Customer Reviews

The World at War: 30th Anniversary Edition

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For fans of the quintessential 1974 UK television history series, this is a keepsake album. The Main Theme of Carl Davis overshadows all else in the selections. This majestic melody (and arrangement) is an amazing piece of music that captures the tragedy, pathos and mood of intense catastrophe in one minute of orchestral sound.
Several of the Davis themes are arranged into effective suites (one major missing piece is the material for Imperial Japan). The best Davis suite is "Reckoning" which brings back the main theme in a brilliant little elegaic tone poem not unlike John Williams' 1993 music for the film "Schindler's List".
A fun bonus - several utterly in-tune-with-the-time pop tunes that appeared on the series soundtrack including "Boum" and "Run, Rabbit, Run". Most of these songs (and the speeches) are British in keeping with the UK perspective of the series. There are no pop tunes or marches from the Axis on this album (as there were in the series) except for "Lili Marlene".
It would be a valuable and important development to release an additional 'World at War' CD of the original music soundtrack score. The suites on this album are sometimes different in tempo from the soundtrack (the main theme is played much slower on this new recording). But, in any case, this is a quality album well worth collecting and keeping on the treasure shelf with the terrific 'World at War' DVD series box set.

Silva America presents some of the most historical moments in "World at War-30th Anniversary Edition", featuring music and themes from the '30s and '40s, plus original scores from Carl Davis (conductor) and The City of Prague Philharmonic coming up to the plate and hitting a home run. This wonderful package is separated into categories of radio broadcasts and tunes from the time period ~ then a overpowering and dynamical cues weaving both into a delectable tapestry.

Each segment is beautifully told through music and a stand out that is emotional and powerful. This album is not your same old and over dramatized collection ~ but is tense in content and gives you an overscope of years past but never forgotten. Being a "flm-score-buff"and collector for a number of years, must admit being very excited about some hard-to-find cues that are mostly from England and France, bringing the entire project together in fine fashion.

Entire album is a stand out with "WISH ME LUCK AS YOU WAVE GOODBYE" (Gracie Fields), "LONDON PRIDE" (Noel Coward), "THIS IS THE ARMY, MR. JONES" (Irving Berlin), ("WE'RE GONNA HANG OUT)THE WASHING ON THE SIEGFRIED LINE" (Arthur Askey), "BOUM" (Charles Trenet), "ADOLF" (Billy Cotton Band), "THE RED ARMY IS THE STRONGEST (Red Army), "LILI MARLENE" (Lale Anderson ~ one of my all-time favorites, performed by many artists since then), "WHEN THEY SOUND THE LAST "ALL CLEAR"(Vera Lynn) and "COMING IN ON A WING AND A PRAYER" (Anne Shelton). Much care has been taken for the clarity of excerpts by speeches from Winston Churchill(Their Finest Hour-speech), Neville Chamberlain(A State of War-speech) and Dwight Eisenhower(D-Day Announcement-speech).

For the discriminate collector, this is a well balanced collection of the times ~ producer James Fitzpatrick has hit the mark with high standards within each cue ~ this is not a Hollywood production, but real lives and the events that shook the world when war presented itself ~ would like to add the score by Carl Davis and The City of Prague Philharmonic performance is what makes this compilation soundtrack a pearl and a collectors dream.

Total Time: 74:41 on 26 Tracks ~ Silva America 1158 ~ (1/20/2004)

Anyone who knows this series cannot fail to be moved by the Carl Davis theme... It instantly causes a lump in my throat like a respectably sized jacket potato and welled up tears of [I don't know what]...

I'd question the first review and suggest that given the various NTSC / PAL showings /reshowings / reformatings the signature of the original theme is probably only known by anyone reading the original score... Therefore, given the unflinching authenticity of the CofP Philiharmonic's other projects - such as the sublime 'Raise the Titanic' - their interpretation is probably no less correct than when Davis wielded his baton in anger back in '73. BUY IT, lest the world forget...

Carl Davis excellent stirring title music captures the various meanings of war as shown in the television series. The compilation of well known wartime songs adds to the moods of the times.