Sampling the golden “Hollywood sound” that is a virtual soundtrack of contemporary American culture, the best of the greatest film music of the last 80 years is featured on Sony Classical’s new two-disc collection The Essential Hollywood. This new collection includes authentic stereo recordings of celebrated music by such Oscar-winning composers as John Williams, John Barry, Bernard Herrmann, Henry Mancini, Elmer Bernstein, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Miklós Rózsa, Maurice Jarre, Dimitri Tiomkin, Nino Rota and Franz Waxman, in performances by the London Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, led by many of the composers and such conductors as Charles Gerhardt, Arthur Fiedler, Riccardo Muti and Esa-Pekka Salonen. The Essential Hollywood will be released on May 23, 2006.
The classic symphonic film score truly arrived in 1933, with Max Steiner’s thundering music for the original King Kong, which is featured on The Essential Hollywood. Though the sound began to fade in the 1970s, it returned triumphantly with the rise of five-time Oscar winner John Williams, with his landmark scores for Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the Star Wars films, which are also sampled in the new collection. Included are many of the scores recently chosen by the American Film Institute as “the 25 greatest film scores of all time.”
The Essential Hollywood is no mere “movie themes” collection. It was compiled from definitive stereo studio recordings in the RCA and Sony Classical catalogues, in original orchestrations or arrangements that approximate the way the music sounded on the films’ soundtracks. While classic themes are featured – such as the signature themes from Laura, Jaws, The Pink Panther, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and High Noon – the collection also features extended suites that musically recap the stories of Casablanca, Gone With the Wind, King Kong, Psycho and Sunset Boulevard.
Composers Elmer Bernstein (The Magnificent Seven), Maurice Jarre (Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia), Henry Mancini (Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Pink Panther), Ennio Morricone (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly), David Raksin (Laura) and Dimitri Tiomkin (High Noon) conduct their own music on The Essential Hollywood. A renowned interpreter of classic film scores, Williams leads performances not only of his music but that of other composers. Also included are excerpts from acclaimed recordings of the music of Bernard Herrmann, with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and of Nino Rota, with Riccardo Muti conducting the Filarmonica della Scala. ]]>