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Finally got my copy today - and it is brilliant. The score shines like it never was allowed on CD before. Fantastic sound.
And it is one of the greatest scores ever written, so do yourself a favor and check this one out!
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Thanks to all for confirming this totally unexpected (and therefore twice as pleasing) release.
Can't wait.
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Anyone else out there heard this release yet? Moviemusic.com won't ship until tomorrow. This is the first disc in a long time for me where the sound will be a total surprise (for the best, I hope.).
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Posted: |
Jan 19, 2017 - 11:23 AM
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By: |
Wedge
(Member)
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My copy just arrived today. I don't have an SACD player, so I can't comment on that dimension of the release, but as far as the standard CD mastering goes, the improvement over the old Pegasus CD is minimal at best. I've compared a handful of passages closely, and the difference seems barely discernible. (The new CD is mastered at a VERY slightly higher volume, for one thing, though I might not have noticed if I hadn't been scrutinizing the waveforms.) Interestingly, the most noticeable points of comparison so far are very minor transfer flaws on each release. For example, the old Pegasus CD had a tiny fluctuation during the final note of "Bigwig's Capture" that is not present on the Vocalion. Conversely, the opening measure of the "Prologue" is smoother on the Pegasus than it is on the Vocalion. There may be other such examples, but these are the two that jumped out at me as I skipped around. It's enough to get me to hang onto my old CD -- and perhaps to hybridize it with the new one at some point. The liner notes are fine, but brief, and focus almost exclusively on music description. There's a fascinating and complex production history to this score that you'll have to read about elsewhere (e.g. my own retrospective in FSMO Vol. 14 No. 7). In sum, this is a release I'm glad to have -- and it's wonderful that this essential score is back in print at last -- but don't buy it expecting a major upgrade in sound over the previous CD. Any improvement will be modest (if you notice it at all) and at least one bar of music sounds better on the Pegasus. (Again, these comments do not take SACD into account. If you have a SACD player and can discern a clear difference, enjoy!)
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Excellent release, made even better by its modest price. New notes, a very solid DSD transfer, and appropriately subdued packaging give us the best of this score we're ever likely to get without a full-on remix.
The CTS Music Centre sound is given ample space to breathe and the strings and harp sound very vibrant. The brass and woodwind sound are what date this recording/mix, though not to any great detriment.
I'll have some additional words after listening to the whole recording, and I can't recommend this enough as a very English and stately example of fine film scoring.
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Posted: |
Jul 2, 2022 - 10:11 AM
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By: |
dogplant
(Member)
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This was a surprise on my Twitter feed this morning – for U.S. shoppers, marked 50% off Blu-ray titles in a Criterion/B&N soundtrack promotion – a vinyl and CD release of "Watership Down"!
No audio samples, track titles, or other info, other than Angela Morely as 'primary artist.' And the album cover art contains the old 1978 CBS Records logo, not Vocalion. The LP has a sticker identifying this as 'Barnes & Noble Exclusive':
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/watership-down-original-soundtrack-angela-morley/37940319?ean=0194399760628
Here's the Tweet, which has five others titles in the promotion, including Bernstein's "The Age of Innocence," Sakamoto's "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence," Glass' "Qatsi" trilogy, and "The Graduate":
https://twitter.com/Criterion/status/1543264753476407298
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Posted: |
Jul 2, 2022 - 11:11 AM
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By: |
Wedge
(Member)
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Interesting, Dogplant. I see listings for the CD at Deepdiscount, ImportCDs, Target, Walmart ... pretty much everywhere but Amazon, at least for the moment. The UPC is 194399760628 and the label is Masterworks -- which I'm betting is Sony Masterworks, since I think Sony owns Columbia Records (who released the LP, and whose logo is on this new release). I'm betting the program is just the same album program that's been issued before, but I'll be very curious to hear the master. Both the Pegasus and Vocalion issues had minor audio defects.
Since this is one of my all-time favorite scores, and I own the LP and both previous CD issues, I suppose I'll be picking this one up as well! Unless I get confirmation first that it's a simple reissue of one of the earlier CD masters.
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Solium wrote:
From my recollection there’s nothing significant missing from the OST.
Fantastic score, glad to see it back in print.
Significant? A matter of opinion.
A matter of fact, however, is that there's a significant amount of music missing from the album. Some are very short cues, others not. Morley posted the cue sheet for the film on her site:
http://www.angelamorley.com/site/wd-cue1.htm
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I've particularly wanted the Prologue without narration for years. Would be nice to have at some point.
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