When I saw that Sony were releasing a third volume of Classic Cinema I scoffed.  Parts 1 and 2, while appealing to the eye and of course the ear, were simply re-packaged versions of Classic FM at the Movies and Classic FM at the Movies: The Sequel.  So as I say, I scoffed… but then realised there hasn’t been a third volume from Classic FM.  For those buyers outside of the UK, where the original sets wouldn’t have been so readily publicised/available, the first two Classic Cinema releases would have been quite attractive really as held within their sextet of discs was a bounty of, well, classic film music both uber-well known and a handful of fresh and surprising additions.  And so it is again with Part 3…

Once again the trio of CDs is housed in lovingly designed digipackaging, adorned with silhouettes of iconic film images (a Shark rising from the depths, a 007-esque camera iris, a boy wizard and a fedora-wearing man cracking a whip, to register a few).  It’s an aesthetically pleasing creation and thankfully will look very grand against it’s siblings on the shelf (don’t you hate it when further volumes of series’ have different covers?!) And so to the music…

Again, like the previous releases, this is a collection of original soundtrack recordings, re-recordings for previous Sony Music releases and recordings from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, some of which might even be for this album, or indeed future releases in their own Filmharmonic series.  Some of the inclusions are unsurprising – given their classic status – and surprising in that they weren’t included in either of the first two volumes.  Example you say?  Well Jaws for one thing (this recording being the RPO and Nick Ingman’s creative take on Williams’ Oscar-winner), The Deer Hunter for another, not to mention Psycho and Casablanca for that matter, and they’re all on Disc One.

Filling out these obvious choices are selections from Elfman’s Big Fish, Arnold’s Godzilla and Williams’ Sabrina.  The formers are original soundtrack recordings, while the latter is taken from one of the maestro’s Cinema Serenade albums, featuring Itzhak Perlman.

Williams of course features heavily, with suites and themes from The Witches of Eastwick, Hook, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Part 1 featured ‘Harry’s Wondrous World’ before you start shouting ‘Repeat’), Close Encounters of the Third Kind (another bizarre re-working which needs to be heard to be believed), War of the Worlds and Memoirs of a Geisha.  The other greats are largely all present and correct, with a couple of Morricone’s Leone scores, Elmer Bernstein’s gorgeous Far From Heaven theme, Elfman’s Spider-Man 2 and Men in Black, Alfred Newman’s Wuthering Heights, Bernard Herrmann’s North By Northwest and Citizen Kane, Barry’s Midnight Cowboy and Mancini’s The Pink Panther.  Once again Jerry Goldsmith’s absence is duly noted, sad to say.

Interesting additions to mix things up a little include Clannad’s ‘I Will Find You’ from Last of the Mohicans, ‘Scott and Fran’s Paso Doble’ from Strictly Ballroom (by David Hirschfelder), the ‘End Credits’ from Woljiech Kilar’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, not to mention selections from Richard Rodney Bennett’s Four Weddings and a Funeral and Julian Nott’s Wallace and Gromit (actually from The Wrong Trousers).  The latter isn’t the only random title discrepancy, with ‘The James Bond Theme’ and ‘007’ listed under the film title of James Bond 007 and the word ‘Suite’ being attached to two brief cues from Psycho, when they’re nothing of the sort.