Tag: James Horner

Title: James Horner – Titanic: Music From The Motion Picture (1997) [Reissue 2003]
Genre: Soundtrack
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

James Horner’s score for James Cameron’s epic romance Titanic is much like the film itself — against all expectations, it delivers exactly what it promises. His score is grand, without falling into typical melodrama, and delicately romantic, without being sickly sentimental; it offers genuine emotion and excitement, with the haunting vocals of Norwegian singer Sissel providing a nice counterpoint to Horner’s blend of strings, vocals, orchestras, and synthesizers. Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” may feel a little like an afterthought, especially after experiencing Horner’s wrenching, affecting score, but its heart is in the right place. Nevertheless, it is Horner’s instrumental work and its whirlwind of emotions that makes the score of Titanic a voyage worth repeating.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

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Title: James Horner – A Beautiful Mind: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2002)
Genre: Soundtrack
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

This Ron Howard film parlays the troubled story of Nobel laureate John Forbes Nash Jr., a gifted Princeton mathematics professor tormented for decades by paranoid schizophrenia, into something considerably richer than typical Hollywood triumph-against-all-odds fare. Howard has teamed here again with frequent collaborator James Horner, and it’s the composer who deftly shades the film’s difficult emotional landscape and helps impart a compelling humanity. Horner’s first task is not inconsiderable: musically portraying the arcane realm of mathematical theorems that are the story’s backdrop. In doing so, the composer leans heavily on modern minimalist technique, bright flourishes that recur briefly throughout an orchestral score that increasingly reflects Nash’s bleak inner landscape in its quietly somber and brooding tones. And while Horner has frequently been accused of excessively repeating himself in his scores, the neo-minimalist gambit employed on this reflectively pastoral, postmodernist soundscape neatly nips such criticism in the bud. Nash’s triumph is ultimately an intensely personal one, well reflected in Welsh soprano Charlotte Church’s lilting performance of the Horner/Will Jennings ballad “All Love Can Be”.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

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