Lights, Camera, Flutes! is a collection of enduring and iconic music from classic films and television shows. Hollywood’s compositional elite have created the most ground-breaking flute choir arrangements ever heard.
Tracks
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- Three from Irving 4:32
- Snow White Medley 4:44
- To Kill a Mockingbird 2:50
- From Patton to Pyle: A Military Medley 4:43
- The Sound of Music Medley 3:46
- Skating from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” 3:47
featuring Tim Weisberg and The David Benoit Trio - The Wizard of Oz Medley 4:30
- Somewhere in Time 2:49
- TV Families Through the Years 4:55
- Jeopardy! Theme and Variations 1:54
- The Magnificent Seven 4:21
Special Guest Artists
Tim Weisberg and David Benoit are the featured guest artists on “Skating” from “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
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| Tim Weisberg — FB > | David Benoit — Bio > |
Reviews
“The CD is brilliant! The ensemble is amazing and the arrangements are really spectacular.”
Scott Dunn, Associate Conductor Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.
“Lively and heartfelt performances create a delightful journey through this collection of film and television music.”
Michael McCuistion, Emmy award-winning composer.
Reprinted with permission from:
Film Score Monthly
June, 2012
by Steven A. Kennedy
Lights, Camera, FLUTES!
This album showcases enticing new arrangements of film and television music as performed by the Resonance Flute Consort. The somewhat brief disc opens strong, with a jazzy medley of Irving Berlin tunes from Top Hat, Follow the Fleet and Carefree. The arrangement by Steve Sample adds a jazz piano trio featuring David Benoit, and makes for a fun introduction to the sound of the flute ensemble. Benoit and his trio return later on in the album for a performance of Vince Guaraldi’s “Skating,” which features Tim Weisberg as the flute soloist.
When it comes to a medley of Frank Churchill’s big tunes from Snow White, it’s all flutes all the time, as is the case with many of the other selections here. The arrangements work well because they allow the tunes to speak for themselves while adding in a few specific harmonic touches and unique colors. Patrick Russ’ arrangement of the theme from Elmer Bernstein’s To Kill a Mockingbird is simply beautiful as performed here, conducted by Peter Bernstein.
This album boasts some particularly interesting medleys, many of which will likely make you smile. The first of these is “From Patton to Pyle: A Military Medley.” Jerry Goldsmith’s Patton gets a flute-driven treatment that moves effortlessly into music from The Great Escape, Hogan’s Heroes, “Colonel Bogey,” Stripes, 1941 and Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. The added percussion gives appropriate martial support to the flute ensemble. Arranger Christopher Anderson-Bazzoli traverses a fabulous amount of territory in less than five minutes.
Ron Goldstein provides several arrangements, consisting of two tunes from The Sound of Music, a delightful musical trip through “TV Families through the Years” (which covers everyone from Dick Van Dyke to The Brady Bunch and Happy Days in its overview of themes from 10 TV shows), and Merv Griffin’s iconic “Jeopardy! Theme and Variations.” Frank Macchia delivers a delightful overview of music from The Wizard of Oz, which gets a bit jazzy as well. John Barry’s theme from Somewhere in Time receives a convincing treatment by Larry Rench. The album closes with Gary Thomas’ take on Bernstein’s The Magnificent Seven, which has its own interesting surprises as presented here.
Overall, the album is at its best during its jazzier moments, which lend the performances a sort of Claude Bolling-esque sound; a string ensemble on these arrangements would have pushed it closer to a Mancini album. Either way, one cannot deny the amazing musicianship of the members of this ensemble, who perform here on a gamut of C flutes, alto flutes, piccolos, pan flutes, and even a bass flute. Even if one finds these arrangements to be guilty pleasures or humorous takes on familiar music, there is a lot of worthwhile material here, and it is well performed by some of Hollywood’s top artists. The settings of familiar movie and TV melodies in a gorgeous flute ensemble sound works far better than one might think. This album is obviously a labor of love for all involved, and easily recommended for those who enjoy pops-like compilations, and new arrangements of favorite themes. You can discover more about the group at their website. —Steven A. Kennedy
Comments regarding this review can be sent to: stev4uth@hotmail.com. http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/fsmonline/story.cfm?maID=3681
