As with the previous collections, the set is arranged chronologically, opening with Steiner's Gone with the Wind and, unsurprisingly, winding up on a bouncy and thoroughly enjoyable snippet of Michael Giacchino's rip roaring score for The Incredibles. While never likely to rise to Berlin Philharmonic standard, the City of Prague Philharmonic have a good hit rate of fine performances these days and, while purists will quibble, very few of those appearing here are anything less than satisfactory and most are fine alternatives to the original soundtrack recordings. From Steiner, disc one moves through Herrmann - the occasional roughness actually works favourably here - through some finely rendered Tiomkin, Bernstein and concluding with Jarre's unforgettable Lawrence of Arabia Overture (curiously not taken from their recording of the full score, but an equally good performance).
Whether by design or default, the shift away from the big Golden Age sound is marked as disc two hits, with Elmer Bernstein cropping up and proving the timelessness of his writing that made him such a wonderful and beloved composer. Popular for other reasons, Ennio Morricone receives a couple of outings, although re-recordings of his quirkier scores are rarely a resounding success and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly doesn't receive an especially convincing performance. Fortunately, Once Upon a Time in the West does and so too do Once Upon a Time in America and Cinema Paradiso a little later on. Johns Barry and Williams make their first big splashes (although no Bond for Barry) with Midnight Cowboy and, of course, the original Star Wars - almost a full circle back to the Golden Age sound at the close of the 70's.
The post Star Wars fallout is evident on disc three, with plenty more Williams which, unfortunately, still isn't performed to the same technical standard as everything else, but I suspect any newbie will buy up full Williams scores by the truck load anyway. The composers who are now film music's top dogs make their early marks, notably Alan Silvestri's evergreen Back to the Future, Horner's rousing Glory and on the final disc, Thomas Newman and Howard Shore with American Beauty and Lord of the Rings respectively. As is the way of such collections, the more recent entries are the currently popular whose longer term legacy is perhaps a touch unlikely. For example, Newman's Lemony Snicket score is delightful, but I don't think it's the score anyone would pick in ten years for a similar collection. Likewise, I suspect few would seriously consider Badelt's (seems better here than the largely terrible full length album) Pirates of the Caribbean or Kaczmarek's now Oscar winning Finding Neverland which passes by almost unnoticed before Giacchino's memorable The Incredibles kicks in to close out.
As with any compilation, it's for a specific market and the hardened film music collector is not really that market. Even those with a modest collection probably won't find much here that they either don't have from an original score, a compilation elsewhere or would be desperate enough to want one particular track - there isn't really anything one could deem as an obscure classic here, the choices are strictly mainstream. There are some obvious omissions - Danny Elfman and James Newton Howard, from the current cream of Hollywood talent (and embarrassingly little Goldsmith - again!), but there are so many collections of this nature around, it's not difficult to build up a well rounded selection quickly and cheaply. The liner notes don't amount to much, just basic film information (director, stars, year) and music credits, but at Silva Screen's typically competitive pricing, such luxuries aren't missed and with so much classic film music in generally fine performances, it's almost pointless to quibble. A winner for the beginner. Ah, poetry.
Rating ~ 
The track listing can be found here at Silva Screen's official site. Sorry for being lazy, but it's 4 CDs and there are only so many hours in the day...