Michael Gray

If you like strange and creepy sounding music, this is an excellent soundtrack. I heard the ending title and that was the main reason I bought the CD. The music is very hypnotic, and the same tune plays over and over again, it's kind of a weird type of "Chill Out" (I think that's what that style of music is called).

Great CD.

I fell upon this hidden gem completely by accident. I really wasnt expecting all that much from it since I wasnt that thrilled about seeing the movie (I still havnt), but I was veru suprised. Thomas Newman certainly brings a unique sound to the table, and he has distinguished his sound (in my mind anyway) from composers such as Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Howard Shore, and so on.

As I said, I've nver seen this movie, however, the music is good enough that it stands on its own as a listenable album without the need of visual aid to make it work. I get a kick out of just listening to the tracks and conjuring my own scenes in my head. Or, if the occasion calls for it, there are enough mellow tracks to keep me in a relaxed state or provide a good backdrop for a working enviornment.

I also enjoy this soundtrack for its musical inovation. I can honestly say I dont have anything that sounds like this. I dont know if that says more about the compser or about the score as it pretains to the film, but regardless, it is an enjoyable experience. All in all, a pretty damn good score. Give it a shot, its worth it.

I wasn't really too familiar with Thomas Newman's work until this score came out. The only score I had heard was Meet Joe Black and naturally, it happens to be one of my favorite scores. But this one...
Truly one of a kind. I had been a fan of the books so I was looking forward to the movie. I loved the movie and the music...was perfect for this film. Even for the books, out of the ordinary,unfamiliar and down right eerie. This film captured all of those things. Though throughout most of the album, you will hear blaring horns, awkward rhythms, and moody and waving volume, Newman did place a few soft, very peaceful themes for the Baudelaires giving the listener a few moments to calm down and relax.
It is a wonder Thomas Newman DIDN't win the award but you should never let an award define your music or your taste in music.

Got this for my son who is a HUGE Snickets fan. I am a professional musician, and was really impressed by the very edgy and creative writing done for this film. It made us laugh, dance,and listen pensively. Wish I could write like this !

Thomas Newman is one of the most versatile composers of film scores around. His previous works have all been of a very high quality and with Lemony Snicket he certainly doesn't disappoint. Newman has the ability to create a varied score and yet make it entirely identifiable as his own style. Each piece of music fits its corresponding scene of the film like a glove. As unique as the cinematography is, so to is the music.
Newman succeeds in bringing across to the audience the emotion of the characters on the screen, and it's a testiment to his skill and talent that his music can be listened to apart from the film and still be enjoyed as much, if for other reasons.
The final three tracks are particularly special. 'One last look', 'The letter that never came' and 'Drive away' will, I'm sure, take you back to the touching final scene in the burnt out Beaudelaire mansion.
Happy listening to this very special work.

This is album is worth getting for the Beatlecracker Suite, particularly if you are familiar with Tchaikovsky's characteristic dances from his Nutcracker ballet. If you had not read the titles of the tracks, you might need to listen several times to figure out what Beatles tune is being given the Russian ballet treatment.

I first heard these tracks 35 years ago on one of those Extended Play records which played at 33 RPM, instead of the more usual 45. My friend thought that these renditions made The Beatles palatable! I, as a great Beatles fan was horrified!

Australians reading this might be interested to know that the first time I heard these tracks was the same day that it was announced that Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt had disappeared at Portsea.

The way that the Lennon-McCartney songs are combined with Tchaikovsky is clever and also hilarious. Worth buying to hear how it was done.

John Williams is one of the world's best guitarists, but you'd never know it by listening to this album. He basically plucks out the melody. I think I hear more complex playing in the background, but if that's what it is, it's mixed so as to be barely audible. On the other hand, it's very nice background music. I hope brisk sales support Williams' more serious efforts.

I like this CD very much, I have looked for it for 5 years since I listened its MP3, I got it now, thanks!

While this album is pleasant enough, it is more orchestra music than classical guitar. John Williams is a great classical guitarist, but the guitar part on this album could have been played by any competent guitarist. If you want nice background music, this album is ok. If you want classical guitar music, look elsewhere.

If you like film music, this CD is for you; if you like guitar music, this CD is for you. John Williams brings his guitar virtuosity to bear masterfully on the scores of a number of popular films, which span a period of 60 years.

The use of the guitar gives a different sound to number of the selections, and shows that a good piece of music will shine, no matter what the instrumentation.

How can anyone compare Bryan Adams' work to the elite performances of John Williams.... This man is quite a genius and second to none.... I, as a classical guitar player have found that this presentation has assisted me greatly... Let's see some more John.. Thanks a lot

My father used to listen Glenn Miller. For me, hearing this is to go back to my childhood, with the plus of Pizzarelli, that I like a lot. Great songs, great disc!

RUNNING WILD is collection of Glenn Miller favorites and is Keith Lockhart's debut recording with the Boston Pops Orchestra. The musical quality is good. While it does not demonstrate the style that Lockhart would later develop with the orchestra, it certainly offers glimpses of what is to come. Perhaps the recording's strongest tracks are the musical numbers with guests: John Pizzarelli and the King Singers, especially the album's rendition of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo". One of Lockhart's greatest strengths is selecting guests to accompany the orchestra and this album is a foretaste of what is later to come, particularly on the Celtic and Mexican collections released later in Lockhart's tenure. While the album is good, and Lockhart seems to enjoy conducting these Big Band pieces, his rendition of "In the Mood" is missing something, which is surprising since this work is such a staple at Pops concerts, but even a not quiet the best rendition of any piece by the Boston Pops is still far better than much of what is available.

When John Williams stepped down as conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra after 14 successful seasons, the talented young Keith Lockhart was chosen as his replacement. Looking more like a college freshman than music director of one of America's most famous orchestras, Lockhart has proved to be just as adept and popular as Williams and the late Arthur Fiedler.

1996's Runnin' Wild is a collection of songs made famous by Big Band era orchestra leader Glenn Miller, whose civilian and later Army Air Force bands provided audiences with music to dance to (and love to) before and during World War II. Before his mysterious death in December 1944, Miller's band and featured vocalists gave the world such beloved swing standards as "In The Mood," "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," "A String of Pearls," and his signature theme, "Moonlight Serenade."

Listen to this album, close your eyes, and the Boston Pops Orchestra transports you back to the 1940s, with young men in uniform dancing with either their wives, sweethearts, or USO girls to the fast-paced "Runnin' Wild"...gently swaying the sweet "A String of Pearls" (featured in the film The Glenn Miller Story)...or sharing that last sweet bit of lovemaking to the slow beat of "Moonlight Serenade."

Of the 16 selections, "Moonlight Serenade" is the one I am most familiar with, having heard it as incidental music or "source" material in so many World War II movies or documentaries. It's slow, gentle, romantic yet sensual, and it's the only "Glenn Miller" song actually written by the bandleader. Originally titled "Now I Lay Me Down to Weep," it was a big hit in 1939 and was the theme song for both Miller's and Tex Beneke's bands. The Pops' performance of it captures its air of nostalgia perfectly, and the clarinet solo by Thomas Martin is simply fabulous.

Modern standards singer John Pizzarelli and The King's Singers show their stuff on several tracks, most vividly so in "Chattanooga Choo-Choo," which was another chart-topping hit for Miller in 1941, the year the U.S. entered World War II. Pizzarelli has a way of channeling the great vocalists of the era, with his easy-to-listen voice and flawless delivery. The King's Singers are wonderful backup in other songs, including "Serenade in Blue" and "(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo."

As a soloist, Pizzarelli shines in the more romantic (and slower) "The Nearness of You," a song that might have been on a serviceman's mind when reading a letter from his wife or girlfriend.

Another sentimental favorite where Pizzarelli performs well is 1940's "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," a song introduced in Britain and popularized not only by Glenn Miller but also Guy Lombardo and Sammy Kay.

Several genres also get the Glenn Miller treatment, such as opera (Verdi's "The Anvil Chorus," from Il Trovatore), vaudeville ("My Blue Heaven") blues ("The St. Louis Blues March") and even Russian traditional songs ("Volga Boatmen").

So if you want to get "In the Mood" and have a good time listening to a fun Boston Pops Orchestra album, Runnin' Wild is definitely worth getting.

I bought this CD three days ago and it hasn't left my CD player since. There is nothing like waking up and putting on "In the Mood" to start your day, or listening to "Moonlight Serenade" to end it.

The Pops are a Boston institution. They have been a tradition for many and familiar to most. I have been to the Pops probably as often as to Fenway Park. I like both and find great comfort in each.

What happens with much of what the Pops attempt here is goofy. The cover art, is I presume, similar to the old Arthur Fiedler covers where he wore a funny coat or hat and tried to look less symphonic and more silly. Give it up.

The strength of the Pops is the traditional, predictable format and arrangements that are as easy to identify as your own child. That too is the unfortunate part of the Pops. There needs to be a little something new here.

So if you enjoy the traditional string arrangements and percussion of the Pops this will not disappoint you. If you are trying to get a youngster excited about this music you might more easily find an elevator and listen to the musak.

Classical arrangements, novelty music and patriotic songs are the best the Pops can provide. The swing music just doesn't do it for me.

Runnin' wild? Maybe with a walker.

It's a pleasure listen to soundtrack like this.

The music is amazing, the libret same.

A wonderfull cd.

An overlooked MGM musical that deserves better recognition. A great score from Comden & Green. The Embroidered Corpse

West Side Story, the original broadway cast belongs in every collection. The cast was superb, and because it was brand new the energy sizzled. Chita Rivera, in the part of a lifetime (ok she has had several such as Velma Kelly, and The Spider Woman) will never be beat. However.............there is a great deal of music missing, and West Side Story needs to be heard in its entirety.

Of all the post OBC recordings, this one simply is by far the best of the lot. It comes from an English production, which appears to have been quite good. Therefore there are no major mistakes in casting, unlike the Bernstein conducted recording which was abominably cast (Kiri Te Kanawa and Jose Carreras, what were they thinking?)

This recording is the only one that gives you the overture. I saw a touring revival about 1995 or so that chose to use the overture. The show plays much better when it starts with the high tension overture (it starts off with the opening chords of the Mambo and the cast behind a scrim shout "Mambo." It sets the show up much better than having the curtain rise and jumping into the finger snapping jazzy dance riffs of the opening Jets/Sharks confrontation. I know Bernstein scuttled the overture, but he was WRONG, very wrong.

Everything about this recording is top knotch. Johnathan Owen Edwards know how to pace musicals, and this is especially true of Bernstein. The orchestra is brilliant, the recording balances wonderful and the characters just leap out of the speakers.

This is absolutely the recording to suppliment the OBC, a West Side Story for the ages. Thank you John Yap.

This record is perfect beyond compare, which justifies its price.
Caroline O'Connor as Anita is wonderful ("a voice like a Porsche", as sb said).
If you have survived the London cast, you will happily recognize the caracters in this recording.

However, I do not share the opinion that
Riff's 'COOL' be lacking of vocal style
and Maria be even "ridiculous" in 'SOMEWHERE'.

The symphonic dances have their own unique style
different from the Bernstein recording with Los Angeles Philharmonic.

I don't know what took me so long to order this terrific recording. This is the best recording of West Side Story to date. The casting is perfect, unlike Jose Carreras's and Kiri Tekanawa's version. I also enjoyed the bonus tracks, which are ideal versions for a Broadway anthology compilation. Grab this while you still can, you won't regr this great experience of one of the best-loved musicals of all time.

This is a good version of West Side Story. The quality is excellent, and has wonderful orchestration. Caroline O'Conner makes a great Anita. Her version of "A Boy Like That" is fantastic. I was dissapointed, however, with Paul Manuel's version of Riff. His voice seemed to crack and "Cool" was lacking in vocal style. Tinuke Olafimihan is a wonderful vocalist, but her operatic style didn't seem to fit with the rest of the ensemble. It was still worth hearing her version of "I Feel Pretty" which was delightful on it's own. Overall a worthy purchase.

I am a huge West Side Story fan and I just love this recording. This is definitely the one to buy, because even if you like some of the movie versions of the songs, hey, they're right here too! I don't know what they're talking about when they say Paul Manuel has a "smallish" voice. He blew me away throughout this whole recording, especially that inconceivable high note during "Maria." Anyone who's heard this recording knows what I'm talking about. Caroline O'Conner was great, the orchestra was great, the cast in general was great. I only have one minor quibble and that is, while Tinuke Olafimihan is a fantastic singer, she does sound a little ridiculous in some of the acting scenes, particularly at the beginning of the "Somewhere" ballet. But other than that, this is darn near perfect and should be the only recording anyone ever really needs of this incredible play.

I was ready to give this EMI budget two-fre of Berlioz's Damnation de Fuast three stars, strictly on my memory of Georges Pretre's bald-faced, sometimes brash conducting. But once I begn listening again, a lot caught my ear. It's always a god sign when Faust's treacherous opening solo is well sung, and Nicolai Gedda is first-rate, singing with apparent ease and lovely style. Then there's the very French orchestra and chorus. They add a particular flavor that even the greatest orchestras outside France can't match--Berlioz sounds at home in Paris, as Johann Stauss does in Vienna.

The mezzo doesn't have a large part, but I originally bought this recording for Janet Baker, who is intense and superb in every way--as she is in the filler, her classic recording of La Mort de Cleopatra (which can be had in several reissues; I'd find oe with the latest remastering since the sonics here are a bit thin and edgy). By the time I got to Gabriel Bacquier's exciting and sinuous Mephistopheles, a really nasty, confident devil, I was hooked.

It's only because of the staggeringly strong competition from Myung-Whun Chung and Igor Markevitch, both brilliantly performed in the Gallic vein, along with estimable version from Colin Davis and Charles Munch, that I can't quite put this set in top place. It certainly has a great deal of drama going for it, however, and the wide-raning sonics are thrilling.

Berlioz was the epitome of the Romantic musical dramatist. Through his life he was taken with dramatic subjects, from Goethe to Shakespeare to Virgil, literature was a prime medium for the composer. And as an inveterate experimenter, Berlioz' literary bent would shine in the most unusual ways formally. The Damnation of Faust is an example of one of Berlioz' most imaginative and lyrical scores.

Berlioz set parts of the Goethe masterwork early in his career as Eight Scenes from Faust, his Opus 1. Though he withdrew the work quickly, much of the music made it into the later Faust, along with several other stand alone works like the Rakoczy March. The work sounds like an opera, but Berlioz' sense of scene is too fantastic for the stage. As a result the work is described as a dramatic legend. Most of the drama of the piece is shifted from the stage to the orchestra. In this way, Berlioz anticipates the development of Wagnerian music drama, and shows much of the keen psychological insight of the later German master. Berlioz' take on the Goethe play is not at all orthodox. Though the basic outlines of Faust Part 1 can be seen...the world-weary renunciation of life by Faust, the temptation and pact, the student scenes, the love affair with Marguerite and her final death, much is fiddled with as well. The opening of the work takes place on the "plains of Hungary"...inserted in the work are scenes near the Elbe complete with magic effects...a beautiful Willow the Wisp dance in Marguerite's apartment...and the final journey of Faust to Hell. This of course is Berlioz' greatest departure from Goethe, but it makes for thrilling music and plays to the composers great orchestral strengths.

This work is soaring and lyrical, perhaps the composer's most melodic score. From Faust's opening aria greeting spring, though the lovely duets with Faust and Marguerite, to the haunting music of Marguerite abandoned, this is a work brimming with melody. The orchestration is also stunning, as one would expect from Berlioz. The composer is masterly, picking just the right instrument or combination of instruments for each scene. The one place that does seem to get past him is the final scene in Hell. While the ride to Damnation is hair-raising, the chorus of the demons and damned souls is kind of silly...almost Italian band music, and very unworthy of such a great master. As a result, the end looses just a bit of it's punch. But this is nitpicky! So much of the score before this moment is wonderful that to complain about this is to miss the point.

This is not the Faust I grew up with. My first and favorite Faust will always be the Colin Davis recording with Gedda and Veasey. It has the advantage of little competition at the time and the excitement of new discovery. However, this is a wonderful reading, vocally perhaps even better than the Davis recording. Gedda is absolutely marvelous. What a tenor he was...able to sing Italian, German, French and even English opera with force and conviction. And Dame Janet Baker is perfect as Maguerite. She strikes the exact tone of vulnerability needed to make the character sympathetic without descending into bathos. Gabriel Baquier makes a convincing Mephistopheles and is particularly entertaining in his comic songs. The orchestra is conducted by a second tier Berliozian, Georges Pretre, but sounds wonderful. The filler on the disc is Berlioz' early Mor De Cleopatre, a work that the composer wrote in an unsuccessful attempt to win the Prix de Rome. The work was judged to have "dangerous tendencies". Seen in hindsight it's hard to understand why that would be the case. This is definitely second rate Berlioz...the product of a student trying to conform to the academic establishment of the time, though the melodic lines show hints of the genius to come. It's an interesting listen, but I might wish for other works to fill out and balance the wonderful Faust.

One other small complaint about this CD. EMI's Double Forte series is a terrific bargain, but they really do skimp on the liner notes. There is a short synopsis of the storyline, and a little information on the history of the composition, but nothing too detailed. And there is no libretto included at all. This is a small complaint, but a complaint nevertheless.

Do not let the rather silly title, Sogno talor (Sometimes I dream) put you off. This 2-CD set for the price of 1-CD is a real find for lovers of bel canto, with selections from composers like Donizetti and Rossini, but also from many other noted nineteenth century artists, including Meyerbeer and Offenbach, and from some virtual unknowns as Saverio Mercandante and Giovanni Pacini, from the vaults of Opera Rara.

There are overtures, solo arias, duets, trios, and ensembles, of mostly forgotten operas, most of them worth rediscovering based on these excerpts. About 2.5 hours of music. Many surprises here, for example a vocal quintet from Offenbach's 'Robinson Crusoe', sung in English !

And the singers are without exception superb, mostly drawn from the Opera Rara 'stable' of performers. Again, some more treats await, like a young Renee Fleming singing a duet with Bruce Ford from Donizetti's, Rosmonda d'Inghilterra.

The box set commemorates 25 years of Opera Rara's recordings of complete scores of, as the label suggests, rare operas. And the standards are of the highest. The accompanying 108-page booklet includes an introduction of the label itself, libretti of the arias, and many photographs. A quite lush package these days !

This is a real treasure, a palette of operatic colours, inticing the listener to want to hear the masterpieces complete. That presumably was the intention - and it works, delightfully !