John Barry - The Collection - 40 Years of Film Music [Soundtrack, Box set]

They are all here, by that I mean all of JB`s best, but there is a hitch, they are not performed by the maestro himself.
This is a bit of a rip off if you ask me, but having said that, Nic Raine manages the covers well and it has to be said are fairly true to the originals, it`s just that Barry's "magic" is missing, and it's noticable.

A very good 4 CD compilation of John Barry on the Silva Screen Record label, covering both famous and more rare themes.

These are more recent recordings, featuring the City of Prague Royal Philharmonic, with Nic Raine at the helm.

The sound quality, musicianship and production are all excellent. The arrangements are based on the original scores and remain true to those arrangements.

In addition to the big titles, there are many hidden gems to be found here. Some of these are not very easily found elsewhere, that is unless of course you spend a small fortune on all of the
original soundtrack recordings - and that's if you can find them! For that reason alone it's an essential purchase for John Barry fans out there.

It's true that on a small proportion of Barry's late 60's/early 70's material featured here, the ambience of the originals is not quite captured.
The original theme from The Persuaders, for example, with its muddy synthesized bass line, was more akin to a pop record of it's day - with various over dubbing of the cimbalom and kantele to create a unique sound. It would be very difficult to reproduce this sound exactly in today's recording environment without the original musicians, analogue equipment and acoustics of the original recording studio. It's a similar story with pieces like the The Ipcress File and the Knack: although the arrangements are authentic, there a little too smooth and polite compared with the more gutsy originals. If you're are after Barry's late 60s sound then I would recommend buying "Themeology: The Best Of John Barry".

This aside, I would still thoroughly recommend this CD. Overall the orchestral pieces here are very good, the recordings are dynamic with many fine renditions of Barry's Film themes. I've always preferred the orchestrated versions of Barry's music over the vocal ones, for me they are far more stirring and harmonically richer. Many of these interpretations don't disappoint and do capture the essence of John Barry. This compilation and the versions contained within are akin to John Barry's "Moviola" 1 & 2 CDs (released in the 90's) and "The Best of John Barry: Film and TV Themes" (versions released with Polydor in the 70's), where John Barry himself conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra through some of his repertoire. I'm not sure all of these CDs are still available anymore, so if you like the orchestral versions of Barry's music and cannot track all of these down then this CD is definitely worth considering. Likewise if you want to discover a little more about John Barry beyond Bond and don't want to break the bank, I would strongly recommend this collection.

You'll certainly discover some lesser known Barry melodies that are difficult to track down on CD elsewhere. I have a pretty decent Barry collection but there were tracks here that I had never before come across on CD at the time of purchase. Some of these are melodically stronger than some of Barry's more recent solo offerings on the Decca label - "The Beyondness Of Things" and "Eternal Echoes" - though both of these do have the odd hidden gem. Of course, this is not an entirely comprehensive collection but it doesn't claim to be that - incidentally neither is the recently released "Themependium" on the Sony/BMG label. Out of all the John Barry CDs I have bought, this is easily the best value for money - it's reduced in price considerably since too. There's just so much material on offer here and at a good price, that it has to come with a strong recommendation. Silva Screen Records also have to be credited with kick starting a resurgence of John Barry releases - it's just a shame that the sound quality of some of these release don't match the sound quality found on this collection, i.e., some haven't been re-mastered.

The reason why this box set is worthwhile is not all the movies represented here have had their soundtracks released on CD. Since Silva Screen's extensive Barry project began, FSM has released 'Born Free', 'Deadfall', 'Aice's Adventures In Wonderland', 'The Appointment', 'King Kong' & 'Monte Walsh' & Intrada has released 'Mary Queen Of Scots. However the original soundtracks for 'Robin & Marian', 'Walkabout', 'The Deep' & 'Raise The Titanic' remain unreleased so until FSM (or someone like them) steps forward, these versions are the only way you or I will hear them. Imporant to note too is that these versions found on this box set are faithfull to the original scores and not Barry's own re-recordings which he made in the 70's for polydor. A decent summary can be found on Polydors 1981 release 'The Best Of John Barry: Films & TV Themes'. Not every Prague version works, 'The Ipcress File' is just plain wrong as is 'The Persuaders' but 'Zulu' improves on the original. The Bond versions are utterly redundant since most of these scores have been re-mastered and in some cases extended. So, in summation, until Barry's entire catalogue is made available, these recordings serve a place in your collection.