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The music of John Williams - 40 years of film music is a great set. With any greatest hits compilation there will be complaints of pieces that ought to be part of this compilation but are not. There will be several folks who will bring up the bleeding chunks argument that the bits and pieces do not do justice to a composer of John Williams's stature and that it does not do justice to showcase 40 years of film music by this composer. For me this set was a great one to get. I am not an ardent OST (original soundtrack collector, but I am very ardent Western Classical Music listener and concert goer. I know I've heard special tracks by John Williams, bought a few OSTs (Star Wars-Phantom Menace), but will not be getting all the individual OST of his films. So for me this set is great if not perfect. It captures on 4 discs, music from his best known films (till 2002).
The Indiana Jones and Star wars series is covered quite a bit since each part in the series of both film franchises gets a track or 2. This compilation is from 2003, hence there are no pieces from Indian Jones and the crystal skull (released 2008). Likewise for Star Wars and the revenge of the Sith (released 2005). Oddly no track from Star Wars - Return of the Jedi.
This set will no doubt need to be updated at some point to keep up to date with John Williams never ceasing creativity. Even today (in 2012), John Williams has released a great score for yet another Steven Spielberg film - 'War Horse'.
Since Spielberg cannot do with any other composer but John Williams for his films and since most of these collaborations were OST hits (as well as movie box office hits), most of the 4 CD compilation with the exception of the CD3 is mostly Williams-Spielberg collaborations. And then there is the Williams- Lucas collaboration in the Star Wars OSTs.
To be honest, the music of star wars and Harry Potter films is so amazingly innovative, that although they tried to do their best, the producers cannot do justice to the vast range of orchestral imagination that John Williams thought up. So I consider the representation on Star Wars and Harry Potter in this set to be a more of a sneak peek of the goods available. Star Wars with all 6 films seriously needs a separate compilation spanning 2 to 3 CDs at a minimum even if you pick a 'best of' collection. Likewise for Harry Potter series. And there are such sets out there but they are more like 1 CD compilations. You really need a 3 CD set for each of these two film franchises.
On the topic of some reviewers complaining that they were expecting the OST, well reading the "city of Prague philharmonic Orchestra" on the cover should give an indication. Some reviewers feel cheated that they did not get the OST track with smooth finish they expected. Well, on the CD it does not say it is the OST. These are concert performances and are not meant to exactly sound like they sounded on the film. They are not as polished in the mixing since that would have made this set lose the concert performance feeling, which is very different from what you want as a film score. Also the conductor has the liberty to change some nuances in the interpretation of a work which makes concert performances very interesting. I totally loved this CD and cannot wait for an update. I think 50 years from now there will be a 15 CD compilation of the best of john Williams with a lot more samples from each film covering most of his major film scores.
Films featured on the set with varying degrees of representation (number of pieces per film)provided below:
Sugarland express
Jaws
Close encounters of the third kind
Raiders of the lost ark
E.T
Indiana Jones- Temple of doom
Indiana Jones - Last crusade
Empire of the Sun
Always
Hook
Jurassic Park
Schindler's List
Amistad
Saving Private Ryan
A.I
Minority report
Catch me if you can
The Rare breed
Jane Eyre
The Cowboys
The Poseidon Adventure
Towering Inferno
Family Plot
The Fury
Superman
Dracula
The River
The Witches of Eastwick
Born on the 4th of July
presumed Innocent
JFK
HP and Philosopher's stone
HP and the chamber of secrets
Star Wars (SW) - a new hope
SW - The Empire strikes back
SW - The Phantom Menace
SW - Attack of the clones
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Customer reviews
Top reviews from other countries
Ms. Pj Hawcroft
Not a great recording.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 26, 2019Verified Purchase
Igor
Slightly Hit & Miss
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 15, 2013Verified Purchase
ST Nicholls
All the main track you would want but not necessarily in the style you'd like
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2013Verified Purchase
Gordon
The Music's the Thing!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 17, 2019Verified Purchase
iBandit
A must for all film fans and appreciators of fine music
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 31, 2014Verified Purchase
