City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra – “The Complete Harry Potter Film Music Collection”
Album Reviews | Apr 22nd, 2012
Record Label: Silva Screen Records
Genre: Film Score
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The Harry Potter scores are some of my favorite scores of all-time, especially by John Williams. Everyone after him has been good, but has lacked the signature motifs that John Williams established. That’s not to say that the scores have been awful or anything, they just lack the recognizable themes that Williams is so great at composing.
The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra have released 2 discs of various Harry Potter score tracks and it’s got quite a lot of good pieces on here. One track that is clearly missing for me is “Buckbeak’s Flight” from The Prisoner of Azkaban. That track was the highlight for me and definitely my favorite of that movie. Not sure why they decided to omit that one. But I suppose they thought they could get away with it if they do “Mischief Managed” since it has that theme in there. But other than that, Disc 1 was flawless for me. It contained all the great themes from the first 3 movies.
Disc 2 is movies 4-8, starting off with the “Quidditch World Cup” from Goblet of Fire. I liked Goblet of Fire’s music but after hearing John Williams music after 3 movies, I wanted something a little more. The motifs were just gone from the rest of the movies. The movies got darker and needed the music to represent that, I just wish we heard more of that “Hedwig’s Theme” throughout these movies. I liked the music from The Order of the Phoenix and Half Blood Prince more than Goblet of Fire. Deathly Hallows Part 1 had some excellent stuff from Desplat, but wasn’t really that happy with Part 2. “Lily’s Theme” was the stand-out from that album. Other tracks from the other composers that I like include “Obiliviate,” “Potter Waltz,” and “Dumbledore’s Farewell.”
What I like about the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra’s albums is that the music is slightly different than the original releases. They re-work some tracks to make it sound different, that’s why I think these are worth purchasing.
Bottom Line: Excellent collection of Harry Potter tracks!
Notable Tracks: Hedwig’s Theme, Harry’s Wonderous World, Fawkes The Phoenix, Quidditch World Cup, Obliviate, Lily’s Theme
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