These sunny, lucid performances are the best Aaron Copland has ever given us of his own music. In truth, he was not a great conductor, and much of the credit for the success of this disc must go to the Boston Symphony--the orchestra that, along with the New York Philharmonic, has been most closely associated with Copland's music. In addition to the lovely Appalachian Spring ballet, ...
James Horner was faced with an unusual challenge when he composed the score for Iris, a film about author Iris Murdoch's descent into Alzheimer's disease. In the movie, two actresses play the role of Murdoch and scenes constantly shift between those showing the novelist as a young woman, played by Kate Winslet, and as an old, dying woman, played by Judi Dench. Horner solves the musical ...
Compiling film themes into a consistently engaging listen has never been easy. Sony has really pulled it off on The Classic Score though, drawing together a genuinely impressive playlist from multiple labels and artists. Its success is in part down to the ear of whoever compiled it, but it's also a fantastic reminder that film music has by no means grown stale while embracing the 21st ...