Search - Julie Andrews, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Marni Nixon :: The Sound of Music (1965 Film Soundtrack - 40th Anniversary Special Edition)

The Sound of Near-Perfection

Yi-Peng | Singapore | 01/08/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am very happy that this 40th Anniversary edition of THE SOUND OF MUSIC Soundtrack is a vast improvement over any of the previous RCA CD issues. For the first time, it presents ALL the song cues in the order of the film, and the RCA tapes have never sounded better. Dame Julie's sterling portrayal of Maria is reason enough to plump for this CD, and her crystalline voice has never sounded better. She is ably backed by the critic-proof cast including Bill Lee's down-to-earth Captain, Margery McKay's Mother Abbess, and the glorious septet of children. This CD presents the tracks from the original RCA album, in more dynamic sound than on previous CDs, in sound that positively shines. These tracks intermingle with the Captain's first version of Edelweiss with Liesl, the Laendler and the Sixteen Going on Seventeen reprise. They are all lovingly incorporated into the soundtrack and the presentation is perhaps enough to rival the superb sounding Fox gold CD. This CD also includes the reprises of My Favourite Things, Do-Re-Mi and So Long, Farewell, and the Entr'acte and End Titles. They all make their CD debut, except that the tinny sound quality sounds like the producers recorded it off a videocassette or a DVD of the movie, because you can hear some dialogue and sound effects and a funny sound quality. All-told, although I do wish that the CD producers used the 20th-Century Fox tracks exclusively for this release and utilised longer versions of the Preludium and the reprise of Edelweiss, this CD offers wonderful sound quality despite some tape hiss in the RCA tracks. The booklet contains some coloured stills from the film, yet I lament that it lacks not just the lyrics but a detailed analysis of the musical, the filming and a soundtrack annotation. Overall, a wonderful presentation of a justly-celebrated soundtrack and a true sign that this soundtrack is getting the proper treatment it deserves. What more needs to be said than BUY IT NOW."

The best edition of the soundtrack yet

LightJesusMaryLover | 11/29/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Finally! Every song cue is here, including the reprises of "My Favorite Things" (sung by the children and Maria upon her return to the von Trapp villa) and "So Long, Farewell" (sung by Maria, the Captain, and the children as they make their exits from the music festival). These two tracks weren't even available on such otherwise complete sets as the 35th anniversary two-disc set and the 24-karat gold disc that came only with the 30th anniversary laserdisc set (those sets did have instrumental background music that's not available on this disc). It may seem silly to purchase yet another copy of this (exquisite) recording, but for completists like myself, it's delightful to have all of the songs on a disc at last."

This 40th Anniversary Edition Is One Of "My Favorite Things!

Steven Housman | West Hollywood, CA & Miami, FL | 12/26/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One night last week, I was channel surfing and I came across Julie Andrews singing "My Favorite Things" in the film The Sound of Music. Have you ever noticed that no matter how many times you've seen a certain film, there's just something about it that makes you watch it over and over again? Sometimes it's not even on purpose. I wouldn't have normally sought out The Sound of Music, but there it was, and I couldn't escape the same magic I first experienced when I was just a kid all those years ago. And the film is magic. How many times have we heard "My Favorite Things," "(How Do You Solve A Problem Like) Maria," "Do-Re-Mi," Edelweiss," "Sixteen Going On Seventeen," not to mention the title track and the epic opus "Climb Ev'ry Mountain.?" I never tire of them. Here we are 40 years later still celebrating one of the greatest movie musicals of all time. In the new 40th anniversary edition, we're not only treated to the original music, but the CD soundtrack is remastered exquisitely and filled with previously unreleased tracks and film version tracks that never appeared on the original soundtrack. For the Sound of Music aficionado, this deluxe package also contains never-before-released interviews with the film's director, Robert Wise, plus Richard Rodgers and actress Charmian Carr ("Liesl"). The CD packaging is also stunning with rare photos, memorabilia and newly written liner notes from The Rodgers & Hammerstein Foundation. As I said, the film is magic, but what would this film be without "the sound" of music?! I give this 40th anniversary soundtrack 16 stars...going on 17!"