Essential Jerry Goldsmith Film Music Collection, The (1998)

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This two-disc sampler of Goldsmith features recordings of some of his best-known works and a range of lesser-known but equally worthwhile themes. For me, a definate seller was the presence of the main themes from "Masada" "Under Fire" and "Twilight Zone: the Movie." If they'd included the "Gremlins" theme, I would have been as happy as can be, because I would have had my favorite hard-to-find Goldsmith music all in one spot!

If there's one thing lacking here, it's that none of the selections clearly show the magic that Goldsmith is able to work with an orchestra's percussion session, nor the unique sounds he creates when pairing ethnic instruments with traditional western orchestra instruments.

Still, those are minor gripes in the light of the excellent quality of the performances found here.

Not the soundtracks
Goldsmith is great, of course, but be warned: this is not a collection of his soundtracks, as advertised. It's an "interpretation" (according to the liner notes) by a Czeckoslovakian orchestra. Not a bad orchestra, all in all-- but just know this CD is not what it appears.

Review by Steven McDonald
It's truly impossible to cover all the facets of Jerry Goldsmith's career as a composer for film, even on a packed double-CD set such as this. The COPP, under the baton of Nic Raine, give it their best shot, however, including music from Masada, The Blue Max, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture along the way. The performances are dynamic, with good orchestrations that play to the writing, rather than to the effect of having a large orchestra on hand. The discs are High Density Compatible Digital encoded and the mix is Dolby Surround, so you can expect a musical spectacle.