Lights, Camera, Action! as SOMM Recordings says “Hooray for Hollywood” with its second volume of Great Classic Film Music featuring the Scottish-born maestro Iain Sutherland directing the Philharmonic Promenade Orchestra of Hilversum.
The first volume of Great Classic Film Music (Ariadne 5006) was hailed by Classic FM for “bringing together the finest music cinema has to offer” and featured by John Brunning as his ‘Drivetime Discovery’. This second visit to the Golden Age of Hollywood and its unforgettable successors is taken from live and studio recordings from 1988-95 that conjure up all the drama and romance, poetry, and playfulness of film music at its most gloriously entertaining.
A half-century of unforgettable music is captured here, from the swashbuckling romance of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s The Sea Hawk to the sci-fi heroism of Jerry Goldsmith’s Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Cinema icons John Williams (Back to the Future), John Barry (You Only Live Twice), Maurice Jarre (Lawrence of Arabia) and Lalo Schifrin (The Eagle Has Landed) are heard alongside the late, great Ennio Morricone’s ‘Gabriel’s Oboe’ (The Mission).
Love and romance feature among the thrills and spills of Burton Lane’s Finian’s Rainbow, Kurt Weill’s September Song, George Gershwin’s Funny Face, Robert Stolz’s Spring Parade and Cole Porter’s sparkling songs in Evil Under the Sun.
Two towering figures of the concert hall are also heard, with Elvira Madigan’s sublime borrowing from Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.21 and rousing and lyrical themes befitting their Shakespearean settings by William Walton from the Laurence Olivier-starring and directed Richard III and Henry V.
Iain Sutherland’s previous SOMM releases include the “impressive… fully recommended” (Musical Opinion) Bernstein: Broadway to Hollywood (Ariadne 5002) and In London Town (SOMMCD 0117) with its “sparkling performances of some of the cream of light music” (MusicWeb International).
On This Recording
-
Jerry Goldsmith
- Star Trek: The Next Generation - Main Title John Barry arr. Iain Sutherland
- You Only Live Twice - Main Title Alan Silvestri
- Back to the Future - Main Title Ennio Morricone
- The Mission - Gabriel's Oboe Lalo Schifrin arr. Iain Sutherland
- The Eagle Has Landed - Main Title Erich Wolfgang Korngold
- The Sea Hawk - Main Titles and Love Theme Cole Porter arr. John Lanchbery
- Evil Under the Sun - Title Music George Gershwin
- Funny Face - Overture Burton Lane
- Finian’s Rainbow - Prelude (Main Title) Robert Stolz arr. Charles Previn
- Spring Parade - March Kurt Weill arr. Iain Sutherland
- September Affair - September Song Benjamin Frankel
- So Long at the Fair - Carriage and Pair Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Elvira Madigan - Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major - Andante William Walton
- Richard III - Prelude
- Henry V - Passacaglia/Death of Falstaff
- Henry V - Touch her soft lips and part Maurice Jarre
- Lawrence of Arabia - Main themes
Reviews:
“Sutherland plays the Richard III Prelude in particular with the sort of gravitas that it deserves – effectively, it’s a third Coronation March to match those Walton composed for George VI and Elizabeth II. The Death of Falstaff on the other hand, from the Henry V music, is suitably sentimental. After that and ‘Touch her soft lips and part’, also sentimental in the right way, we need to be sent off with a rousing tune – what better than the Lawrence of Arabia music which closes Volume II? Many of the performances on both these Somm albums were recorded live, but the quality of both live and studio sound is very good in these transfers.” —Brian Wilson, MusicWeb International
“This is a pleasing surprise follow-up to Great Classic Film Music (ARIADNE 5006), the virtues of which I extolled in 2019. … As is widely acknowledged, there are few better guides through this increasingly popular genre of music than the veteran Scottish maestro, and the Dutch orchestra play superbly under his direction. Don’t miss adding this one to your collection; and let us hope that Iain might have some more similar tapes in his archive.” —Peter Burt, Light Music Society
“ This second volume in the SOMM series of Great Classic Film Music covers a lot of ground – many different genres of films released between 1940 and 1987. In general, Iain Sutherland weaves magic through each selection making this second collection very enjoyable. … All in all, this album has much going for it.” —Ian Lace, MusicWeb International
