The most comprehensive package of cinema music on offer, 18 Nov 2006
Cinema Century: A Musical Celebration of 100 Years of Cinema offers you the the most comprehensive package of the greatest musical songs to embrace their names in cinema history. This is a landmark celebration. In music retailing, you will not get any package that you offers the best and unique choice of high callibre music featured in movies. This takes some beating if you get what I mean. It is great value for money.

Cinema Century: A Musical Celebration of 100 Years of Cinema features three CDs of all the cinema songs which are a pleasure to listen and you can relive the magical and special moments of the greatest movies of all time. The list ranges from Lawrence of Arabia, Star Wars, Taxi Driver,Gone with the Wind, Out of Africa, A Passage to India, Chariots of Fire, Raiders of the Lost Ark and many more.

If you love classical music, then this is an album which is well suited to your musical taste. It is real treat for anyone who loves smoothing and relaxing music.

Play it Again...?, 24 Nov 2004
Probably not. What a shame, given the excellent range of titles on this 3 disc package. It was very disappointing to discover that these re-recordings based on the original film scores are no match for the original soundtrack recordings. To give just three examples: Max Steiner's - of all composers - 'Gone with the Wind' is weak and lacks all the pace, fullness, vigour and drama of the original soundtrack recording. And the same can be said of '633 Squadron' which has none of Goodwin's almost breathless pace; 'The Great Escape' can only be described as plodding. Unfortunately, this lack of energy in the scoring is identifiable virtually throughout the collection. There is a lot to be said for original soundtrack recordings, because the studios put a huge amount of effort into the orchestrations to get them spot on to the mood of the film, so my advice has to be go for original soundtracks every time - digtally re-mastered or not.

Very good, 19 Jun 2004
To be honest it is hard to review this box set. I can understand Andrew_mcp's point of view, and often find myself irritated by conductors playing around with the original material, or as Andrew wrote, when a small orchestra is used. In the case of these CDs I was not actually disappointed. I think with enough volume the recordings sound as good as the originals (though of course with a new orchestra and conductor). There are a lot of songs here for not a lot of money, which is good news, and in general the songs are great. I think I've rated this four and not five stars because I feel that potentially the song choices could have been better. For example, there is a lot of John Barry here, but it would have been nice to have varying themes as opposed to the very similar Dances with wolves, Born Free, and Out of Africa themes (though these are excellent). I also feel that there is more music from films like the Mission that I would have liked to hear rather than just the one theme. To be honest though I am being picky, and this is worth buying for unique tracks like the stroke of genius that is Where Eagles Dare, not to mention the likes of Zulu and Colonel Bogey. The more classical tracks are evened out with things like Mancini's Pink Panther and Fiedel's Terminator. This is well worth it for anyone who likes classic films.

Disappointingly "thin" versions, 11 Nov 2003
I was hoping for the full orchestral experience, but compared to the original soundtracks (ok, my memory of them), many of these versions are distinctly uninspiring... or recorded on a day when half the orchestra was off sick.

The playing as such isn't at fault, and 3 CDs for the price has to be good value for money. But I honestly can't recommend this.

You get a lot for your money!, 21 Mar 2003
This CD arrived this morning and already I've listened to most of it and love it - music from some of my favourite films such as "The Godfather" all on the one compilation! Even though I haven't seen most of the films I still love listening to the music. I bought this along with another film music compilation, "The Classic Score" and with these two CDs I've got a bit of everything!

A notable absence is "Titanic" but because I've heard the Titanic music so much, I was actually rather pleased to see it had been missed out! I was very pleased to discover that the track from "Bridge On the River Kwai" is the fun marching tune that all the soldiers whistle to on the film!! There are some real cinema classics on here, such as "Lawrence of Arabia", "Ben Hur", "Jaws"... the list is endless! So, three CDs, over 3 1/2 hours of great film music - you can't go far wrong with this!

Darling of the concert hall, Jarre's Arabia theme is a landscape portrait demonstrating film music at its finest. In tune with the composer's roots, this is actually a score dominated by percussion--something that might surprise listeners expecting nothing more than the one infamous theme. This re-issue of an expanded soundtrack album enlarges upon what was previously available, and makes for sometimes shockingly powerful listening as the predominant sound becomes the pounding of drums. It's a crisp performance, helped by an overseeing eye from the composer. Whether this will remain the definitive presentation is hard to say since, like the concert hall programmers, it's a favourite that folks just love to keep recording. This does, however, come with packaging that takes the eye and is crammed with facts from producer and Jarre fan James Fitzpatrick. --Paul Tonks

The most comprehensive package of cinema music on offer, 18 Nov 2006
Cinema Century: A Musical Celebration of 100 Years of Cinema offers you the the most comprehensive package of the greatest musical songs to embrace their names in cinema history. This is a landmark celebration. In music retailing, you will not get any package that you offers the best and unique choice of high callibre music featured in movies. This takes some beating if you get what I mean. It is great value for money.

Cinema Century: A Musical Celebration of 100 Years of Cinema features three CDs of all the cinema songs which are a pleasure to listen and you can relive the magical and special moments of the greatest movies of all time. The list ranges from Lawrence of Arabia, Star Wars, Taxi Driver,Gone with the Wind, Out of Africa, A Passage to India, Chariots of Fire, Raiders of the Lost Ark and many more.

If you love classical music, then this is an album which is well suited to your musical taste. It is real treat for anyone who loves smoothing and relaxing music.

Play it Again...?, 24 Nov 2004
Probably not. What a shame, given the excellent range of titles on this 3 disc package. It was very disappointing to discover that these re-recordings based on the original film scores are no match for the original soundtrack recordings. To give just three examples: Max Steiner's - of all composers - 'Gone with the Wind' is weak and lacks all the pace, fullness, vigour and drama of the original soundtrack recording. And the same can be said of '633 Squadron' which has none of Goodwin's almost breathless pace; 'The Great Escape' can only be described as plodding. Unfortunately, this lack of energy in the scoring is identifiable virtually throughout the collection. There is a lot to be said for original soundtrack recordings, because the studios put a huge amount of effort into the orchestrations to get them spot on to the mood of the film, so my advice has to be go for original soundtracks every time - digtally re-mastered or not.

Very good, 19 Jun 2004
To be honest it is hard to review this box set. I can understand Andrew_mcp's point of view, and often find myself irritated by conductors playing around with the original material, or as Andrew wrote, when a small orchestra is used. In the case of these CDs I was not actually disappointed. I think with enough volume the recordings sound as good as the originals (though of course with a new orchestra and conductor). There are a lot of songs here for not a lot of money, which is good news, and in general the songs are great. I think I've rated this four and not five stars because I feel that potentially the song choices could have been better. For example, there is a lot of John Barry here, but it would have been nice to have varying themes as opposed to the very similar Dances with wolves, Born Free, and Out of Africa themes (though these are excellent). I also feel that there is more music from films like the Mission that I would have liked to hear rather than just the one theme. To be honest though I am being picky, and this is worth buying for unique tracks like the stroke of genius that is Where Eagles Dare, not to mention the likes of Zulu and Colonel Bogey. The more classical tracks are evened out with things like Mancini's Pink Panther and Fiedel's Terminator. This is well worth it for anyone who likes classic films.

Disappointingly "thin" versions, 11 Nov 2003
I was hoping for the full orchestral experience, but compared to the original soundtracks (ok, my memory of them), many of these versions are distinctly uninspiring... or recorded on a day when half the orchestra was off sick.

The playing as such isn't at fault, and 3 CDs for the price has to be good value for money. But I honestly can't recommend this.

You get a lot for your money!, 21 Mar 2003
This CD arrived this morning and already I've listened to most of it and love it - music from some of my favourite films such as "The Godfather" all on the one compilation! Even though I haven't seen most of the films I still love listening to the music. I bought this along with another film music compilation, "The Classic Score" and with these two CDs I've got a bit of everything!

A notable absence is "Titanic" but because I've heard the Titanic music so much, I was actually rather pleased to see it had been missed out! I was very pleased to discover that the track from "Bridge On the River Kwai" is the fun marching tune that all the soldiers whistle to on the film!! There are some real cinema classics on here, such as "Lawrence of Arabia", "Ben Hur", "Jaws"... the list is endless! So, three CDs, over 3 1/2 hours of great film music - you can't go far wrong with this!

The Music Appreciation version of Jarre's classic score, 23 Feb 2004
As the cover proudly proclaims, this is a completely New digital recording with additional music, not to be confused with the original 1962 soundtrack album of Maurice Jarre's atmospheric score for David Lean's classic film. Five of this album's 13 tracks have music not featured on the original soundtrack album, including "First Entrance To the Desert/Night and Stars/Lawrence and Tafas" and "The End/Playoff Music." The music is performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Tony Bremner and consists of revised orchestrations made under the direction of Jarre by Christopher Palmer.

What makes this an outstanding album for those of us who love a good film score are the notes. Bremner provides a concise appreciation of Jarre's music for "Lawrence," explaining how the score is based upon three key elements: the famous "Lawrence" theme itself, a great group of "Arabian" melodies, and various atmospheric pieces. Bremner explains how each theme functions at key points in the film, so that the "Lawrence" theme represent not only the man as hero-in-isolation, but also the character's romantic perception of the East. Each track has appropriate notes detailing both the action on film and the specific themes and motifs used by Jarre. My music appreciation classes in college should have been this insightful. The booklet also contains a lengthy musical biography of the composer. This new version of "Lawrence of Arabia" will simply spoil you because this is the way all film scores should be presented. I would love to see them do the same thing with Jarre's score for "Doctor Zhivago." Final Note: What a weird spelling of the title character's name.

A classic film score, 21 Jul 2003
This is a 1989 rerecording of Maurice Jarre's splendid score and includes over 20 minutes of music not on the original soundtrack album. Having extra music is, perhaps, less important than the much better sound quality but, even though it lasts for 51 minutes, it is seldom boring. On the contrary, this is one of the greatest film scores ever written: thematically diverse, noble, atmospheric and exciting. The most memorable track is the overture, a complex piece incorporating all four major themes, but there are many other wonderful moments, including passages featuring the Ondes Martenot and the cithara. The performance is excellent. Highly recommended.

an exellent desert-tastic mixture of many kinds of music, 15 May 2001
this is one of the greatest soundtracks ever. the overture is superb and it instills many emotions and feelings. Maurice Jarre shows his outstanding talent from the beginning by mixing tradidional arabic styles with the western style of music. the main theme is one of the most instantly recocnisable pieces of music ever written along with Hey Jude and Beethovens fifth

Among the others to have received this compilation treatment from Silva Screen (Goldsmith, Horner, Williams, Rózsa, Herrmann, James Bond), Jarre's distinguishes itself by virtue of the man's diversity. You simply cannot compare the alien religious chorale from Enemy Mine with the heartstring tugging of Ghost. The composer certainly has a recognisable style--one that stems from his percussionist origins. But it's always the wealth of melody that impresses. As the album title acknowledges, we adore his Doctor Zhivago theme for Lara, so too Lawrence's desert trek. The point of this collection (put together by a fan of the composer) is to capitalise on the general familiarity of the "big names", and enthral with lesser-known titles such as The Fixer, El Condor, Red Sun and Villa Rides. Credit is given across a couple of orchestras for the re-recordings, but both have captured the energy and spirit of the composer very well. --Paul Tonks

There is a French and Saunders sketch, in which the duo affectionately but accurately mock the often doomed attempts of opera singers to sing pop. Their rendition of an overblown operatic version of Kylie Minogue's "I Should be so Lucky" should be shown to any singer thinking of "crossing over". Plácido Domingo has one of the greatest tenor voices of the century, which certainly shows no sign of wearing out with age. He is also an artist of enormous intelligence, charisma and intensity whose recordings of the lyric and heroic tenor repertoire are benchmarks. His EMI recording of Wagner Love Duets with Deborah Voigt, for example, is a moment of ecstasy on disc. I'd be lying to say that none of that shines through here--but there's not much, and the rather soupy supermarket arrangements don't help either. But for all that, it's still a glorious voice and tunes like "Love Story", "O sole mio", "El condor pasa" are virtually indestructible. --Warwick Thompson

Among the others to have received this compilation treatment from Silva Screen (Goldsmith, Horner, Williams, Rózsa, Herrmann, James Bond), Jarre's distinguishes itself by virtue of the man's diversity. You simply cannot compare the alien religious chorale from Enemy Mine with the heartstring tugging of Ghost. The composer certainly has a recognisable style--one that stems from his percussionist origins. But it's always the wealth of melody that impresses. As the album title acknowledges, we adore his Doctor Zhivago theme for Lara, so too Lawrence's desert trek. The point of this collection (put together by a fan of the composer) is to capitalise on the general familiarity of the "big names", and enthral with lesser-known titles such as The Fixer, El Condor, Red Sun and Villa Rides. Credit is given across a couple of orchestras for the re-recordings, but both have captured the energy and spirit of the composer very well. --Paul Tonks

The most comprehensive package of cinema music on offer, 18 Nov 2006
Cinema Century: A Musical Celebration of 100 Years of Cinema offers you the the most comprehensive package of the greatest musical songs to embrace their names in cinema history. This is a landmark celebration. In music retailing, you will not get any package that you offers the best and unique choice of high callibre music featured in movies. This takes some beating if you get what I mean. It is great value for money.

Cinema Century: A Musical Celebration of 100 Years of Cinema features three CDs of all the cinema songs which are a pleasure to listen and you can relive the magical and special moments of the greatest movies of all time. The list ranges from Lawrence of Arabia, Star Wars, Taxi Driver,Gone with the Wind, Out of Africa, A Passage to India, Chariots of Fire, Raiders of the Lost Ark and many more.

If you love classical music, then this is an album which is well suited to your musical taste. It is real treat for anyone who loves smoothing and relaxing music.

Play it Again...?, 24 Nov 2004
Probably not. What a shame, given the excellent range of titles on this 3 disc package. It was very disappointing to discover that these re-recordings based on the original film scores are no match for the original soundtrack recordings. To give just three examples: Max Steiner's - of all composers - 'Gone with the Wind' is weak and lacks all the pace, fullness, vigour and drama of the original soundtrack recording. And the same can be said of '633 Squadron' which has none of Goodwin's almost breathless pace; 'The Great Escape' can only be described as plodding. Unfortunately, this lack of energy in the scoring is identifiable virtually throughout the collection. There is a lot to be said for original soundtrack recordings, because the studios put a huge amount of effort into the orchestrations to get them spot on to the mood of the film, so my advice has to be go for original soundtracks every time - digtally re-mastered or not.

Very good, 19 Jun 2004
To be honest it is hard to review this box set. I can understand Andrew_mcp's point of view, and often find myself irritated by conductors playing around with the original material, or as Andrew wrote, when a small orchestra is used. In the case of these CDs I was not actually disappointed. I think with enough volume the recordings sound as good as the originals (though of course with a new orchestra and conductor). There are a lot of songs here for not a lot of money, which is good news, and in general the songs are great. I think I've rated this four and not five stars because I feel that potentially the song choices could have been better. For example, there is a lot of John Barry here, but it would have been nice to have varying themes as opposed to the very similar Dances with wolves, Born Free, and Out of Africa themes (though these are excellent). I also feel that there is more music from films like the Mission that I would have liked to hear rather than just the one theme. To be honest though I am being picky, and this is worth buying for unique tracks like the stroke of genius that is Where Eagles Dare, not to mention the likes of Zulu and Colonel Bogey. The more classical tracks are evened out with things like Mancini's Pink Panther and Fiedel's Terminator. This is well worth it for anyone who likes classic films.

Disappointingly "thin" versions, 11 Nov 2003
I was hoping for the full orchestral experience, but compared to the original soundtracks (ok, my memory of them), many of these versions are distinctly uninspiring... or recorded on a day when half the orchestra was off sick.

The playing as such isn't at fault, and 3 CDs for the price has to be good value for money. But I honestly can't recommend this.

You get a lot for your money!, 21 Mar 2003
This CD arrived this morning and already I've listened to most of it and love it - music from some of my favourite films such as "The Godfather" all on the one compilation! Even though I haven't seen most of the films I still love listening to the music. I bought this along with another film music compilation, "The Classic Score" and with these two CDs I've got a bit of everything!

A notable absence is "Titanic" but because I've heard the Titanic music so much, I was actually rather pleased to see it had been missed out! I was very pleased to discover that the track from "Bridge On the River Kwai" is the fun marching tune that all the soldiers whistle to on the film!! There are some real cinema classics on here, such as "Lawrence of Arabia", "Ben Hur", "Jaws"... the list is endless! So, three CDs, over 3 1/2 hours of great film music - you can't go far wrong with this!

The Music Appreciation version of Jarre's classic score, 23 Feb 2004
As the cover proudly proclaims, this is a completely New digital recording with additional music, not to be confused with the original 1962 soundtrack album of Maurice Jarre's atmospheric score for David Lean's classic film. Five of this album's 13 tracks have music not featured on the original soundtrack album, including "First Entrance To the Desert/Night and Stars/Lawrence and Tafas" and "The End/Playoff Music." The music is performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Tony Bremner and consists of revised orchestrations made under the direction of Jarre by Christopher Palmer.

What makes this an outstanding album for those of us who love a good film score are the notes. Bremner provides a concise appreciation of Jarre's music for "Lawrence," explaining how the score is based upon three key elements: the famous "Lawrence" theme itself, a great group of "Arabian" melodies, and various atmospheric pieces. Bremner explains how each theme functions at key points in the film, so that the "Lawrence" theme represent not only the man as hero-in-isolation, but also the character's romantic perception of the East. Each track has appropriate notes detailing both the action on film and the specific themes and motifs used by Jarre. My music appreciation classes in college should have been this insightful. The booklet also contains a lengthy musical biography of the composer. This new version of "Lawrence of Arabia" will simply spoil you because this is the way all film scores should be presented. I would love to see them do the same thing with Jarre's score for "Doctor Zhivago." Final Note: What a weird spelling of the title character's name.

A classic film score, 21 Jul 2003
This is a 1989 rerecording of Maurice Jarre's splendid score and includes over 20 minutes of music not on the original soundtrack album. Having extra music is, perhaps, less important than the much better sound quality but, even though it lasts for 51 minutes, it is seldom boring. On the contrary, this is one of the greatest film scores ever written: thematically diverse, noble, atmospheric and exciting. The most memorable track is the overture, a complex piece incorporating all four major themes, but there are many other wonderful moments, including passages featuring the Ondes Martenot and the cithara. The performance is excellent. Highly recommended.

an exellent desert-tastic mixture of many kinds of music, 15 May 2001
this is one of the greatest soundtracks ever. the overture is superb and it instills many emotions and feelings. Maurice Jarre shows his outstanding talent from the beginning by mixing tradidional arabic styles with the western style of music. the main theme is one of the most instantly recocnisable pieces of music ever written along with Hey Jude and Beethovens fifth

True Relaxation in a Box, 12 Feb 2003
There's no one home. You turn the lights out, fill the room with candles, sit back and listen. Every piece on the album seems familiar and all seem to fill the room with a sense of serenity and calm.
Whether taking time on your own or with a special someone this album doesn't disappoint.
Personally I've never been a true devotee to classical music, but there have always been those familiar favourites whose names escaped me, making it difficult to track them down on CD. Now, all of them are here on one album.
A truly fantastic collection of classical masterpieces.

Darling of the concert hall, Jarre's Arabia theme is a landscape portrait demonstrating film music at its finest. In tune with the composer's roots, this is actually a score dominated by percussion--something that might surprise listeners expecting nothing more than the one infamous theme. This re-issue of an expanded soundtrack album enlarges upon what was previously available, and makes for sometimes shockingly powerful listening as the predominant sound becomes the pounding of drums. It's a crisp performance, helped by an overseeing eye from the composer. Whether this will remain the definitive presentation is hard to say since, like the concert hall programmers, it's a favourite that folks just love to keep recording. This does, however, come with packaging that takes the eye and is crammed with facts from producer and Jarre fan James Fitzpatrick. --Paul Tonks

The most comprehensive package of cinema music on offer, 18 Nov 2006
Cinema Century: A Musical Celebration of 100 Years of Cinema offers you the the most comprehensive package of the greatest musical songs to embrace their names in cinema history. This is a landmark celebration. In music retailing, you will not get any package that you offers the best and unique choice of high callibre music featured in movies. This takes some beating if you get what I mean. It is great value for money.

Cinema Century: A Musical Celebration of 100 Years of Cinema features three CDs of all the cinema songs which are a pleasure to listen and you can relive the magical and special moments of the greatest movies of all time. The list ranges from Lawrence of Arabia, Star Wars, Taxi Driver,Gone with the Wind, Out of Africa, A Passage to India, Chariots of Fire, Raiders of the Lost Ark and many more.

If you love classical music, then this is an album which is well suited to your musical taste. It is real treat for anyone who loves smoothing and relaxing music.

Play it Again...?, 24 Nov 2004
Probably not. What a shame, given the excellent range of titles on this 3 disc package. It was very disappointing to discover that these re-recordings based on the original film scores are no match for the original soundtrack recordings. To give just three examples: Max Steiner's - of all composers - 'Gone with the Wind' is weak and lacks all the pace, fullness, vigour and drama of the original soundtrack recording. And the same can be said of '633 Squadron' which has none of Goodwin's almost breathless pace; 'The Great Escape' can only be described as plodding. Unfortunately, this lack of energy in the scoring is identifiable virtually throughout the collection. There is a lot to be said for original soundtrack recordings, because the studios put a huge amount of effort into the orchestrations to get them spot on to the mood of the film, so my advice has to be go for original soundtracks every time - digtally re-mastered or not.

Very good, 19 Jun 2004
To be honest it is hard to review this box set. I can understand Andrew_mcp's point of view, and often find myself irritated by conductors playing around with the original material, or as Andrew wrote, when a small orchestra is used. In the case of these CDs I was not actually disappointed. I think with enough volume the recordings sound as good as the originals (though of course with a new orchestra and conductor). There are a lot of songs here for not a lot of money, which is good news, and in general the songs are great. I think I've rated this four and not five stars because I feel that potentially the song choices could have been better. For example, there is a lot of John Barry here, but it would have been nice to have varying themes as opposed to the very similar Dances with wolves, Born Free, and Out of Africa themes (though these are excellent). I also feel that there is more music from films like the Mission that I would have liked to hear rather than just the one theme. To be honest though I am being picky, and this is worth buying for unique tracks like the stroke of genius that is Where Eagles Dare, not to mention the likes of Zulu and Colonel Bogey. The more classical tracks are evened out with things like Mancini's Pink Panther and Fiedel's Terminator. This is well worth it for anyone who likes classic films.

Disappointingly "thin" versions, 11 Nov 2003
I was hoping for the full orchestral experience, but compared to the original soundtracks (ok, my memory of them), many of these versions are distinctly uninspiring... or recorded on a day when half the orchestra was off sick.

The playing as such isn't at fault, and 3 CDs for the price has to be good value for money. But I honestly can't recommend this.

You get a lot for your money!, 21 Mar 2003
This CD arrived this morning and already I've listened to most of it and love it - music from some of my favourite films such as "The Godfather" all on the one compilation! Even though I haven't seen most of the films I still love listening to the music. I bought this along with another film music compilation, "The Classic Score" and with these two CDs I've got a bit of everything!

A notable absence is "Titanic" but because I've heard the Titanic music so much, I was actually rather pleased to see it had been missed out! I was very pleased to discover that the track from "Bridge On the River Kwai" is the fun marching tune that all the soldiers whistle to on the film!! There are some real cinema classics on here, such as "Lawrence of Arabia", "Ben Hur", "Jaws"... the list is endless! So, three CDs, over 3 1/2 hours of great film music - you can't go far wrong with this!

The Music Appreciation version of Jarre's classic score, 23 Feb 2004
As the cover proudly proclaims, this is a completely New digital recording with additional music, not to be confused with the original 1962 soundtrack album of Maurice Jarre's atmospheric score for David Lean's classic film. Five of this album's 13 tracks have music not featured on the original soundtrack album, including "First Entrance To the Desert/Night and Stars/Lawrence and Tafas" and "The End/Playoff Music." The music is performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Tony Bremner and consists of revised orchestrations made under the direction of Jarre by Christopher Palmer.

What makes this an outstanding album for those of us who love a good film score are the notes. Bremner provides a concise appreciation of Jarre's music for "Lawrence," explaining how the score is based upon three key elements: the famous "Lawrence" theme itself, a great group of "Arabian" melodies, and various atmospheric pieces. Bremner explains how each theme functions at key points in the film, so that the "Lawrence" theme represent not only the man as hero-in-isolation, but also the character's romantic perception of the East. Each track has appropriate notes detailing both the action on film and the specific themes and motifs used by Jarre. My music appreciation classes in college should have been this insightful. The booklet also contains a lengthy musical biography of the composer. This new version of "Lawrence of Arabia" will simply spoil you because this is the way all film scores should be presented. I would love to see them do the same thing with Jarre's score for "Doctor Zhivago." Final Note: What a weird spelling of the title character's name.

A classic film score, 21 Jul 2003
This is a 1989 rerecording of Maurice Jarre's splendid score and includes over 20 minutes of music not on the original soundtrack album. Having extra music is, perhaps, less important than the much better sound quality but, even though it lasts for 51 minutes, it is seldom boring. On the contrary, this is one of the greatest film scores ever written: thematically diverse, noble, atmospheric and exciting. The most memorable track is the overture, a complex piece incorporating all four major themes, but there are many other wonderful moments, including passages featuring the Ondes Martenot and the cithara. The performance is excellent. Highly recommended.

an exellent desert-tastic mixture of many kinds of music, 15 May 2001
this is one of the greatest soundtracks ever. the overture is superb and it instills many emotions and feelings. Maurice Jarre shows his outstanding talent from the beginning by mixing tradidional arabic styles with the western style of music. the main theme is one of the most instantly recocnisable pieces of music ever written along with Hey Jude and Beethovens fifth

True Relaxation in a Box, 12 Feb 2003
There's no one home. You turn the lights out, fill the room with candles, sit back and listen. Every piece on the album seems familiar and all seem to fill the room with a sense of serenity and calm.
Whether taking time on your own or with a special someone this album doesn't disappoint.
Personally I've never been a true devotee to classical music, but there have always been those familiar favourites whose names escaped me, making it difficult to track them down on CD. Now, all of them are here on one album.
A truly fantastic collection of classical masterpieces.

The Music Appreciation version of Jarre's classic score, 23 Feb 2004
As the cover proudly proclaims, this is a completely New digital recording with additional music, not to be confused with the original 1962 soundtrack album of Maurice Jarre's atmospheric score for David Lean's classic film. Five of this album's 13 tracks have music not featured on the original soundtrack album, including "First Entrance To the Desert/Night and Stars/Lawrence and Tafas" and "The End/Playoff Music." The music is performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Tony Bremner and consists of revised orchestrations made under the direction of Jarre by Christopher Palmer.

What makes this an outstanding album for those of us who love a good film score are the notes. Bremner provides a concise appreciation of Jarre's music for "Lawrence," explaining how the score is based upon three key elements: the famous "Lawrence" theme itself, a great group of "Arabian" melodies, and various atmospheric pieces. Bremner explains how each theme functions at key points in the film, so that the "Lawrence" theme represent not only the man as hero-in-isolation, but also the character's romantic perception of the East. Each track has appropriate notes detailing both the action on film and the specific themes and motifs used by Jarre. My music appreciation classes in college should have been this insightful. The booklet also contains a lengthy musical biography of the composer. This new version of "Lawrence of Arabia" will simply spoil you because this is the way all film scores should be presented. I would love to see them do the same thing with Jarre's score for "Doctor Zhivago." Final Note: What a weird spelling of the title character's name.

A classic film score, 21 Jul 2003
This is a 1989 rerecording of Maurice Jarre's splendid score and includes over 20 minutes of music not on the original soundtrack album. Having extra music is, perhaps, less important than the much better sound quality but, even though it lasts for 51 minutes, it is seldom boring. On the contrary, this is one of the greatest film scores ever written: thematically diverse, noble, atmospheric and exciting. The most memorable track is the overture, a complex piece incorporating all four major themes, but there are many other wonderful moments, including passages featuring the Ondes Martenot and the cithara. The performance is excellent. Highly recommended.

an exellent desert-tastic mixture of many kinds of music, 15 May 2001
this is one of the greatest soundtracks ever. the overture is superb and it instills many emotions and feelings. Maurice Jarre shows his outstanding talent from the beginning by mixing tradidional arabic styles with the western style of music. the main theme is one of the most instantly recocnisable pieces of music ever written along with Hey Jude and Beethovens fifth