Jerry Goldsmith: 40 Years of Film Music

From the Editors

Jerry Goldsmith's death in 2004 marked the end of one of the greatest careers in film composing. This lavish 57 track 4 CD set traces the path of his astonishing achievements and includes recordings conducted by Goldsmith himself. Featuring The City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, The Philharmonia Orchestra, The National Philharmonic Orchestra, and The Daniel Caine Orchestra. Includes over 280 minutes of music.
Album Description

Customer Response

Enjoy his music
I enjoy his music from the movies. Purchased the album to continue listening to the movie background music wherever I go.

Jerry Goldsmith: One of the great composers for the silver screen
There have been so many times when I thoroughly enjoyed the soundtrack of a movie I had gone to seen and checked to see who the composer was, I found the name of Jerry Goldsmith. I remember often thinking that guy could really compose some good music. Therefore, I got excited when I found this music compilation and couldn't wait to order it from Amazon.com. What I got was pretty much what I expected: over 280 minutes of great theme music from the movies and TV, some of which I remembered, but some completely new to me.

In all music from some 53 movies and television series is represented. In some cases, we get a musical suite or two or more selections from a given score but sometimes we must make do with only the main theme music. I would like to have heard more from the award winning or nominated Chinatown, Patton, Basic Instinct and Planet of the Apes (not included in this set) and perhaps less from The Blue Max, In Harm's Way, The Boys from Brazil or Star Trek®: Nemesis suites. Even so, there is plenty of good music. I would say 75 or 80 percent is thoroughly enjoyable and worth listening to again and again.

Highlights for me include stirring suites from The Wind and the Lion, Emmy winning QB VII, Star Trek®: The Motion Picture, Under Fire, The Sum of all Fears and Oscar® winning The Omen, as well as the main theme music from Basic Instinct, Capricorn One, Total Recall, The Waltons and Police Story. After years of wishing for it, I was finally able to add a representative Jerry Goldsmith album to my music library.

So what if it doesn't have EVERYTHING!!!
Other reviewers may have deducted a star because the four-disc compilation omits some familiar Goldsmith movie compositions, notably a sample of his innovative score to '68's "Planet of the Apes."

Well, the release does not claim to be the "definitive" Goldsmith and at 4.7 hours long, there is enough of the legendary composer's work to satisfy even the most casual of fans.

Spanning Goldsmith's output from the 60's up until 2002, the album is representative of some of the composer's most familiar compositions, including snippets/suites from "Star Trek: the Motion Picture," "Alien," "Under Fire," "Poltergeist," the underrated "Boys from Brazil," the Emmy-winning music to the respective miniseries "QB VIII" and "Masada," as well as "The Omen," Goldsmith's only film score to grab an Oscar.

One of the album's pluses is the inclusion of Goldsmith's unused cues from Ridley Scott's fantasy "Legend," starring Tom Cruise. For most Americans, this is a find because the music was only used in the European version of the film.

The fact that Goldsmith, in addition to others, conducted some of his own creations, adding a dynamic that makes this a truly FIVE-STAR offering.

40 Years And Still Missing Some Of His Best
OK, there are a lot of movie composers that you could call the Big Leaguers. John Williams, Elmer Bernstein, and Jerry Goldsmith. I don't know who was in charge of this compilation, but I can't believe they would cull the "essential" music of such a gifted composer but overlook one of his most stirring and moving soundtracks. I'm talking of course about the 1970 war epic "Patton". To not include any of that music is just a travesty and that's why I am only giving this collection a 2 star rating.

Outstanding.
An outstanding recording,to be taken back in time ,when being absorbed in the sounds,and strains of strident musicand the softer passages,truly inspiring,melodies to tug at your heart.Great orchestral,performace,the percussion section must have had a ball.

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