Total Film – October 2020

‘I feel that music on the screen can seek out and intensify the inner thoughts of the characters. It can invest a scene with terror, grandeur, gaiety or misery. It can propel narrative swiftly forward, or slow it down. It often lifts mere dialogue into the realm of poetry. Finally, it is the communicating link between the screen and the audience, reaching out and enveloping all into one single experience.’ (Bernard Herrmann)

S&M2, the live concert film from Metallica & The San Francisco Symphony, is the concert event of the year! This live recording features 20 songs (over 2.5 hours of music) from the two-night event that opened San Francisco’s new Chase Center, with many Metallica fan favorites and two unique classical songs chosen by San Francisco Symphony Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas…

This is a fine selection of Nino Rota's film scores , with 'La Strada' and 'Il Gattopardo'. The 'La Strada' is , in fact, a seven movement suite from the ballet which Rota adapted for the stage using his filmscore. Rota's ability to both supply big tunes and provide ironic comment in his scores is in evidence here. Gianluigi Gelmetti gets big, bold playing from his Monte Carlo orchestra. He gets committed playing that suits the pieces here, especially the splendid 'Il Gattopardo'. The sound is warm and big scale, particularly for the 'Waterloo' and 'War and Peace' items.

This two-fer from Dutton Vocalion features a pair of out of print LPs by easy listening artist Mantovani: Mr. Music… Mantovani and More Mantovani Film Encores, originally issued in 1966 and 1959. These 24 tracks find the conductor/musician/arranger interpreting such traditional material as "Spanish Flea," "Strangers in the Night," and "When You Wish Upon a Star." This is an enjoyable reissue chosen from Mantovani's numerous London albums.

Chandos has been offering some interesting scores in the Movies series, but this differs in their having had to combine two composers on one CD since neither one scored enough films to have an album entirely to himself. Lambert and Berners were close friends, and William Walton was part of their circle as well. All three of them tried to separate their music from the strictly English style and to be more cosmopolitan. Lambert even called music of the English pastoral tradition "cow pat." The first of Lambert's scores was for a documentary about the Merchant Navy - which, being made in 1940, had a scene of a ship being torpedoed. Lambert was considered something of a Russian specialist in music and got the job for the Russian drama on Anna Karenina, released in 1948.