Tracklisting of the forthcoming double LP (disc=side) and cd (one cd /14 tracks) edition
1. My Heart Will Go On (from "Titanic") - 2CELLOS 2. Rooftop Kiss (From "The Amazing Spider-Man") - Lavinia Meijer 3. Willow's Theme (From "Willow") - Amy Dickson 4. Theme (From "Cocoon") - Tina Guo
Disc: 2 1. Main Title (From "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan") - David Elton 2. I See You (From "Avatar") - Tina Guo 3. Field of Dreams (From "Field of Dreams") - Craig Ogden 4. Somewhere Out There (From "An American Tail") - Amy Dickson / Lavinia Meijer
Disc: 3 1. For the Love of a Princess (From "Braveheart") - 2CELLOS 2. The Ludlows (From "Legends Of The Fall") - Lindsey Stirling 3. Jake's First Flight (From "Avatar") - The Piano Guys
Disc: 4 1. Boys Playing Airplanes (From "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas") - Alexis Ffrench 2. Main Title (From "Apollo 13") - David Elton 3. Briseis and Achilles (From "Troy") - Lindsey Stirling
This release is Classic FM's "CD of the week" currently. The piece from Cocoon was played earlier that I heard. Has anyone purchased and listened to it all yet?
I saw it in our HMV on Saturday for £9.99, but didn't pull the trigger (and proceeded to the pub to enjoy the first day of the footy season). How did Cocoon sound?
It sounded pretty good to be fair. I was debating whether to pick it up as well, as there are a couple of other artists on there that I'm not overly keen on.
Haven't given this the proper listen yet I need, but I really enjoyed the Cocoon and An American Tail tracks. I'm sure there are others I can add to that list, but these two stand out as favorites. Willow isn't growing on me for some reason.
Willow isn't Dad, but someone forgot to tell Sony that.
I couldn't reply to the thread until now, but when I saw James' comment above, Willow is what came to mind. That track was just dreadfully lacking. Actually, the performances that required the power of a full orchestra were really the ones that were the worst (Star Trek II was also standout bad).
The Field of Dreams, American Tail, Troy and Cocoon performances were all highlights for me with the surprise being the Spiderman performance (Rooftop Kiss didn't do much for me on the OST but Meijer's performance here was utterly sublime).
This was a miss for me. With the exception of Cocoon and Legends of the Fall, I didn't really care for the interpretations of the themes. It only made me want to make a mix of my favorite Horner tracks. Usually, these albums are good when the artist can do something unique to the song, but it just felt overall flat to me. And the accompanying orchestra is so buried in the mix and thin, it loses the emotional weight of the piece. Horner was one of my favorites so I was initially excited about this, but after listening to it a few times on Spotify, I canceled my order at Amazon. Bummer...
This is a copy of my 'live commentary' as I listened to it (with some additions for here).
Listening now...Titanic sounds like any typical string arrangement you would hear as elevator Muzak (and why this piece for the bazillionth time? Jeez people pick something else like 'The Sinking' or something...ANYTHING else! Fuck even 'Murdoch's Suicide' would be a more interesting choice)
Spider-Man sounded like Bobby Fischer at first since it was harp instead of piano and was just kind of silly.
Willow started off nice with the orchestra then suddenly I’m at Elora Danan’s wedding or something. The saxophone just ruined it.
Willow isn’t Dad. The sax worked in that film.
And the ending....what the hell was that?
Cocoon sounds like the practice video Tina Guo posted which I enjoyed quite a bit.
The ending is a little strange (though the music is not as wildly different like Willow)
Okay I don’t know who David Elton is, but I’m not fond of overly showy and forced trumpet leaders.
The whole piece sounds like it was designed to show off that trumpet and it’s just unnatural and not enjoyable at all.
Tina Guo once again is a standout. Avatar is good.
Horner did great work with soloists. Elton is not among the greats.
Field of Dreams sounded like the original score was edited into new arrangements and the soloists were playing along.
Not terrible. It’s okay. Nothing is really standing out as genuinely great here
An American Tail is like Titanic, stuff you would hear in a grocery store on the radio or elevator muzak
Braveheart sounded like they cut corners with the melodies, shortening them a bit too much that they don’t make much sense.
They’re in a rush to get it over with....like me with this album.
I must say the orchestral arrangements underneath these mostly awful soloists are quite good.
Legends of the Fall is very authentic, some of the fiddle is right out of the unreleased material in its performance, though it could be brought down an octave at times because it’s just too high pitched for some of it.
The second Avatar piece is very awkwardly performed. This is not a good example of effective orchestration
Striped Pajamas doesn’t sound anything like it at all as it starts. What was that ? The rest is like a faint hint of that score underneath the excess of flourishes that go nowhere
And so many of the notes are just wrong. Some cases they’re playing the harmony instead of the main melody but much it is not actually of this music at all.
Inspired by but not from. Just terrible.
Apollo 13...for once they got the snares right.
Are astronauts about to lift off or has the King of England been crowned with that refined English trumpet call? Ugh.
Apollo 13 as told by the BBC. God save the king. Tim Morrison he is absolutely not.
The End
Also, here's to James, on what would have been his 65th birthday today. Shame this album isn't a better gift.
These Classic FM style compilation releases aren't really aimed at us niche/core nuggets so much. They're more for the casual 'easy listener' buyer. But if they bring more people to the music of the composer in question, that's all good, I say.
These Classic FM style compilation releases aren't really aimed at us niche/core nuggets so much. They're more for the casual 'easy listener' buyer. But if they bring more people to the music of the composer in question, that's all good, I say.
You took the words out of my mouth. If someone picks this up and likes what they here and they begin to explore the work of Horner, would it be worth it?
