CD REVIEW - GREAT MOVIE THEMES 2


Great Movie Themes 2
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Conducted by Carl Davis
Naxos 8.572111 (EU)
14 Tracks 68:44 mins

This month Naxos is releasing the second volume of Great Movie Themes, featuring the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and conductor Carl Davis, who has worked with the Orchestra numerous times before and is of course a screen composer of note himself.
Not perhaps for the die-hard film music fan, as he/she will probably already have the original versions of the pieces featured here, this CD presents concerts arrangements of some very well loved film and TV themes and nevertheless makes for a pleasant listening experience, either as background music, or preferably if one closes one's eyes and imagines one is in the concert hall.
The disc commences with Danny Elfman's Batman theme and is followed by something completely different, namely, Hank Mancini's ever-popular Pink Panther theme. Turning to the small screen, we next have a suite from Lalo Schifrin's Mission:Impossible, and then it's back to the big screen for Francis Lai's beautiful Love Story. John Williams gets the lion's share of this album with his main themes from Jurassic Park up next, and later two pieces from Superman; the great march theme and the poetic love theme. Nino Rota is the next big-hitter, with music from his Romeo and Juliet score and The Godfather. Coming more up to date is Gabriel Yared's The English Patient and Klaus Badelt & co.'s Pirates of the Caribbean. The remaining selections are Stanley Myers' "Introduction and Cavatina" from The Deerhunter and Stephen Warbeck's music for Shakespeare in Love. Finally, and rightfully so, Carl Davis has one selection on the disc, his haunting theme from The French Lieutenant's Woman.
Accompanying the album are John Riley's guide to the music, plus biographies of both conductor and orchestra.