Telarc follows up its album of Jerry Goldsmith film music with this new disc devoted the his concert works. As before the composer conducts the London Symphony Orchestra, which plays with much seriousness of purpose as well as a good bit of enthusiasm throughout. First up is Music for Orchestra (1970), a thorny serial composition that will come as a surprise to many of Goldsmith’s fans. The work was conceived during a time of great personal crisis for the composer, giving rise to its general mood of rage and despair. While the atonal language makes it difficult to discern Goldsmith’s melodic style, he’s certainly recognizable by his trademark orchestral technique, with its blaring horns and primitive, barbaric percussion writing.
Goldsmith composed his Christus Apollo, a cantata to texts by famed science fiction author Ray Bradbury, in 1969. Scored for narrator, soloist, chorus, organ, and orchestra, Christus Apollo is again written in a 12-tone language. Goldsmith felt this would best reflect the “spiritual” aspects of the text, in which Bradbury concocts a sort of space-travel evangelism charging astronauts with becoming missionaries for Christ. The resulting music, with its harsh contours and sharp edges brings to mind Goldsmith’s contemporaneous Planet of the Apes score, while the choral writing contains pre-echoes of his brilliant and powerful music for The Omen. Anthony Hopkins narrates in his usual highly polished, Richard Burton-esque manner, while Eirian James and the London Voices perform the vocal music with admirable conviction.
Finally, Fireworks (1999) brings us back to more familiar territory. This is a brief, energetic (and yes, tonal!) overture in Goldsmith’s signature action-movie style, with plenty of brass flourishes and military percussion. The recorded sound, though not quite up to Telarc’s usual exceptional standards, has good dynamic range and places the performing forces toward the rear of the large acoustic setting.
