Basil Mitchell

World premiere expanded CD of Basil Poledouris soundtrack for John McTiernan film from Tom Clancy novel, starring Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, Scott Glenn, James Earl Jones, Sam Neill. Poledouris brings inspired mood, color to exciting tale by weighing anchor with magnificent, massive "Hymn To Red October" for large orchestra, chorus, then taking off with vivid cues for orchestra, layers of electronics plus his chorus. Original MCA label CD was mere 30-minute sampling of score. Intrada CD offers over an hour of masterful music including first release of "End Title" given significance in one point by powerful presentation of main hymn melody via orchestra sans choir in dynamic manner. Intrada CD presented in stereo from pristine condition session masters vaulted at Paramount, licensed courtesy both Paramount and Universal Music Group. Graphic packaging by Joe Sikoryak, authoritative notes by Scott Bettencourt. Basil Poledouris conducts.

This lyrical, introverted, and sometimes exquisite set of duets by guitarist Jim Hall and bassist Red Mitchell was originally made for John Snyder's Artist House label and later reissued on CD by MHS. Hall and Mitchell always had big ears, and although the music is at a low volume and the duo stretches out on a bit on their four originals, the Mexican folk song "Blue Dove" and "Fly Me to the Moon," there are no sleepy moments.

Basil Poledouris has always thrived amidst the carnage of the action film. Known primarily for his excellent work on Conan the Barbarian, Starship Troopers, The Hunt for Red October, and the television miniseries Lonesome Dove – for which he won an Emmy – some of the composer's best work can be found on the soundtrack to Paul Verhoeven's 1987 sci-fi revenge romp, Robocop. Capitalizing on the film's anti-corporate undercurrent, Poledouris weaves a larger than life score for an unlikely hero, offering a heroic theme that paints Peter Weller's tragic, disfigured Detroit cop in a savior's light. Like Danny Elfman's score for Batman, the tone is dark, oozing metropolitan seediness awash in midnight rain. When the theme is reduced to a quiet lament, like on the masterful "Betrayal," the composer's love for his protagonist is evident, an element that's sadly missing from many of the genre's original scores. Varese Sarabande's 2004 reissue includes four bonus tracks.

2 CD set with 24 page full colour booklet. Featuring the complete 100-Minute Film Score. Newly recorded and performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and 100-voice CPPO Chorus conducted by Nic Raine. Bonus Material including alternate cues and music from Conan The Destroyer. This Recording is Dedicated to the Memory of Basil Poledouris (1945–2006).

Widely considered the creative apex of television scoring, Basil Poledouris' sweeping Lonesome Dove remains the most compelling and effective orchestral music ever written for the small screen – it's also the best Western score to appear in any medium in the last quarter century, with an eloquence and slap-leather authenticity all its own. Poledouris' beautifully poignant score captures the fading grandeur of the American West in vivid detail – while its panoramic arrangements evoke the wide-open spaces of a land not yet overrun by highways, skyscrapers, and strip malls, Poledouris is most effective when exploring the rugged yet tender character of the men and women who made the frontier their own. Sonic Images' soundtrack contains roughly one-third of Poledouris' complete four-and-a-half-hour score – perhaps someday a box set will assemble Lonesome Dove's music in full, but for now this highlight reel does the trick.