Customer Reviews

The Omen: The Essential Jerry Goldsmith Film Music Collection (Film Score Anthology)

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

 

 

Being a Goldsmith fan myself, I regret having to disagree with 3 customers who were pleased with this compilation CD. I myself was surprised by how poorly some renditions on these CD's sounded. While I am sure all care was taken to be honest to Jerry Goldsmith's original music, I cannot help but mention that these recordings abound with dislocated musical phrases that form new and rather incoherent themes, poorly executed orchestration (the Total Recall and Rambo themes are downright apalling)and a lot of themes with wrong tempo's and off the mark percussion. I may be a purist, but recently having heard Jerry Goldsmith conduct his own music in London's Barbican Centre, I cannot give Nic Raine more than 1 star. I would even be willing to sell this CD-set to whomever would be interested, as I have most of the originals on this set and I am not very likely to play this one ever again. I am very sorry to be this negative as I know it is difficult enough to perform Jerry Goldsmith's music at all but I recommend serious fans to skip this one and go for the originals, even if they are harder to find and more expensive. Believe me, the originals are DEFINITELY worth it.

Goldsmith is great, of course, but be warned: this is not a collection of his soundtracks, as advertised. It's an "interpretation" (according to the liner notes) by a Czeckoslovakian orchestra. Not a bad orchestra, all in all-- but just know this CD is not what it appears.

Although this cd contains an extensive amount of music(138 minutes, 28 tracks), less than half of this music was recorded exclusively for this cd. The other tracks can be found on other various Silva Screen compilation cd's. The selections that are new to this cd are from MASADA, UNDER FIRE, BASIC INSTINCT, BABY, THE BLUE MAX, BOYS FROM BRAZIL, and THE SHADOW. This is still a good cd and for a good price. The sound quality is great and the orchestra performs the pieces well for the most part. I actually prefer this version of CAPRICORN ONE(track one) to the original soundtrack. Its not easy to recreate Goldsmith's sometimes complex writing and style. The UNDER FIRE suite is almost worth the price of the cd alone, especially since the original cd is hard to find and very expensive. Other out-of-print or not available music on this cd is from THE SWARM, THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY, BOYS FROM BRAZIL, BABY, TWILIGHT ZONE, and MACARTHUR. A curious omission from this cd is ALIEN, which was recorded for another Silva Screen compilation(Space and Beyond). There were great scores that were left off this cd. POLTERGEIST, THE SAND PEBBLES, THE WIND AND THE LION, THE GHOST AND THE DARKNESS, RUDY, and LIONHEART all deserved to be included as were a few others. A western suite would have been good too.Their renditions of TWILIGHT ZONE, STAR TREK, THE OMEN, and POWDER are sluggish, playing at slower tempos than the originals. Also music from TOTAL RECALL and RAMBO II sounded funny without the original electronic effects. But tracks like MASADA, GREAT TRAIN ROBBERRY, CAPRICORN ONE and UNDER FIRE are right on and do justice to the original scores. If you don't plan on collecting Goldsmith cd's(there are over 100 and counting), this is a good sampling of his music but barely scratches the surface of Goldsmith's extensive body of work.

There was a time when I'd avoid these sorts of compliations like the plague. Generally speaking, they were inferior recordings done by orchestras that sounded like they belonged in a school's band-room rather than a recording studio. Silva America has changed that opinion; I've yet to buy one their discs that has dissapointed with the quality of the music and orchestrations.

This two-disc sampler of Goldsmith features recordings of some of his best-known works and a range of lesser-known but equally worthwhile themes. For me, a definate seller was the presence of the main themes from "Masada" "Under Fire" and "Twilight Zone: the Movie." If they'd included the "Gremlins" theme, I would have been as happy as can be, because I would have had my favorite hard-to-find Goldsmith music all in one spot!

If there's one thing lacking here, it's that none of the selections clearly show the magic that Goldsmith is able to work with an orchestra's percussion session, nor the unique sounds he creates when pairing ethnic instruments with traditional western orchestra instruments.

Still, those are minor gripes in the light of the excellent quality of the performances found here.

Being the owner of the music of all the "Omen" films and the scores to "Planet of the Apes," "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," "Star Trek: First Contact," and "The Boys from Brazil," as well as Goldsmith's superb contributions to "The Twilight Zone," I consider this sampler to be a great introduction to this master film composer. Besides the aforementioned, heard on the disc in suites or excerpts, the 2-disc set contains a diverse collection of Goldsmith's work from the past thirty years. Highlights include the overture from "The Great Train Robbery," the main theme from "Total Recall," which is similar to Basil Poledouris's "Anvil of Crom" from "Conan the Barbarian," and the end title suite from "Twilight Zone: The Movie," the only thing really good about the film.

Yes, the full scores are more musically satisfying for they display the majesty of Goldsmith's arranging and innovative instrumentation; however, a little bit goes a long way. Money spent on this set is well worth it.

It's truly impossible to cover all the facets of Jerry Goldsmith's career as a composer for film, even on a packed double-CD set such as this. The COPP, under the baton of Nic Raine, give it their best shot, however, including music from Masada, The Blue Max, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture along the way. The performances are dynamic, with good orchestrations that play to the writing, rather than to the effect of having a large orchestra on hand. The discs are High Density Compatible Digital encoded and the mix is Dolby Surround, so you can expect a musical spectacle.

Are five stars all we can award? I have been an extreme fan of Jerry Goldsmith since first hearing his score for THE OMEN, for which he won an Academy Award. I have followed his musical career rather carefully. When I go to the movies, I read the posters carefully in the hopes of seeing his name as MUSIC BY:. My all-time favorite is HOOSIERS, for which the CD is out of print, and I have never been able to find it. Regarding this collection, I suspect that older film goers will appreciate and enjoy this collection more than the younger crowd of movie score fans. THE BLUE MAX takes us back to the 60s. As Mr. Goldsmith remarked once on a record jacket liner, .... movie music is supposed to echo and support the action on the screen. In my opinion, no one does it better, and more often than Jerry Goldsmith. The only problem with this project is that it wasn't long enough. I wanted more.

The orchestra is strident, the surround sound flawed and distorted, and the performances force and lacking in cultural understanding of the music.

Changes have been made in the orchestration (where did they get some of these?). Further, the quality of the musicians, particularly the brass, is so compromised as to do Goldsmith's superior music an injustice.

I am 10 years old and I really like this Cd becsuse there are lots of different of types of orchestral music.There are cheerful tunes, fast exciting stuff as well as the loud spooky tunes I'm not keen on.