Jerry Goldsmith Collection Rarities Vol. 1/Compilation

 

This reviewer is also a collector of compilation collections and I prefer to have companies like BSX make the decision for me. Lately the company has definitely gotten outside the box and offered material arranged in a unique fashion such as classical guitar material from Gregg Nestor. Classical guitar and Rozsa do blend quite nicely together! This latest compilation offers as the title says some rarity material from Jerry Goldsmith. Dominik Hauser, who recently had his newly created score for “Wings” released by La-La Land, is the chief arranger for most of the tracks and offers piano, synthesizer, and trumpet as arranging/orchestrating of material. Also contributing to the effort are Beal, Park, Northam, Cirino, Grossman, and Wiegand.

 

Judge Dredd starts the CD with an eye opening synthesized rendition with pounding percussion in a trailer arrangement. Seven Days in May, the longest track is an arrangement by Hauser of the complete score featuring the drums of Kurt Walther. This arrangement offers percussion (tuned sometimes), with a piano providing a jagged dissonant harmony. Truly a unique track and arrangement of seldom heard material. Chinatown offers the familiar trumpet solo against a layer of harp and strings with piano harmony. Trumpet player Roy Wiegand also offers solos on A Patch of Blue and Hollister: Brotherhood of the Gun. The Detective seems to have a Bill Evans style arrangement in mind for the sad and haunting theme (Dark Song) for the solo piano played nicely by Mark Northam, who also contributes another solo on the seldom played theme from The Players. Gregg Nestor contributes two fine classical guitar tracks. Toccata For Solo Guitar a seldom if ever played classical piece offers a melody which begins and ends the work in between some improvisational material typical of a toccata without any fugue material. Rio Lobo, another seldom played Goldsmith, is the classic yearning theme that many westerns over the year have offered. Gregg offers the theme along with fine harmony making this a pleasant listen. Psycho 2, a nice piano solo by Park with layers of synthesizer material and a cello offering makes for a nice listen. Katie Campbell gives wordless support to the often played Poltergeist arranged elevator music style by Dominik Hauser. She also contributes her voice to The Illustrated Man. Sum Of All Fears is also given the elevator music arrangement with guitar and piano complementing one another.

I would amiss if I didn’t comment on the digital vs CD sound quality difference on this recording. I was given initially the digital file in which to evaluate the recording for review. Recently Mark Banning of BSX Records was kind enough to send me the CD and this allowed me the opportunity to do and AB comparison of the two recordings. The difference was as evident as listening to your favorite song on the radio and then playing the CD of the same recording through your stereo system. In other words there is no doubt as to which recording came from what source. While I certainly realize the huge advantage to being able to send the material in a digital format I also feel that a recording such as this one is not able to showcase the quality it has to offer. An excellent example of this is the cello solo from Peggy Baldwin where she plays the love theme from the Sand Pebbles. Her solo has a richness to it that isn’t evident on the digital offering. The harmony on the track offers a greater distinct separation between the instruments. I fully realize that the digital files are going to be what is available but I for one still enjoy listening to the fullness of a lossless wave file.

 

Track listing

1.  JUDGE DREDD: Trailer (John Beal) (0:55)

2.  SEVEN DAYS IN MAY: Complete score (Dominik Hauser) (11:29)

FILM NOIR SUITE

3. CHINATOWN: End Credits (Dominik Hauser & Roy Wiegand)(2:01)

4. THE DETECTIVE: The Dark Song (Solo Piano) (Mark Northam)(3:02)

5. SHAMUS: Main Title (Dominik Hauser) (3:38)

6. TWO DAYS IN THE VALLEY: Main Theme (Dominik Hauser & Roy Wiegand)(2:26)

THRILLERS

7. THE LIST OF ADRIAN MESSENGER: Main Theme (Grossman 2012) (3:44)

8. SEBASTIAN: Comes The Night (Dominik Hauser) (2:38)

9. THE VANISHING: No Coffee (End Credits) (Dominik Hauser) (3:07)

10. THE SUM OF ALL FEARS: Remember (Dominik Hauser) (3:29)

LOST LOVE

11. PATCH OF BLUE: Main Theme (Dominik Hauser)(4:57)

12. THE SAND PEBBLES: Love Theme (Dominik Hauser)(3:07)

13. PLAYERS: Love Theme (Solo Piano) (Mark Northam)(3:27)

14. PAPILLON: Main Theme (Dominik Hauser)(2:12)

THE WAY WEST

15. TOCCATA FOR SOLO GUITAR (Gregg Nestor)(2:50)

16. RIO LOBO: Main Title (Gregg Nestor)(2:47)

17. RIO CONCHOS: Main Title (Chuck Cirino)(2:35)

18. HOLLISTER: BROTHERHOOD OF THE GUN: Main Theme (Dominik Hauser)(1:58)

FLIGHTS OF FANTASY

19. WARLOCK: The Sentence (2011) (Joohyun Park)(3:21)

20. PSYCHO 2: Main Theme (2011) (Joohyun Park)(3:40)

21. THE OMEN: Love Theme (Dominik Hauser)(2:54)

22. THE ILLUSTRATED MAN: Main Title (Dominik Hauser and Katie Campbell)(3:07)

23. POLTERGEIST: Carol Ann’s Theme (Dominik Hauser and Katie Campbell)(3:21)

Total Time is 77:41