CINEMA CENTURY VOLUME I
VARIOUS
Rating: 
Original Review: Silva Screen's musical celebration of 100 years of the cinema was released in 1996 and is one of the best compilations they have ever produced. Volume I covers the years 1931-1960 and charts the early efforts of cinema music scoring. It opens with a compilation of music from the film City Lights, which was actually written by Charlie Chaplin himself and, despite his obvious efforts is a bit of a mishmash, with every style under the sun included, from burlesque to military fanfares to a variation on the Charleston. The rest of the album, however, is of high quality, with all the greats of those early years included. The highlights are Max Steiner's famous Gone With The Wind, with its' spine tingling Tara theme and epic grandeur; Steiner's suite from Casablanca, with its Persian-bazaar influenced-main theme, world-famous adaptation of 'As Time Goes By', and even a rendition of La Marseilleise as well; the lively 'Donnybrook' cue from The Quiet Man, composed by Victor Young, which obviously has its influences in Irish jigs; Jerome Moross' wonderful main title from The Big Country, with its rapid-bowed string section and trumpets which sweep in like a convoy across the plains of the midwest; the tense, nervous prelude from North By Northwest by Bernard Herrmann, which seems almost to be a test run for what is possibly his most famous score, the famous screeching strings of Psycho; and, of course, Elmer Bernstein's The Magnificent Seven, which contains of the most recognisable and well-loved themes ever written.
Track Listing:
- 20th Century Fox Fanfare (Alfred Newman) (0:14)
- Overture / The Statue from City Lights (Charles Chaplin) (4:12)
- Main Title from The Bride of Frankenstein (Franz Waxman) (1:27)
- Suite from Gone With The Wind (Max Steiner) (6:40)
- Suite from Stagecoach (Richard Hageman, W. Franke Harling, John Leipold, Leo Shuken and Louis Gruenberg) (6:38)
- Overture from Citizen Kane (Bernard Herrmann) (2:47)
- Suite from Casablanca (Max Steiner) (7:01)
- Fagin's Romp from Oliver Twist (Arnold Bax) (2:15)
- Ave Caesar from Quo Vadis (Miklós Rózsa) (4:50)
- The Donnybrook from The Quiet Man (Victor Young) (2:43)
- Prelude from The High And The Mighty (Dimitri Tiomkin) (1:59)
- Suite from The Searchers (Max Steiner) (7:21)
- Colonel Bogey from The Bridge On The River Kwai (Kenneth J. Alford) (4:06)
- Main Title from The Big Country (Jerome Moross) (3:15)
- Prelude from North By Northwest (Bernard Herrmann) (3:21)
- Parade Of The Charioteers from Ben Hur (Miklós Rózsa) (3:38)
- Prelude from Psycho (Bernard Herrmann) (2:00)
- Suite from La Dolce Vita (Nino Rota) (7:10)
- Suite from The Magnificent Seven (Elmer Bernstein) (5:50)
Running Time: 77 minutes 38 seconds
Silva Screen FILMCD-180-1 (1996)
Conducted by Paul Bateman, Carl Davis, Kenneth Alwyn, Tony Bremner and Derek Wadsworth. Performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic, The City Lights Orchestra, The Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and The Philharmonia of London. Orchestrations by Mike Townend, Kevin Townend Neil Richardson, Derek Wadsworth and Christopher Palmer. Recorded and mixed by John L. Timperley, Mike Ross-Trevor, Eric Tomlinson, Dick Lewzey and Mark Ayres. Album produced by Alan Smithee.
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