Conductor Nick Ingman is, according to the notes, a pretty successful producer of pop, notably S-Club-7 (an almost unpardonable sin, but I'm willing to let it pass) and from working with a selection of the UK's top pop and rock acts. He is also credited with conducting several scores by Stephen Warbeck and James Newton Howard. It is therefore surprising that for my money, his conducting isn't up to much. While the Royal Philharmonic are a fine orchestra, the performance here seem somewhat flat and uninvolving. It is technically proficient, but in many of the cues it feels like they are just playing the notes with no feel as to the sweep of the music. For example, Hedwig's Theme, instead of spinning out of control as a thrilling danse macabre, it sputters to a loud, but unsatisfying climax. It is all there (aside from a couple of sloppy string performances), but the shape of the piece is lost and its slightly disjointed nature becomes rather obvious. Somehow Williams and William Ross fashioned it into a well shaped, flowing cue, but Ingman turns into a series of musical episodes. The same is true of Harry's Wondrous World which becomes leaden and somewhat ponderous.
Sometimes the arrangements hinder the music; the extended Mission: Impossible goes on far too long, a selection from Elfman's score attached to the theme might have been better, Gladiator sounds somewhat stilted - I'd say it was a result of being purely orchestral, but Silva's version was terrific - and the finale from Batman and in attempts to sound epic, just ends up being slow. The suite from Shakespeare in Love is pleasant enough, but the score itself wasn't exactly brilliant (despite being an Oscar winner), although the performance is good, as is that for Out of Africa. Here, Ingman seems able to draw out longer lines, although maybe the style of writing simply results in natural flow better than the more complex tracks. Quite why John Barry is credited for Licence to Kill, I have no idea. He is credited as co-composer for the song since the opening quotes Goldfinger (kind of an homage), but the rest was written by committee, surely one of Barry's own efforts would have been better here, although the orchestral arrangement and performance are good.
The other song arrangements are pretty standard for this kind of thing and the drum kit backing seems to lend cohesion to paper over Ingman's disjointed interpretive style. Schindler's List is technically proficient, but doesn't have quite the compassion of the original reading. Unfortunately, the album ends badly with a pretty awful arrangement from Titanic, the least successful pop arrangement and anyway, does anyone really want to hear My Heart Will Go On one more time?! Probably not. That all sounds pretty scathing, but in terms of interpretation, the album is a disappointment. While I'm pleased the RPO are trying to entice people into film music, I think that mixing recent popular choices (Potter, Gladiator and Lord of the Rings) with classics such as Psycho would at least have made for an album of, if standard choices, then at least music of quality instead of the song arrangements here. The liner notes offer a little information on each score and composer, but I think Jerry Goldsmith would be surprised to learn that Lalo Schifrin wrote the theme to Dr Kildare.
Click here to buy the CD direct from the RPO homepage, plus details of concerts in July 2003 which look set to have a better selection and more faithful interpretation than presented on this album.
Rating ~ Total Time ~ 67:56
I haven't reviewed a film music compilation like this for ages, all the ones I hear these days are themed by genre or composer, but this kind of eclectic selection to draw in a wider public isn't something that is of much use to the hardened film music fan. However, the nice people at the Royal Philharmomic passed along a copy, but unfortunately it reminds me just why I don't buy this kind of album. Of course, the first thing is the content, which mixes some unsurprising recent entries in the shape of Potter and The Lord of the Rings, plus - perhaps surprisingly - a number of orchestral song arrangements. I say surprisingly, since the thrust of the rest of the albums in this series is classical and one would think that a selection of quality music from top scores, from well known films of course, would be more important than what is pretty depressing pandering. Silva Screen might often release selections that are tailored to the general public, but they almost always include a few off the wall choices and are almost always picked from good scores, even if the composers are unfamiliar.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone John Williams