Great score, cool themes, bit too dated to hold up today by Shawn Watson (September 26, 2004)
Listening to the Taras Bulba soundtrack it's clear that John Williams was a fan of Franz Waxman. Much of this score seems to be the kind of stuff that inspired him in later years. So much so that much of the feeling and emotion in Taras Bulba is not too far removed from the Harry Potter score.
My problem is that the orchestra is rather sparse. I've heard the Taras Bulba score done massively and it's much better than what's on this CD. Yes, the score is great and some of those themes are really cool but they are rather primitive sounding. Try to find the concert CD of the score in the classical sections of your music store. It really is much better.