Do you have the Vertigo soundtrack yet? I'd personally recommend the Joel McNeely and the Royal Scottish Orchestra recording that was rereleased in 1996; it's most authentic to Herrmann's conducting. Perhaps it's because I got the McNeely recording first, but Muir Matheson's rereleased version sounds terrible to me! As you probably know, Herrmann was unable to conduct the original score due to a strike, and Matheson ended up conducting it overseas. Herrmann had never been happy with the Matheson recording, so McNeely, the composer/conductor who probably knows Herrmann's work better than anyone else currently alive, later on looked over Herrmann's notes and actually followed the tempi marked on those notes. The feel is quite different, especially in the prelude and "Scene d'Amour."
I must confess that I'm not super familiar with John Williams' work but I definitely agree with your comments. I rather like some of his more recent, low-key work on Catch Me If You Can and the Terminal. My favorite of his Harry Potter scores is his most recent version; he finally got to stretch his creative vision more and come up with more original material. I was rather disappointed by the second one as it sounded much like an uninspired rehash of the first. Sadly I'm not familiar with Peter in the Wolf.
Another composer who can work wonders for brass is John Barry, easily my favorite. The main titles of Dances with Wolves as well as "Buffalo Hunt" from the same film are probably the best example of this, though he's also very well known for the whoa-whoa brass of the earlier James Bond films.
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Date: 2005-04-07 01:47 am (UTC)I must confess that I'm not super familiar with John Williams' work but I definitely agree with your comments. I rather like some of his more recent, low-key work on Catch Me If You Can and the Terminal. My favorite of his Harry Potter scores is his most recent version; he finally got to stretch his creative vision more and come up with more original material. I was rather disappointed by the second one as it sounded much like an uninspired rehash of the first. Sadly I'm not familiar with Peter in the Wolf.
Another composer who can work wonders for brass is John Barry, easily my favorite. The main titles of Dances with Wolves as well as "Buffalo Hunt" from the same film are probably the best example of this, though he's also very well known for the whoa-whoa brass of the earlier James Bond films.