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October 2003 Film Music CD Reviews

Film Music Editor: Gary S. Dalkin
Managing Editor: Ian Lace
Music Webmaster Len Mullenger

index page/ monthly listings / October /


21st Century Cinema Classics  
Various
  Available on Naxos Records (8.556698)  
Running Time: 74:52
Crotchet   Amazon UK   Amazon US

21st century cinema classics

  • Greenfingers - Handel - 'La Réjouissance' from 'Royal Fireworks Music'
  • The Others - Chopin - ''Farewell' Waltz'
  • The Man Who Cried - Purcell - 'Did's Lament' from 'Dido and Aeneas'
  • Rat Race - Grieg - 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' from Peer Gynt'
  • Billy Elliot - Tchaikovsky 'Scene (Swan Theme)' from Swan Lake
  • Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Verdi - 'La Donna é mobile' from 'Rigoletto'
  • Original Sin - Schumann - 'Von Fremden Ländern' from 'Kinderszenen'
  • S1m0ne - Fauré - 'Pie Jesu' from 'Requiem'
  • House of Mirth - Haydn - ''Lark' Quartet (3rd movement)'
  • Me, Myself and Irene - Mendelssohn - 'Wedding March' from 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'
  • xXx - Mozart - 'Finch' han dal vino (Champagne Aria)' from Don Giovanni
  • Hannibal - Johann Strauss II - 'Blue Danube Waltz'
  • Ocena's Eleven - Debussy - Clair de lune
  • Bridget Jones's Diary - Handel - 'Hallelujah Chorus' from 'The Messiah'
  • Minority Report - Schubert - ''Unfinished' Symphony (1st movement)

Here's another example of a selection of classical compositions bundled together based on their connection to popular movies. Actually, I don't have a problem with this kind of commercial enterprise, it's a nice way for fans of movies and indeed those whose experience is mainly in film music, to get a taster of that other sphere of musical drama, classical music, a cousin to film scoring which sometimes can be overlooked by film music devotees.

Here, the choices are generally populist and mainstream, the emphasis on the genteel and sober with the occasional burst of the vivacious, but it's a pleasant enough even if for me most of the pieces are what I would consider to be light fare. Still, there is a little Tchaikovsky and Debussy's lovely 'Clair de lune' to savour and film fans looking to branch out into the realm of the classical could do a lot worse than to give this a listen.

Mark Hockley

*** 3

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