Customer Reviews

Close Encounters: The Essential John Williams Film Music Collection

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Silva Screen has been churning out a very large number of new recordings of film scores since the mid-90s, and many of these albums are two-disc sets available at fairly low cost. I can think of at least one major film music critic who's consistently praised the quality of this East European orchestra. The presentation itself is remarkable; attractive, well-filled (discs are usually at least 70 minutes long each), and each set comes with excellent documentation. But I wasn't as impressed with this set of John William's music as the two disc compilation set conducted by the maestro himself (titled John William's Greatest Hits 1969-1999 I think from Sony Music). Orchestral bass definition isn't always clearly heard- sounded fuzzy in the lower registers- and ensemble could be tightened up considerably. In fact, Ensemble in a few tracks were nearly sloppy; I positively cringed at the motocycle scherzo cue from the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade track! That cue- one of the most memorable film music pieces I've heard as they evoke memories of Harrison Ford getting chased by Wechmacht on motorcycles- sounded more like a rehearsal session than an actual recording.

Having said that, the disc isn't without things that I greatly enjoyed. Aside from that this set, like many others from the recording company, is exceptionally well-filled with a collection of pieces somewhat similar to the Sony two-disc set (see above), and there are a couple of very bright spots. The chorus from Empire of the Sun: Exsulstate Justi is given a magnificently robust rendition from the Crouch End Festival Chorus (even better than John William's original recording in 1987, in my opinion), and the recording of Hymn of the Fallen with the same chorus is very good too.

There's also the regular staple of other commonly heard tracks that are unfortunately better recorded elsewhere, including the main theme from Superman, (yet another) suite of music from the Star Wars trilogy, including the main theme and the Imperial March. For this, however, there was a rare gem- a beautifully played cue from the Empire Strikes Back, Han Solo and the Princess. This track is much less commonly heard, and it certainly evoked memories of the Millinieum Falcon taking off from the medical frigate at the end of that motion picture. I greatly enjoyed this particular track!

So all in all, again, a mixed bag. Between the two compilations- this one and the one from Sony- I would would marginally prefer the latter. But even then, if one can afford it, one should pick up both, since there there's a good portion of music that isn't duplicated on either set. I still enjoyed listening to both sets, and hopefully so would other listeners. :)