Customer Reviews

The Film Music of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This recording is generally very well performed and produced. The playing of the BBC Philharmonic under Rumon Gamba is very high caliber indeed. I am not a big fan of movie music, but I was glad I bought this CD.

I bought this album for the highlight selection, the Elegy for Viola and Orchestra from Lady Caroline Lamb. This piece is pure heaven. The only piece I know that is even somewhat similar is Vaughan-Williams' Flos Campi. The soloist, orchestra and conductor are magnificent in Bennett's work - this is reason enough to own this CD.

I remember Bennett for his wonderful film scores for Nicholas and Alexandra(the fold-out LP album had a regal splendour to it) and Lady Caroline Lamb. Marcus Dodds conducted the Lamb score with the New Philharmonia Orchestra on LP (Angel S-36946) - now out of print. Gamba`s conducting is marvellous on this Chandos re-recording. But Dodds is unsurpassed for his romantic and passionate handling, with Peter Mark giving an intense interpretation of the Caroline theme. Overall, the LP has

greater presence and tension. Well, soundtrack recordings are usually more impassioned and sensitive than re-recordings. Still, credit should go to Gambas for his consistent high quality in the Chandos film music series. Incidentally, the Lamb LP recording is listed in the Library of Congress (No. 73-750111). If you can`t get the LP try that Library!

I got this CD for the love theme from Four Weddings and a Funeral, which I had been searching for for years. Found the other music to be beautiful as well. This CD is perfect for a rainy afternoon with a glass of wine or a cup of tea. It's soothing and evocative. Wasn't aware of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, but I am looking up more of his music now!

The last two selections on this CD are the wonderful theme music from the movies Enchanted April and Four Weddings and a Funeral. My CD disc changer--a 16 year old Sony, is also an alarm clock (and radio, and tape to tape player/recorder with detached speakers), so I set it to play just these last two selections as my alarm clock.

At 19:25 minutes in length, the Enchanted April theme, especially, is a perfect light background played at low volume for breathing meditation. I admit, sometimes I just think on the transformations of life and spirit in the characters by the end of this much-beloved movie in a cost-shared Italian villa post WWI, in a spot whose scenery makes me wish I could stay myself (and whose location appears in the movie credits).

As I have listened also for pure pleasure, I sense some of what it must be like to create music, from Beethoven to Bennett, from the inside out, to sonorous chant in cathedrals from the inside out, to feel Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto, Nessun Dorma sung by Pavarotti, the duet from Delibes' Lakme, or James Galway's rendering of "Clair de Lune" that seizes the heart, to hear Enya, George Winston, and even "Moonglow" superimposed over the theme from "Picnic." Where does it come from inside of so many who create the notes which pass through the instruments and voices who add their touch as they pass on the sounds...so many who let us live for a moment in the world created inside of the music--from the outside in? Do we "become the music, while the music lasts?"

Excellent service, item as described, would buy from again! I ended up buying another one for a gift!

I orderd this for "Lady Caroline Lamb" (Because the "idiots that be" don't recognise a superb score - & have not released the original soundtrack in this country).
The performance is exemplary - Truly excellent. I like everything on this CD - But I'd still like to have the BEAUTIFUL "Lamb" soundtrack availabe in the US. This, a worthy preformance, is a welcome addition to any film score collection - Now let's have the original soundtrack!

You don't realize how much the background music adds to a Film until you hear this.