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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good but please give us only Williams next time, 13 Nov 2002
As good as the Chamber of Secrets soundtrack is it is my belief that it suffers from one major shortcoming - the involvement of arranger William Ross. Although what Ross has done with the music is good it wont we hard for die hard fans out there to distinguish between what he has done and what is pure unadulterated Williams. Indeed some will consider the adaptation of Williams' outstanding 'Harry's Wonderous World' a crime in itself. And as much as William Ross has made his mark on the music I really cant see that any effort was made to keep it in a similar style to the first film, but maybe this was the plan - to create music different to that of John Williams. After all, who would want to compose music only in the shadow of one of the worlds greatest film composers. The bad stuff out the way its time for the praise and there's lots of that as well, starting in my belief with the best stuff. 'Fawkes the Phoenix' is a beutifully crafted masterpiece that represents to perfection J.K. Rowling's key character. The sweeping cello figures have that effect that only John Williams' music can achieve. This track can quite easily be compared to Williams' 'Across the Stars' music from 'Star Wars Episode 2.' Following on from this is a dramatic track taking on the title of the film - 'The Chamber of Secrets' relies a lot more on brass in stating some of the themes firsy heard in Fawkes. The horn is used with great effect and fans of the book can surely picture the scene when listening to this. I certainly did. Next is the theme written for Gilderoy Lockhart (one of the things Williams' does superiorly to any other composer today is his use of thematic material - very similar to Wagner Leitmotif in form) - the track sums up Lockhart character in music lasting only 2 minutes. Again those who have read the book will see the bumbling narcicistic Lockhart within the notes of this track. If you're looking for familiar stuff then you should feel at home within the music of the next few tracks - 'Knockturn Alley' briefly introduces some new music before leading into the music credited as 'Diagon Alley and Gringotts' on the first CD. 'Introducing Colin' is a combination of the first feast music from the first film combined with some soft beautiful melodies further on. And THEN, we get to the dramatic stuff. From here on in the CD doesn't really let up. The exception to the rule being the theme written for 'Dobby the house Elf' which is sandwitched between two groundbreaking scenes worth of music, 'The dueling club' and 'The spiders' where special effect run riot in the film. Look out here for the dramatic music around 3 minutes in. As in the Philosopher's stone Soundtrack the next few tracks chortle along nicely with nothing overly special happening with the exception of a few places, until we get to the final 3 tracks. 'Dueling the Basilisk' is a brilliant mix of typically Williams harmony and dramatic percussion right from the very begining where a brass features hails the arrival of Fawkes to save the day. Then on in the ride never stops. 'Reunion of friends' is difficult to review without giving away major plot devices so all i will say is it is touching to say the least. Williams has again come up with some beautiful music to end the film with, in fact its a slightly modified version of the music that ends the first film. And then, last of all we here for at least 4 minutes, pure unchanged Williams in the form of 'Harry's Wondrous World' which is unecessarily changed at the end. Thats all i have to say. In all I am overjoyed with this CD and Chris Columbus' comments in the sleeve are spot on. What are they? Well you'll just have to buy it and find out. 9.5 out of 10 for this one. And John Willaims has done it again.
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~ John Williams (Composer)
~ Original Soundtrack
~ Stuart Cassells
~ Nicholas Hooper
