- Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor: John Williams
- Composer: John Williams
- Audio CD (7 Mar 1997)
- Number of Discs: 2
- Format: Special Edition, Original recording remastered, Soundtrack
- Label: RCA
- ASIN: B000003G8G
- Other Editions: Audio CD | Audio Cassette
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 288,102 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product details |
Track Listings
| Disc: 1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. 20th Century Fox Fanfare | |||
| 2. Main Title/The Ice Planet Hoth | |||
| 3. The Wampa's Lair/Vision Of Obi-Wan/Snowspeeders Take Flight | |||
| 4. The Imperial Probe/Aboard The Executor | |||
| 5. The Battle Of Hoth (Ion Cannon/Imperial Walkers/Beneath The At-At/Escape In The Millennium Falcon) | |||
| 6. The Asteroid Field | |||
| 7. Arrival On Dagobah | |||
| 8. Luke's Nocturnal Visitor | |||
| 9. Han Solo And The Princess | |||
| 10. Jedi Master Revealed/Mynock Cave | |||
See all 11 tracks on this disc
| |||
| Disc: 2 | |||
| 1. The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme) | |||
| 2. Yoda's Theme | |||
| 3. Attacking A Star Destroyer | |||
| 4. Yoda And The Force | |||
| 5. Imperial Starfleet Deployed/City In The Clouds | |||
| 6. Lando's Palace | |||
| 7. Betrayal At Bespin | |||
| 8. Deal With The Dark Lord | |||
| 9. Carbon Freeze/Darth Vader's Trap/Departure Of Boba Fett | |||
| 10. The Clash Of Lightsabers | |||
|
See all 12 tracks on this disc
| |||
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
As the bridging film of the original Star Wars trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) topped its predecessor in terms of story, character development, and special effects. Directed by Irvin Kershner, the sequel documents the relentless pursuit of the rebels by Darth Vader, a burgeoning romance between Han Solo and Princess Leia, and the training of Luke by the mystical Yoda. Taking advantage of his elaborate leitmotif design, composer John Williams introduces a wise, spiritual theme for Yoda and a delicate love theme that assumes a more dramatic profile after Han is betrayed and frozen into sculpture. The score is also an imaginative inventory of self-contained settings, whether it be the chilly Hoth soundscapes, the otherworldly choruses of Cloud City, or the intricate gymnastics written for "The Asteroid Field". Discarding the heroic optimism of his previous score, Williams enforces the film's overriding dark tone through the ominous, brassy "Imperial March". Appearing in virtually every cue, the march accompanies Vader's obsessive quest to kidnap and convert Luke to the dark side. A definitive accounting of the finest science-fiction score ever written, this remastered two-disc set (released concurrently with the special edition of The Empire Strikes Back in 1997) presents the complete score in its full glory. --Kevin Mulhall
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Amaizing. This soundtrack is a must have for any film score lover. Williams still has not created a soundtrack with more depth and beauty to this day. The hauntingly beautiful love theme for Han and the princess is one of his greatest, most sweeping works, lending itself to a variaty of renditions, the most powerful of which signals the movie's shocking end. In fact, each of the three new themes are very versitile and throughout the score they are each played in a varity of fashions, each perfectly setting the tone.
Yoda's theme, when played slowly, is a mystical lulaby. But when it greets the end credits, it becomes a fast lively affair. What was once calm and serene becomes playful and energetic.
In this soundtrack there is so much to keep you entertained. You'll want to come back, time and again, and with this double cd edition, there's even more for you to listen to.
From one of the greatesr film scorer of all time comes one of his best works so far. Own it today!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is nothing less then the Empire Strikes Back. It is the Film; it does what no other soundtrack can do and take you minute by minute through the story. From the Fox Fanfare to the films climax in cloud city. It is as expressive and beautiful as the film itself. If you like the film or just 'classical' music then you should buy this. It will make you happy. Have fun
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
What can I say? John Williams wove his spark of genius right into the heart of the Star Wars saga with his glorious scores, and 'Empire' has to be - in my opinion - the best. Just a quite note, however: I have the SW Soundtrack Music Anthology, which is a boxset of four CDs (one on each of the Classic Trilogy scores, and another mix-and-match one), which means that I don't have *every* track in this particular collection, but I do have most; I'll just have to trust that Williams is as wonderful as I think he is!
John Williams works his magic with themes: rich, emotional themes that we can all recognise and associate with a million and one classic moments that Lucas forms for us on the screen and in our hearts. Okay, maybe that wording was a bit too much, but you get the picture, right? This entire score is awash with melodies that we already recognise from 'A New Hope' (and, depending on your time scale, 'The Phantom Menace' and 'Attack of the Clones'), and new ones are formed constantly. Even battle sequences, which I usually judge as being "all the same" and a tedious run of big booms and overdone strings, seem to have been revitalised in this score; Williams adds so much character to everything that he composes that it seems almost fantastical in its very nature! I love it to pieces, really I do...
So, what are the pros and cons of this CD, eh? One pro is definitely the length. Anybody who has bought (or even just looked at) the more recent CD for AotC knows that it is depressingly short, with only 14 tracks (super for a chart album, disgraceful for a Williams-soundtrack). This double-CD has a good range of music, all with the sort of unique personality that even other top-notch composers only manage to fix into their main themes. Each track is so definitive that you can tell exactly where it is in the film and - unlike TPM/Harry Potter and other composers' works - you will be hard struck to find another one like it.
Pros in the way of tracks include the famous 'Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme)'. Yeah - we can all sing along to that one. 'The Battle of the Snow' is interesting for a battle track. I'm not quite sure why 'Yoda's Theme' and 'Han Solo and the Princess' were put next to each other (they're of a similar calm, sweet tone and can, at times, blend a little), but they're both excellent. 'The Duel' contains that heart-wrenching moment between father and son, and the 'Finale/End Credits' is even more tear-jerkingly sentimental... (the moment at the end where Luke is hugging Leia gets me every time!).
I can't, honestly, think of any cons, except maybe the annoyance of having to swap between CDs (the day they put every second of SW score onto one music DVD/hard disk will be the day I throw the entire contents of my bank account at Lucas & Co. and be done with it!). My copy even tells you precisely how long each track is - a pleasant triviality.
Basically, this is a collection of some of John Williams' best Star Wars score and, if you're going to buy one of the film CDs, I would recommend this one. There's a bit of everything, wonderfully put together. Very highly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Look no further for movie orchestral excellence.
All the main themes in this outstanding score have been quite rightly hailed by many past reviewers. All I can add is, listen
to THE ASTEROID FIELD. Read more
to THE ASTEROID FIELD. Read more
Published on 1 Jun 2004 by Mr. Mark Jones
Imperial March
I would recomend this to anyone. This is the best Star Wars soundtrack ever.
You will enjoy all the tracks espsally THE IMPERIAL MARCH, a dark but fun theme that is now a... Read more
You will enjoy all the tracks espsally THE IMPERIAL MARCH, a dark but fun theme that is now a... Read more
Published on 11 May 2003 by Bez-Han Aylaw
genius
John Williams again proves himself to be the king of symphonic soundtrack
Once again his use of leimotif perfectly captures the emotions of the film he writes the music for
The... Read more
Published on 1 Sep 2002
EVEN BETTER THAN THE FIRST STRIKE FOR WILLIAMS!
den-den-den-den den-den-den den-den-den... so goes the spectacular arrival of the Imperial March, and propels this soundtrack into a league all of its own. Read more
Published on 30 May 2002 by "richardwiggins"
From the best film of the tri comes the best soundtrack too.
I'm not over exagerating either. There are some true emotional tour de forces on this 2 CD, 24 track collection. Contains some of Williams' best work EVER. Read more
Published on 19 May 2001
very worthwhile indeed!
this just shows how good john williams is with his star wars soundtracks,and is really worth the price. Read more
Published on 12 May 2001
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