeuvre), but who knows?!

That’s a shame. Presto are my go to online store as their range and pricing are great. Maybe the app will get better but guess I’ll need to experience it for myself.

This must be very recent as I bought something from them only a few days ago and it was the usual download of zip files. Funnily enough I have the same complaint with Qobuz as the app doesn’t seem to work properly on my (admittedly old Mac) computer so I just download the files individually. I’ll be disappointed if Presto have introduced an annoying app as their downloads worked just fine. Chandos’ download app works but is also quite slow. If the Presto one is terrible, I suggest dropping them an email as they are surprisingly responsive. I know I will if I face the same issues. I assume there is some annoying technical reason why these sites use a download app but I much prefer to let my browser download them as zip files as, I assume, you do!

I thought Lashana Lynch was far more dynamic than Daniel Craig in the last film. A side series about her would be great. Plus it would piss off the anti-woke brigade. Double win. To be honest I’d probably prefer Bond to die, as a franchise I mean… it survived the end of the Cold War (those semi meta references in Goldeneye were clearly as much a comment on the films themselves as they were about Bond) but they aren’t really the fun, ridiculous action movies they used to be. It’s all too real even when being ridiculous. Nobody needs that.

Great recollections... sounds like we were at the same event when he talked about The Edge! And yes, the director (Lee Tamahori) was indeed there. Great to have gone with your mum too!

Oh yeah you’re right. Hopefully it’ll pick up soon. I realised I hadn’t contributed so have done so. Hope anyone else able to contribute can do even if it’s basically just ordering an advanced copy.

Nice selection. I did a nice 1 hour 10 compilation as I always feel once it starts getting to multiple hours, it starts getting close to just putting on John Powell > shuffle... (not meant as a criticism at all I would add, just a personal thing!). However, I did cheat a bit by putting the HTTYD scores into their own compilation and may do the same for the Ice Age scores too, although harder for them given that many tracks on album run into each other. One score neither of us included was I Am Sam, which I remember being the first time I really took notice of his music (surprising given that's a relatively uncharacteristic effort in terms of being an intimate drama score). It's a lovely, low key score that's quite a way from many of his other scores, but is well worth a listen. I'd have to give it another spin to determine what might be the most representative track/s for inclusion. On the subject of unclean endings (as it were) I actually used the join tracks feature to re-rip Horton which results in an 18 track album. The only downside is that the track lengths are somewhat uneven, as there's a significant number that are around a couple of minutes (which aren't connected to the surrounding tracks), but two of the combination tracks end up being over 9 minutes. I started looking at doing the same for X-Men: The Last Stand and the earlier Ice Age scores, but never got round to it. May have to revisit.

You beat me to it posting his review which I thought was superbly written. I was looking forward to this show and score having recently become acquainted with Maurice Jarre’s score for the 80s adaptation (which is great) and also having seen Sondheim’s Pacific Overtures which is a superb musical about Japanese isolationism in the 17th to 19th centuries and touches on colonialism etc (which is possibly the least likely subject for a musical I can think of). I shall give this new adaptation a watch but quite disappointed that the music may not be up to much. I trust James’s views and we usually agree on film music!

One is enough. ;-)

Alice in Wonderland by Richard Hartley (his brother JR wrote a book about fly fishing...). One of a run of Hallmark (and probably other network) TV movies in the late 90s with delightful orchestral scores by Richard Hartley and Richard Harvey (neatly next to each other in iTunes). Hartley's score to Alice is much more playful than the somewhat urgent sound of Elfman's score for the Burton version, perhaps closer in spirit to the John Barry score for the 70s version. However, where those two composers are pretty readily identifiable, Hartley's score is more of a mashup of 80s and 90s feature scores, notably bits of Hook and Casper, plus others I've almost certainly missed. Not the most original, but charming and tuneful all the same. The songs are silly but fun and entirely appropriate.

Yeah exactly. It's not a revelatory expansion by any means so certainly not crushed having missed out. I'm sure some people will hate me for saying this, but there are some older expansions I missed out on where the later ones were significantly better. Perhaps notably the FSM release of Patton (rather oddly coupled with Frank DeVol's Flight of the Phoenix). I was initially disappointed to miss out on one of Jerry's best and most famous scores, but FSM only released the original film tracks which don't sound as good as the album recording made at the time which FSM did not include. Intrada's release included both and sounded better. I still find the original soundtrack album the most satisfying presentation of this score, even if it contains 10 minutes less music than the full score.