Music From The Harry Potter Films [Dolby, Soundtrack]

The first review pretty much says it all, we just wanted to add our stars. My family and I are big Harry Potter fans and when it was time for my daughter's birthday, she requested a CD of Harry Potter music. There were several different pieces of which she was particularly fond of and this was the only CD that seemed to have nearly all of them. If there's one thing that she misses, it's the song "Something Wicked This Way Comes" from the POA film. Some of the melody is included in the POA suite but she really wanted to sing along.

This CD plays almost constantly in our car's CD system and the kids have a great time remembering what parts of the movies each piece is from. If you're looking for a Harry Potter CD that represents a bit of the best from each of the first four movies, this is it. The quality is outstanding as well.

The good news is that this album presents some of the best film music written in the last decade, as well as some that's merely good. The bad news is that, to be blunt, this re-recording is terrible. The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra frequently does re-recordings of film score pieces for compilation albums like this one, and the quality of the performance is invariably unimpressive. The brass is extremely shrill and clumsy, the woodwinds are weak, the percussion just sounds weird, and the recording studio they use has a ridiculously high amount of reverb. Only the string section maintains a consistently high quality level.

This may seem nitpicky to someone who doesn't listen to much orchestral music, but trust me when I say that this recording does NOT give you the listening experience you should be getting from this music. Just cough up the cash and buy the original soundtracks, which largely feature vastly superior performances. I especially recommend the first and third scores. You'll get more music from each film, and there is simply no comparison as far as the quality of the recording goes. You won't regret it, I promise. =)

What a crowning achievement to bring "Music from the Harry Potter Films", released by Silva America and featuring The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by James Fitzpatrick one can only expect the highest quality of performances and quench the thirst of all "film-score-buffs"...not to mention the film goers for the Harry Potter Phenomenon.

Sit back and unleash the works of composers John Williams and Patrick Doyle, taking each film score cue "HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE"..."HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS"..."HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN"..."HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE"...HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX"...HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE"...with arrangements that soar and then simmer into pure meditation of grandeur...classic film music prevails, as orchestration comes to the surface with pure originality...one masterpiece after another is long last presented as it should have been, is cause for celebration ...one only needs to hear a Harry Potter score and know the genius in bringing music to the screen, with results that are melodic and classical in subject matter...with a need to always take the audience on this journey that never seems to end...our composers give the story line a whole new perspective, music becomes another character in the film.

John Williams and Patrick Doyle express the passion and skill for exploring human emotions, coupled with a unique gift for striking exotic orchestral colors, make this with all it's splendor unforgettable themes that ring with familiarity as each film comes to mind through music...give a welcome to Nic Raine who conducted "FAWKES THE PHOENIX" and "HEDWIC'S THEME", as always Raine gives his best.

Silva America gives the collector a treasure of thirty film cues that any "film-score-buff" would die for ~ in the past James Fitzpatrick (producer), Reynold da Silva (executive producer), mastered by David Stoner (release co-ordinator) have given us compilation with such expertise and this one is no exception...keep up the outstanding limited editions and deluxe package releases, with your signature tidbits for all film music fans that's in all of us...gotta love it!

Total Time: 54:00 on 15 Tracks ~ Silva America 1206 ~ (3/07/2006)