The Lion King

Hans Zimmer delivers a bright and impeccable score on The Power of One, drawing from traditional hymnals and incorporating the Bulawayo church choir against lush orchestral drumming backdrops. The film, directed by John Avildsen (Rocky and The Karate Kid) centers around the director's favorite theme of one young man who defeats great odds to become a hero. The Power of One, which was no box office hit like Avildsen's previous films, is a more ambitious film. It is more ambitious not because it was filmed in Zimbabwe, but because it deals with the events surrounding World War II, neo-Nazis, and apartheid. Lebo M, who worked with Zimmer on The Lion King soundtrack, wrote the lyrics, of which none are in English. Listening to the power of this music reminds us that there was a lot more to the soundtrack of The Lion King than Elton John and Tim Rice's pop songs…

Most popular to theater audiences from his title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber's version of The Phantom of the Opera, Michael Crawford was in fact a star of the British stage and screen for almost two decades before that. Born in Wiltshire, England, in 1942, he began singing in the school choir and, while still a teenager, changed his name from Dumble-Smith to the more charismatic Crawford and began working in radio, television, and film. After first stepping on the London stage in the early '60s, Crawford's first regular television series was the BBC's 1960s show Not So Much a Programme, More a Way of Life; he appeared in several films as well (The War Lover, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and a starring turn in How I Won the War, which also featured John Lennon).

The King’s Singers celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Disney with When you wish upon a star, a joyful album of twenty-five hit songs drawn from the soundtrack of the past century. They are joined by mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and a host of guest artists in a programme comprising virtuoso close-harmony arrangements freshly commissioned from an international line-up of composers, including John Rutter, Nico Muhly, Alexander L’Estrange, Toby Young, Jim Clements and Jamey Ray. The tracklist embraces songs from nine decades of Disney animation, spanning everything from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to Coco (2017) to evoke memories of childhood for listeners of all ages.