19th-Century Original Works for Saxophone

Advantages: Good historical recording
Disadvantages: Would be better with today's transfer technology

...A sympathetic collection of one of the most significant musicals of the Great War era. Very interesting for music historians and those seeking wartime nostalgia. "The Bing Boys are Here" was a comedy musical revue with a varying programme of songs. It opened on the 19th April 1916. The story was light hearted and provided a welcome entertainment for the troops on leave as well as the general population. It reflected the hope for the future in one of the darkest periods of the Twentieth Century - the story centering around the two brothers Bing leaving home and heading towards the City to seek their fortunes. Unfortunately doesn't include one of the most famous standards - probably the only one still sung today: "Let the Great Big World Keep Turning" Perhaps a better attempt at transferring the original recordings to digital... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Great tunes
Disadvantages: Recorded quality and overall blandness

...Jane Campion's The Piano is about a mute-by-choice Scotswoman Ada played by Holly Hunter (who won an Oscar for her performance). She journeys to the jungles of nineteenth-century New Zealand to marry a man she's never met, played by Sam Neill. Once there, she is horrified to find her beloved piano left on the beach until a man named Baines (Harvey Keitel) offers to let her play it in exchange for romantic favours. The music was composed by Michael Nyman, noted as a modernist and a minimalist. This is by far the most popular of Nyman's compositions, because of its easily accessible melodies and especially for the solo piano music. Nyman writes: "I began creating Ada a folio of material that I imagined she had in her head, that her fingers carried around with her, almost as if she had been the composer of it. It had to be "possible" mid... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Will please fans of the film.
Disadvantages: Expensive, Not one of Hans Zimmer's best scores.

...The soundtrack for PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END could have been a three-hour dirge of overly-orchestrated fussing, I consider my ears fortunate that HANS ZIMMER sliced the whole thing down to an hour for the CD merchandise release. Now, I'm not a mean-spirited person and I have more than a few of HANS ZIMMER's soundtracks to prove I'm a fan. It's just, poor HANS, dear HANS! Try as he might, he's not a good inheritor of other composers' work. This, generally, isn't a bad thing - see STANLEY KUBRICK's shafting of ALEX NORTH's score in favour of posthumous contribution by JOHANN and RICHARD STRAUSS (their brother Levi was unavailable for comment) amongst others for 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Great idea, excellent soundtrack and probably the most work those guys've seen since the mid-19th century. It also managed to set a trend... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful