Messrs. Tiomkin and North also feature prominently, the former most notably for The Fall of the Roman Empire and The Alamo (which, again, rather pushes the remit a bit far) and the latter represented by Spartacus and Cleopatra. Although the big names from the Golden Age are well represented, some of their less known colleagues also feature. Mario Nascimbene's simplistic, but effective One Million Years BC kicks off the opening disc, while Manos Hadjidakis' Spartan March from The 300 Spartans is a rousing, foot tapper. Of movies from the more recent past, John Scott's Anthony and Cleopatra contains some typically fine writing from the underrated composer, as does the some what higher rated Maurice Jarre who contributes to the Biblical section with his serious and sombre score to Jesus of Nazareth and also his classic Lawrence of Arabia with a theme as wide as the deserts that inspired it. It is notable than between the end of the 60's and the 90's, the definition of an epic seems to have become even looser; The Lion in Winter is one of John Barry's finest scores and gets a thoroughly enjoyable performance, but the film is rather intimate for an epic. The same could be said for that compilation staple, The Mission, Morricone hardly composer renowned for epic writing.
Of course the success of Gladiator has paved the way for a revival of the epic in recent times, but in truth, very few have lived up to Ridley Scott's barnstorming effort and the same could be said for Hans Zimmer's score. Love it or hate it, Gladiator has plenty of great tunes, it's just a shame that all of his big scores have been less memorable knock-offs; The Last Samurai for example, although admittedly better than most. The Passion of the Christ wasn't a Biblical Epic in the same way as the others featured here, neither is John Debney's elegiac music which is some distance from the more rousing Golden Age approach. With Alexander, Troy and, rather curiously, Pirates of the Caribbean, the collection comes right up to date. Strangely, the anthemic Titans from Vangelis' score to Oliver Stone's tedious Greek legend is missing, represented instead by very commendable reworkings of Across the Mountains and Eternal Alexander. Troy emphasizes the best parts of James Horner's score with the gleaming fanfare for the city itself and the Stargate inspired closing music.
As ever, over such a wide range of composers and styles, the performances are variable but generally fine and few are outright disasters. This is especially pleasing since the City of Prague Philharmonic invariably sound least convincing when called to blaze away. Similarly, the mixing of louder material on Silva Screen albums can be rather dire, but the results here balance clarity with a spacious acoustic although a few are still unpleasantly raucous. True, you'd be hard pressed to ever consider any of the performances a first choice even if, as usual, the John Barry and Jerome Moross (in particular) are well wrought. However, given the sheer volume of material, even the die hard fan will likely find something of interest - for me, Bronislau Kaper's Mutiny on the Bounty was a thrilling find, enticing me to pick up the lavish triple disc release by Film Score Monthly. The balance between golden and silver ages (as Film Score Monthly seem to have defined film music eras) will hopefully entice some younger listeners toward the golden age, even if listeners of a certain age might be less tempted by the more recent offerings on the evidence provided here. As a final thought, the album features not a single note by John Williams which has to be some kind of record.
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The track listing can be found here at Silva Screen's official site.