John Williams - Star Wars Trilogy: The Original Soundtrack Anthology (CD)

All Music Guide

This quadrupleCD set corrects a multitude of sonic sins that were evident in the original CD release of the Star Wars soundtrack and its sequels. It's also a veritable festival of John Williams' music from the George Lucas trilogy, a totalimmersion experience in Williams' boldest nineteenth centurystyle body of music, and for those with that preference, it's a unique experience. The mastering is impeccable, and sound quality amazing, and the annotation very thorough, although one does wish at times that a more objective voice were heard from in the notes Williams' work here was superb, to be sure, but it was also highly derivative of a brace of latenineteenth century and early twentieth century composers from the concert hall, and one would love to see this acknowledgement somewhere amid the celebration of the music. Since the release of this set, there has been even more ambitious compilations of Williams' music from these movies assembled, encompassing his scoring for the revised ve...rsions of the movies, but this box has a certain unity and purity to it, as the assembly of the music that he wrote for the movies as they were originally released. It's well worth tracking down and still enjoyable more than a decade later. - Bruce Eder, All Music Guide Read more Less