Tom Guernsey

I didn’t know this one had leaked!

The Last Castle might not be top drawer Jerry, but it's still great stuff, the climactic Battle for the Castle is terrific.

I'ma little older but they were definitely a part of my now abiding love of the music of John Powell, cemented with the HTTYD movies... but sad not to have another fine animation studio. I am sure they would strenuously deny it, but I'd put this in the box marked "we were going to close it anyway but Covid as a cover makes us seem less like bastards for doing so."

Re Sleeping with the Enemy. Actually I have it on now and am enjoying it a fair bit. The rather fetching main theme strikes me as quite John Barry-esque at times, although more tentative and less swooning than Barry. I'd have been tempted to say that Body Heat was a temp, but it's much more fetching and less sultry than Body Heat.

The LLL edition is definitely the last word in ST:TMP, as exciting as when the 20th anniversary edition came out at the end of the 90s. I actually really like the programme used for the 20th anniversary edition, it's like a perfect length symphonic tone poem version of the score that tells the story just a little more concisely than the full thing (which is not to say I would be without the complete score and all the extras and alternates!).

Yeah! If he thought that highly of it, and given how demanding Verhoven was, I feel like I should pay it more attention. Maybe I need to watch the film again. Good choices for personal favourites; I'd also go directly to Star Trek: TMP as my favourite, but I could easily justify a number of others.

Good choices! Also having a Jerry day to remember the great man... Basic Instinct - I have never loved this one as I feel I should given its stature and Jerry's own high regard for it. A great score, but it doesn't stand out in the same way as many of his other most highly regarded efforts. The Last Castle - Definitely have a new found appreciation for this one since the expanded album came out. I think was broadly considered a relatively middle of the road effort when it was released. Looney Tunes: Back in Action - Still loving this one, such a fun score which manages to be surprisingly coherent despite being all over the place in terms of style, composers and tone. While I doubt it's the score he would have picked as his swan song, I'm sure he was glad it was working with Joe Dante. Alien - Actually the Alien Trilogy album on Varese (although I do love the super comprehensive Intrada release) but a great sampling of one of his finest. Star Trek: TMP - Unused early score... a reminder that some composer's leftovers are better than what many come up with in their finest achievements. Up next... Sleeping with the Enemy. I honestly remember nothing about this one. What a bad fan I am!

I’d love for the first to be true but the opposite logic often seems to apply. Don’t release anything that might take the spotlight off the new thing! Such as with the new Bond film and interruption to releasing older scores (even though such releases would ah be come and gone by now!). But I still remain hopeful...

Yeah it’s pretty bad. If they had just used a classic style performance of the song it would have been great and capped the score off nicely. Sometimes updating things just doesn’t really work at all. Especially if the rest of the music isn’t especially contemporary.

Chaplin (John Barry) - discovered recently that I didn’t have this one but fortunately seems to be fairly easy to come by. Typical 90s Barry score I guess, but with perhaps one of his most fetchingly melancholy main themes (which rather reminds me of the Adagietto of Mahler’s 5th Symphony) although much of the score is actually rather more uplifting. Barry’s adaptations of original Chaplin’s own music are great and fit surprisingly well alongside Barry’s own music. The only real downer is the pretty cheesy 90s pop version of smoke. The performance by Robert Downey Jnr is fine but the arrangement is quite jarring.

Martinu - Violin Concertos, Bamberger Symphony, with Frank Peter Zimmermann as soloist. Forgot how much I really love Martinu and these are really lovely concertos. Not super flashy (like most Martinu) but endlessly enjoyable. Shchedrin - Carmen Suite and Concertos for Orchestra 1 & 2, Pletnev conducting the Russian National Orchestra. Recommendation from a friend. Not sure I get what Shchedrin was trying to do with the Carmen Suite, but it's an enjoyable orchestral distillation/interpretation of Bizet's opera. The two early concertos for orchestra are fun, although his later, longer ones are more satisfying.

I really enjoyed Shadows of the Empire, but not sure it can be described as such, more early 20th century classical. Much of it is heavily borrowed from Prokofiev and Walton mixed with the bits of Williams' music. Xizor's Theme is lots of Romeo & Juliet (variations on the Dance of the Knights) by Prokofiev and a fair bit of the rest (notably some of the climactic action music) is from a somewhat obscure Walton work (either The Quest or The Wise Virgins, they are on the same Naxos album I have of those works but I can't remember which it is). I understand McNeely didn't have a lot of time to write the music, so maybe not surprising he leaned so heavily on other works.

Monte Carlo or Bust (or Those Daring Young Men In Their Jaunty Jalopies by Ron Goodwin) - A really fun, tuneful score, although hard to listen to The Schickel Shamble without expecting to hear Humphrey Lyttelton (RIP) or Jack Dee giving Barry Cryer, Graeme Garden or Tim Brooke-Taylor (also RIP) silly things to do...

I would give the FSM podcast a listen if you can find it as it outlines the various influences (think they found bits of Legends of Fall amongst others here and there). The most insightful comments related to how Ottman uses loud, tutti orchestration (i.e. almost everything playing at once - or near enough) whereas in the Williams you can hear the different sonorities of the various instrumental groups in the orchestra far more clearly, which means there's greater variety and interest for the listener. They also noted how the chords that Williams uses for the main theme use the same building blocks as the love theme, which provides a unity that Ottman's effort just can't match. It's much more a patchwork of his ideas, Williams and temp track influences, so it doesn't fully develop its own identity. Having said that, I still find it an enjoyable listen!

What an obnoxious thing to say.

The River Wild - Maurice Jarre's rejected score - this really is quite lovely. I've only listened to it a couple of times, having naturally tended towards Jerry's final effort, but Jarre's is great. Guess it was just a bit OTT for the movie. Makes a great album though.

re Superman Returns - I quite enjoy it, but it's certainly got lots of temp track seeping in and the bland (and kinda naff) reharmonisation of the love theme is really off-putting (I can't believe Ottman did it by choice but it sounds so wrong)... FSM did a really good podcast about it at the time of release which makes some good observations about the score. As scores based on a Williams classic or a non-Williams scored sequel/spin-off, I think I get more mileage out of than certainly the first Jurassic World score, but it's not done with as much skill as Solo, Jurassic Park III or Superman IV.

Agree that 94 is weaker, some of the performances aren’t great in places (mainly Jurassic Park) although most are pretty decent. Nice sounding versions of The Shadow, True Lies and Maverick though. The latter I think is a very underrated Randy Newman effort. Plus McNeely sneaking in a track from Squanto. But the Seattle players aren’t as strong as the Scots here. Those longer versions were interesting prior to the expanded release but the performances good in any event. It also has a barnstorming performance of (i think) Sanctuary from Menken’s Hunchback. One of his finest score cues. I think the actual music on this album isn’t as good otherwise. Good but not in the same league as on 95 which was really a banner year (and, funnily enough, a year JW didn’t score anything!)

I know you didn't ask me(!), but the I thought the Batman Forever suite on Hollywood 95 was terrific, then again that whole album is terrific, the best of the three they did in that series. I think that comes from (or was later included on, not sure of the timing) Varese's Batman Trilogy album, which features fine suites of the two Elfman scores, plus a fun version of the original TV show theme. Well worth picking up as a good selection of highlights, well performed (same goes for their Alien Trilogy album which is from a similar vintage).

That’s the one. And I agree with @Jurassic Shark that the Herrmann suite versions are quite ponderous. Also they are suites rather than more or less the complete score. Indeed his movie thrillers album is probably my least favourite of the phase 4 albums. The fantasy ones are much more enjoyable and the more colourful instrumentation benefits from the super up-front recording.

Vertigo I’d say the Joel McNeely version, although it’s not quite complete but covers a majority of the score in a superb performance with tremendous sound. Psycho with the same forces is (I believe) complete but is less favourably regarded but I still find to be a fine recording. I guess the warmth and depth of sound that benefits Vertigo isn’t as suitable for Psycho but still great. However, the Danny Elfman remake versions from 1998 is considered to more closely match the intensity of the original but has the downsides of being incomplete (albeit not missing anything major) and hard to find.

Sure someone said there was a Strauss reference?

It looked like that, but perhaps the reference was to the 1984 Olympic Theme not the Song for World Peace? If so, my bad.

I had to listen to the Song for World Peace again as I didn't remember it being like the descriptions here and, having done so, found it much more hymnal and cerebral than anything approaching a march. OK, it's in a fairly square march time but it's much more serene and delicately scored for much of its running time. The striking thing about it for a film music fan is how much the four note motif that runs through it sounds like Rudy... (although I'm wondering if that's the Strauss reference and both JW and JG nicked it off Richard S?!)

With the depressing post from Joe Kraemer I thought I should give his Way of the Gun a listen. I guess I assumed it was a western (Hour of the Gun!), but still a well written thriller with some solid thematic material that weirdly reminded me of Rey's Theme at times!