Customer Reviews

John Barry: The Lion in Winter (New Digital Recording of the Complete Score)

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

 

 

A well deserved Academy Award for Best Original Score in 1968, as well as the Anthony Asquith Award for Original film Music (British Academy Award) with the unmistakable style of John Barry...getting his break with "Dr. No"(1962), the debut of James Bond...following up with such scores ~ "From Russia With Love"(1963)..."Goldfinger"(1964)..."Seance On A Wet Afternoon"(1964)..."Zulu"(1964)(one of my favorite Barry Scores)..."King Rat"(1965)..."The Ipcress File"(1965)..."The Knack and How To Get It"(1965)..."Thunderball"(1965)..."Born Free"(1966)..."The Quiller Memorandum"(1966)..."You Only Live Twice"(1967)..."Midnight Cowboy"(1969)..."On Her Majesty's Secret Service"(1969), and that's just the '60s...but you know the rest of the story!

Director Anthony Harvey gives the audience everything with his guiding hand, with outstanding performances from Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn(Oscar Winner), with Anthony Hopkins, Timothy Dalton, John Castle and Nigel Terry as the brilliant supporting cast, in what has become a masterpiece in film-making.

Silva presents two classic Barry scores ~ "THE LION IN WINTER"(1968) and "MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS"(1971), featuring The City Of Prague Philarmonic with conductor Nic Raine, who seems to know every move and note that John Barry ever composed...exquiste choral work by the Crouch End Festival chorus conducted by David Temple...from the opening main title through every cue...recorded in "Dolby Surround" with new technology of "HDCD" and a new Digital Recording of the complete score, sounding better than ever for "film-score-buffs"...this was a winner with the Academy and fans in 1968, and you know what...IT STILL IS!

You might try other Silva America releases, all worthy of a good listen ~ "Walkabout"-John Barry (SSD-1120)..."Zulu"-John Barry (SSD-1095)..."Raise The Titanic"-John Barry (SSD-1102)..."The Essential James Bond"-John Barry (SSD-1034)..."Bond Back In Action"-John Barry (SSD-1100)..."Bond Back In Action 2"-John Barry (SSD-1119)...please check out my reviews on amazon.com/music.

Total Time: 54:33 on 20 Tracks ~ Silva America SSD-1131 ~ (2001)

If you're into classical music, you know how different the same symphony performed by two different conductors and orchestras can sound. Same here. If you really love this score like I do, I think you'll be disappointed in the difference in sound compared to the original. I'd give this a higher rating if it was the only version available. But since the original is available on CD, there's no reason to buy this imposter. There's only 5 minutes more from Lion in Winter, and the mini-Mary score is nothing special.

It has been almost 40 years since I went and saw this marvellous film and its well written musical score. Finally I have been able to get it on CD and it sure brings back memories! It is very obvious where the real composers are these days. Writing film scores!