Customer Reviews

The Sound of Music (1965 Film Soundtrack - 40th Anniversary Special Edition)

5 star:		(57)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am very happy that this 40th Anniversary edition of THE SOUND OF MUSIC Soundtrack is a vast improvement over any of the previous RCA CD issues. For the first time, it presents ALL the song cues in the order of the film, and the RCA tapes have never sounded better. Dame Julie's sterling portrayal of Maria is reason enough to plump for this CD, and her crystalline voice has never sounded better. She is ably backed by the critic-proof cast including Bill Lee's down-to-earth Captain, Margery McKay's Mother Abbess, and the glorious septet of children. This CD presents the tracks from the original RCA album, in more dynamic sound than on previous CDs, in sound that positively shines. These tracks intermingle with the Captain's first version of Edelweiss with Liesl, the Laendler and the Sixteen Going on Seventeen reprise. They are all lovingly incorporated into the soundtrack and the presentation is perhaps enough to rival the superb sounding Fox gold CD. This CD also includes the reprises of My Favourite Things, Do-Re-Mi and So Long, Farewell, and the Entr'acte and End Titles. They all make their CD debut, except that the tinny sound quality sounds like the producers recorded it off a videocassette or a DVD of the movie, because you can hear some dialogue and sound effects and a funny sound quality. All-told, although I do wish that the CD producers used the 20th-Century Fox tracks exclusively for this release and utilised longer versions of the Preludium and the reprise of Edelweiss, this CD offers wonderful sound quality despite some tape hiss in the RCA tracks. The booklet contains some coloured stills from the film, yet I lament that it lacks not just the lyrics but a detailed analysis of the musical, the filming and a soundtrack annotation. Overall, a wonderful presentation of a justly-celebrated soundtrack and a true sign that this soundtrack is getting the proper treatment it deserves. What more needs to be said than BUY IT NOW.

Finally! Every song cue is here, including the reprises of "My Favorite Things" (sung by the children and Maria upon her return to the von Trapp villa) and "So Long, Farewell" (sung by Maria, the Captain, and the children as they make their exits from the music festival). These two tracks weren't even available on such otherwise complete sets as the 35th anniversary two-disc set and the 24-karat gold disc that came only with the 30th anniversary laserdisc set (those sets did have instrumental background music that's not available on this disc). It may seem silly to purchase yet another copy of this (exquisite) recording, but for completists like myself, it's delightful to have all of the songs on a disc at last.

One night last week, I was channel surfing and I came across Julie Andrews singing "My Favorite Things" in the film The Sound of Music. Have you ever noticed that no matter how many times you've seen a certain film, there's just something about it that makes you watch it over and over again? Sometimes it's not even on purpose. I wouldn't have normally sought out The Sound of Music, but there it was, and I couldn't escape the same magic I first experienced when I was just a kid all those years ago. And the film is magic. How many times have we heard "My Favorite Things," "(How Do You Solve A Problem Like) Maria," "Do-Re-Mi," Edelweiss," "Sixteen Going On Seventeen," not to mention the title track and the epic opus "Climb Ev'ry Mountain.?" I never tire of them. Here we are 40 years later still celebrating one of the greatest movie musicals of all time. In the new 40th anniversary edition, we're not only treated to the original music, but the CD soundtrack is remastered exquisitely and filled with previously unreleased tracks and film version tracks that never appeared on the original soundtrack. For the Sound of Music aficionado, this deluxe package also contains never-before-released interviews with the film's director, Robert Wise, plus Richard Rodgers and actress Charmian Carr ("Liesl"). The CD packaging is also stunning with rare photos, memorabilia and newly written liner notes from The Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation. As I said, the film is magic, but what would this film be without "the sound" of music?! I give this 40th anniversary soundtrack 16 stars...going on 17!

The 40th edition of "The Sound of Music" soundtrack is a special gift for all the movie fans. Not only because of the quality of the sound ("The Sound of Music" has never sounded better), but also because all the vocal singing parts of the film are, for the first time, forever registered. So, you have the whole concert before they escape from the nazis, you have Julie Andrews coming back from the abbey and meeting the children and dame Julie singing to Charmian Carr "You are 16", all in chronological order, respecting the movie narrative. It's more than we all have been waiting for. It's a masterpiece.

This is a Cd I can actually listen to and not get tired of! My Girls (ages 7 and 2) especially love listening to "Do-Re-Mi" and "The Lonelt Goatherd"! Wholesome fun for the whole family --- and it doesn't get better than Julie Andrews!!

I bought this soundtrack because I love the movie. And if you love the movie, a big part of the movie is the music. This soundtrack is everything it should be. It preserves the music exactly the way it is presented in the movie. An added bonus to this CD is the fact that they did something that is rarely done on soundtracks: they put the songs in order. You can pop this CD in and relive the movie without one visual aid--very touching.

The Sound of Music (1965 Film Soundtrack - 40th Anniversary Special Edition) is exactly what you're looking for in a soundtrack to capture what you love and remember about one of the greatest films of all time.

I debated which edition of this soundtrack to purchase, but ultimately went with the 40th Anniversary Special Edition because it didn't have some of the "fluff" that other editions did, and it also included all the tracks I wanted (specifically, "Edelweiss" as sung by the Captain and Liesl). So imagine my surprise when my CD arrived and I looked at the track listing to find that Edelweiss (the non-reprise version) was not listed, despite other reviewers stating that it was included.

But rest assured, this is simply a misprint - Edelweiss IS included on the disc as track 11, despite the fact that it was left off the track listing. The reprise that is heard later in the movie is on the disc as well. I would hate to be the person who signed off on the final proofread of this CD. :)

This version of The Sound of Music is a mixed bag. It includes the original soundtrack recording (with all its edited versions-no good) along with some additional soundtrack cuts. It's better than the original soundtrack recording from 1965 but much less than the 2 CD version that was released earlier with lots more tracks. I should have bought the 2 CD version.

This album is not just the main songs sung in the show but it's almost all of the music and songs in the show!
For example, on the single CD the song Edelweiss is only sung by the Captain, Maria, the children and the chorus but on the 2nd album of this 40th Anniversary edition it's also has the song of Edelweiss sung by the Captain, Liesl and all of the children!
It also has the music of the Grand Waltz, the day Maria took them for the trip and even the Austrian folk Dance that Kurt wanted to be taught by Maria and the Captain took over to complete the dance. Plus many more!

I purchased the first CD release of this soundtrack and it was awful. Tape hiss was so bad, and echo was there from RCA using the album master instead of the original master tapes. Now, after hearing this version, RCA has obviously gone to great care to make this soundtrack sound brilliant and as good as I thought it should always sound. RCA's living stereo recordings were superb and that is exactly what we get here! They have eliminated all of the voice echo, the orchestra sounds full, and the master tapes for the soundtrack album are in better shape...sounding better than the tracks on the film (DVD) do.

You get the original soundtrack recording, plus many of the recordings from the 6-track magnetic music masters used for the film. The RCA soundtrack recording selections, in my opinion, survived better than the film masters. They are cleaner and brighter and the stereo is beautiful.

I strongly recommend this edition (40th anniversary) to anyone who loves this soundtrack regardless of if they own a previous edition, none of them live up to this one. It's finally perfect!