I John Barry: Moviola (Epic) Five Oscar winners, the 70-piece Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and three decades of premium film scOres. Moviola is the collected works ofJohn Barry. soundtracker to the stars and. along with Maurice Jarre, creator of some of cinema‘s most memorable musical moments. Only one of his Bond themes is here present. ‘We Have All The Time In The World‘ from On Her Majesty '3 Secret Service. Instead. we get ‘Born Free' and ‘Midnight Cowboy'. ‘Body Heat‘
I and ‘Dances With
Wolves'. Throughout, the music is as rich and
cinematic as it should be,
the orchestration adding epicness and intimacy in all the right places. (Craig McLean)
I Curtis Mayiield: A Man Like Curtis (MCI) So what is it with all these reviews of compilations, you cry? Well. firstly. it‘s a slack time ofycar for new albums; secondly. any record that purports to include the best music of Curtis Mayfield demands attention. Mayfield'sis
one of the great soul voices, a vulnerable but proud instrument up there with Marvin Gaye’s (in your scribe‘s humble : opinion), albeit not always blessed with f comparable material. This ? disc starts off with the masterful three-minute pop statement ‘Move On
I Up', is generous with the
Superfly tracks which
3 mark the apex of his solo
ll career and skips, with
equal generosity, over his weaker years. Get this along with The Definitive Impressions and give yourself a treat. (Alastair
Mabbott)
I Denis Leary: No Curator Cancer (MM) Towards the end of this live set,
| hard-talking stand-up Denis Leary says he
makes no apology for wise-cracking about
death, overdosing and cancer because he finds
the whole business funny.
j No apology needed. ‘ Being funny would be
justification enough.
1 Except Leary tackles his chosen field with such
Sledgehammer subtlety,
§ such crude reactionary : outrage,that once the
shock of a gag about, say,
‘ cancer patients smoking
through the holes in their
necks wears off, there’s very little you c0uld actually term funny. His routine is slick and well-paced, but I get the feeling that if it’d been developed on this side of the Atlantic, it would have been enriched by a sense of irony instead of blunt extremism. The studio-recorded ‘Asshole’, however, is a fine lampoon of the meat-headed American male that Leary chooses to be for the rest of the album. (Mark Fisher)
I Junk Monkeys: Bliss (Metal Blade) Plenty of energy, a tuneful guitar crunch and a gigging history which includes huge quantities oftiny bars in the US — that seems to be what the JMs are all about. There’s a good deal of head-nodding and foot-tapping to be done to this album. For the first half, it looks like their songs might be a bit samey, but they spring surprises in a fast kind of agony with ‘Teacup Song‘ and ‘Day Away’. The JMs apparently intend to ‘make it' mostly on the strength of their touring. Maybe we should take note next time their little Ford van cruises our way. (Gavin Inglis)
mm:
I Verdi: La Traviata
(Teldec) DG's recent New
York Mct/Studer/ Pavarotti package of Verdi‘s best-loved opera may weigh heavily in the big name stakes but. good as that recording undoubtedly is. there‘s stiff competition in this Teldec version. Neil Shicoffand Edita Gruberova reprise the roles they played in Franco Zeffirelli‘s 1989 Met production. here under the baton of Carlo Rizzi. Anyone tackling Violetta has the ghosts of many great performances to live up to (Callas. Sutherland), but the delicacy ofGruberova’s diction and shading perfectly captures the underlying fragility ofthe character. particularly in the powerful final scene. A musically and emotionally satisfying recording. (Alan Morrison)
I John Adams: The Death 01K|ingholter(£lektra Nonesuch) The hijack of the cruise shipAchi/le Lauro is an unlikely subject for an Opera. and I don‘t know how it will work out on stage (or whether we will get the chance to find out. although the Edinburgh Festival did stage his
earlier Nixon In China), but it gets a persuasive and moving performance here from a fine cast under Kent Nagano (with the Lyon Opera Orchestra). The music is stronger than the libretto (again, like Nixon , by Alice Goodman), and once again reveals the impressive diversity- within-repctition which he creates as minimalism continues to expand its boundaries. (Kenny Mathieson)
I Prokofiev: Romeo And
Juliet (Philips)
Shakespeare‘s eternal
tragedy of thwarted young love inspired Prokofiev to write some of his most popular and memorable music. and this disc of highlights from the complete ballet is a superb, and superny authentic. rendering ofit. The Kirov Orchestra of St Petersburg, under conductor Valery Gergiev, have the measure ofthe shifting moods and emotional fluctuations of the music, and bring out all of its rich melodic invention and luxuriant orchestral colour. (Kenny Mathieson)
I Bartok and Mussoroslry: Piano Music Pianist Zoltan Kocsis‘s first volume in his survey of Bartok’s Works forpiano solo (Philips) is a little low-key in its choice
of material, but is superbly played, and augers well for future issues. The 14 Bagatelles are the most adventurous of these early works. Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition (Decca) is best known in the version orchestrated by Ravel, but the original solo piano score has its own attractions. Olli Mustonen's reading is strongly assertive, and comes coupled with Balakirev’s colourful Islamey and Tchaikovsky’s Children ’3 Album. (Kenny Mathieson)
I Alan Hovhaness: Mysterious Mountain (Music Masters) He is hardly a household name, but Hovhaness's quietly contemplative music deserves to be better known. He is a prolific composer, but Mysterious Mountain (Symphony No 2, Op. 132) is agood example of his work, with its cool, melodic contours and timeless simplicity. Lousadzak is a spikier, more pungent piece for piano (played by Keith Jarrett, no less) and orchestra. They are coupled with Lou Harrison’s Elegaic Symphony, all by the American Composers Orchestra under Dennis Russell Davies. (Kenny Mathieson)
BLUES AND BM CD'S'TO BE WON. PAGE 79
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: __l The List IS — 28 January 1993 37