This is a strange compilation that adds a few previously unreleased bits of Bond scores along with more well known sections and present brief suites from each. The City of Prague Philharmonic always do John Barry better than any other composer and so it is no surprise to find that on the whole, the performances are excellent. The debacle over the Bond theme composer is a never ending saga (Barry must have done something in relation to arranging it otherwise nothing would have happened in the first place), however, the performance here (featuring the original guitarist Vic Flick - fantastic name) is excellent, tight and well paced (although the short cue entirely based on the Bond theme that Arnold did for Tomorrow Never Dies is well worth hearing as a great, up to date recording). The original album for Dr. No featured only a small amount of Norman's score, but here we get a suite with some nice variations on the Bond theme and while it's not as classy as Barry's music it is still not nearly as bad as I was expecting (ie. better than Eric Serra or Marvin Hamlisch).
From Russia with Love was Barry's first full effort and the opening cue is an instrumental of the song (that was originally sung by the ever suave Matt Munro). 007 Takes the Lektor introduces Barry's own 007 theme which basically repeats as an action cue motif that he used in several of his Bond scores. One curious element was the Herrmann-esque motif that appears in The Zagreb Express. It occured to me that Barry's way of composing for action films is similar to Herrmann's. Before you say that's the most daft thing in the world, if you listen to Barry's action music it essntially repeats, perhaps slightly altering a single motif. Maybe the orchestration with change or the tempo will alter, but his action music is not complex in the way that say, Jerry Goldsmith's is Listening to cues such as 007 Takes the Lektor or Dawn Raid at Fort Knox - both essentially repeat the same motif over and over, but add the occasional orchestral decortation. Of course Herrmann would have had difficulty writing anything as suave as Barry, it would probably have mirrored the iciness of Bond more than anything.
Goldfinger is perhaps the best known film and probably has the absolute definitive Bond song, although its appearence here is sparing and Into Miami features a sexy Barry jazz anthem which then moves into a slow rendition of the song for Alpine Drive. The aforementioned Dawn Raid At Fort Knox does indeed use a repeating motif, that being the first classic opening interval from the song around which flute and brass decoration is added. Thunderball is one Bond film that honestly didn't enthrall me greatly, although it does have a pretty good song (which, like Goldfinger has a marvellous opening). The numerous underwater scenes didn't, due to their nature, have the tension or excitement of other Bonds and I always had this feeling that the music was about to break into the opening from You Only Live Twice. Indeed, that was Bond's next outing and contains another classic song and is often considered one of the finest scores. The selections here firstly feature the oriental Bond's wedding as well as a few exciting action motifs.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service I actually enjoyed a great deal and really didn't think that George Lazenby was that bad. I put the contempt that some people have for him down to Connery snobbery... or something like that. It is the only post Dr No score not to have an openig title song, but has an exciting action theme which is often used in Bond trailers. It is a propulsive piece that gives OHMSS some of the most exciting action cues of the early Bond scores, most notably in the Escape from Piz Gloria and The Ski Chase. Connery's return in Diamonds Are Forever had Bond in outer space and was the most lavish Bond up to that point, but the ironic humour started overtaking the serious, more straight laced Bond of the early movies and paved the way for the often risible puns that Roger Moore managed to deliver without so much as breaking into a smirk.
While I've never been totally enamoured with Barry's Bond scores (even though they are just perfect for the films), I enjoyed this album immensely. The performances are excellent, especially in the action sequences where the bigger, but still concise performance adds to the excitement immensely. Perhaps Bond/Barry fanatics will quibble over performance, arrangement, recording style or whatever, but for the more casual listener they provide for an excellent selection of music from early Bonds all performed stylishly and pretty much flawlessly. The fact that the suites are short doesn't have a huge impact on the listenability of the album. It doesn't function like a traditional compilation, flitting from style to style; the Bond style that Barry engineered is present in every track and so the music flows almost seemlessly from suite to suite. As good a start as any to Bond scores, just need a compilation of the songs to go with it.
Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 74:14
*Previously Unrecorded