Cristal Records’ The Singular World Of Jerry Goldsmith from pianist Jean-Michel Bernard,guitarist Philippe Hervouët, Éric Giausserand on trumpet, plus others not listed on Spotify, so my apologies to the woodwinds and strings…
Just as some of Jerry Goldsmith’s TV themes work better in concert form than others; Star Trek: Voyager and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. sop up large orchestras. While The Waltons loses a lot of its homespun charm in its concert arrangement. Similarly, not the all the selections on this album benefit from their inclusion. Total Recall gets an almost folksy treatment. (It could be jazz-bar music in a Rekall-arranged memory of a holiday. It has to be said the selections that were jazz-based initially do come off the best overall like Chinatown and The Russia House.
Basic Instinct gets an arrangement that has more heart in it than Goldsmith’s score in the film, where its job was intentionally underlining how emotionally cold the film was. So it’s not exactly loyal to the source but it still works as a casual listen. This can’t really be said for some of the vocal numbers…Sadly they don’t try “Three Stars Will Shine Tonight”, the ballad derived from Goldsmith’s theme from Dr. Kildare or “It’s A Long Road” from First Blood (they do the overall theme for First Blood). Sadly (personally speaking) their version of the most underrated songs to come from a movie, “Flying Dreams” from The Secret of NIMH is cringeworthy. Sadly, it’s still preferable to anything from The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue (which didn’t involve Goldsmith) Kimiko Ono and the rest of the lineup redeem themselves somewhat with their take on “The Piper Dreams” from The Omen. (I guess the Oscar-nominated “Ave Satani” was too much of a challenge to arrange for jazz. So, Michael Bublé crooning “Sanguis bibimus/Corpus edibus..” will still have to wait I guess…
Vocally, the one of the album’s highpoints (except possibly for diehard fans of Engelbert Humperdinck and/or Andy Williams), is the rendition of Papillon’s “Free as the Wind”.
The album ends with a tender arrangement of the theme for Rudy, which doesn’t attempt to be extra-ambitious or quirky, like the cocktail bar-friendly “Star Trek Suite” (which is a fun peek into an alternate universe were Star Trek: The Motion Picture came out in 1967 and the music led to easy listening covers
The album is available at this link. The Singular World of Jerry Goldsmith | Jean-Michel Bernard| Cristal Records
