Easy Music Score

Music Box Records is pleased to present on the same CD two original motion picture soundtracks composed and conducted by Georges Delerue: The Conformist (1970) directed by Bernardo Bertolucci (1900, La Luna, Last Tango in Paris) and La Petite Fille en velours bleu (Little Girl in Blue Velvet) (1978) directed by Alan Bridges (The Hireling, The Shooting Party).

Hana-bi (はなび HANA-BI), released in the US as "Fireworks", is a 1997 Japanese film written, directed and edited by, and starring Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano. The film's score was composed by renowned Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi. This was their fourth collaboration.

A complete course covering the ABRSM Grade 7 Music Theory syllabus.

Writing a soundtrack for Being John Malkovich couldn't have been an easy task for Carter Burwell. How many films so freely sneak between absurdity, fantasy, and dark melancholy–often in the same scene? Thankfully, the film composer rose to the task. The music of Being John Malkovich varies from introspective simple piano solos to a snippet of Bartók, but mostly revolves around an orchestrated theme found from the start of the movie (heard in the track "Puppet Love" all the way through "Future Vessel"). There are some odd surprises, such as Björk's dreamy contribution of "Amphibian" and "Malkovich Masterpiece Remix," in which the actor reciting his name is transformed into a goofy trip-hop tune. Track 17 is an excerpt of Burwell verbally explaining a scene to his orchestra; on track 18 ("Lotte Makes Love"), we get to hear the outcome. Just like the movie, this soundtrack can be repetitive at times, but it's a perfect accompaniment to this weird and wonderful film. –Jason Verlinde

A wonderful collection of Mancini's top scores, performed by a great orchestra. You will find all the famous hits: Charade, The Pink Panther Theme, Baby Elephant Walk and many others. Henry Mancini will always be all over and around us. Enjoy the collection. Embrace the dream.

Lawrence Power makes the second of his appearances in this month’s release lists, this time with his regular pianist partner Simon Crawford-Phillips in the chamber music of Shostakovich. The centrepiece is the Viola Sonata, Shostakovich’s last completed work, premiered posthumously, on what would have been the composer’s sixty-ninth birthday. Its ravishing slow finale reworks the opening of Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight’ Sonata—a tribute to a composer he revered. Shostakovich the film composer also takes a bow, in the form of The Gadfly, with its famous ‘Romance’ beloved of violinists everywhere. That this works just as compellingly on the viola is triumphantly displayed in the arrangement made by Vadim Borisovsky (founding violist of the Beethoven Quartet), one of the Five Pieces he recast from Shostakovich’s original. Shostakovich’s 24 Piano Preludes have also proved irresistible to transcribers and here we have the seven brilliantly reworked by a pupil of Borisovsky, Yevgeny Strakhov.