Search - Various Artists :: The Star Trek Album

"Silva America gives the Trekies a fanfare"

J. Lovins | Missouri-USA | 11/11/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Silva America presents all newly recorded music in spectacular digital sound and features The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Nic Raine and Mario Klemens ~ Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra (Mike Townend-conductor) ~ Crouch End Festival Chorus (choir master: David Temple). It's an international all-star tribute to Gene Roddenberry's classic science fiction masterpiece ~ "The Star Trek Album", a two compact disc set of music from the Star Trek Motion Pictures and TV Shows~complete without a doubt for all the trekies.Jerry Goldsmith has been the musical captain of the STAR TREK universe for some twenty years now..."STAR TREK:THE MOTION PICTURE", 'THE FINAL FRONTIER", "FIRST CONTACT", "INSURRECTION", "NEMESIS", "VOYAGER" all represents Goldsmith at his finest hour (he's a living icon). Next, James Horner's famous theme from "THE WRATH OF KHAN", as we listen to the opening and closing score from Horner at his best. Let's not forget "THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK", also composed by Horner with the Klingons closing in on his fantastic and thrilling score. Leonard Rosenman composed 'THE VOYAGE HOME" ~ Cliff Eidelman scored "THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY" ~ Dennis McCarthy gave us "GENERATIONS" and "DEEP SPACE NINE" ~ Ron Jones composed "THE NEXT GENERATION" with a stunning electronic signature that leave the listeners spellbound. No "STAR TREK" compilation could be complete without the famous theme from the classic original television series by Alexander Courage.Silva America joins the ranks in film scores with one of the most successful franchises in both film and television history ~ continues to renew and reinvent itself to this day. The world of STAR TREK has been through 35 years of metamorphoses. We've seen generations come and go...Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy...Captain Picard, Ryker and Data...Commander Sisko and Captain Janeway. We've seen the Enterprise, Deep Space Nine and the Voyager...the Klingons the Romulans, the Cardassians and the Borg...they're all here...gotta love it!Total Time: 2-CD-Set ~ Silva America 1155 ~ (11/11/2003)"

I must disagree

tjguitar | 07/17/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I own all the original recordings, and I still enjoy this re-recording. It is good. It is better than the Cincinatti Pops "Symphonic Star Trek", it is better than the Richard Hayman "Star Trek" compilation from 89, its better than the Sci Fi compilation on the Edel label from 93 and for the most part is better than Varese's Ultimate Star Trek from 1998.



This collection has music you will not find anywhere else. The Tasha's Farewell track is beautiful and the only other place its avialable is the Edel "Best of Science Fiction" compilation from 1993, and while that was recorded by the same orchestra, it was with a different conductor, and comparing the two, you can tell that Nic Raine was more successful with Prague than William Motzing was. That said Edel release is also more than $30 here on amazon. Also this release is in HDCD Dolby which is a plus. There's also two cues from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; one of them is on The Best of Star Trek: 30th Anniversary Special, the other is not on any other album. In addition, there is music from Ron Jones "Starfleet Academy" video game which is pretty cool to listen to, and not availble anywhere else that I know of. Finally, Jerry Goldsmith's main theme can get boring after a while, I mean, its repetitive that it is in all the end credit suites, it would have been nice for Insurrection to have maybe an action cue instead of the end credits suite...And Nic Raine, did just that, only for Star Trek: Nemesis. Instead of the tradition end credit suite, Mr. Raine arranged a professional suite with the main Nemesis theme, some action cues, as well as the Goldsmith Star Trek march, and it is a wonderful 8 minutes. If you already have the 3 space and beyond albums, the Star Trek Nemesis track as well as Birds of Prey Decloaking from Star Trek III are the only new tracks on this CD.



This is a must-buy for fans of star trek in general, and hardcore star trek fans should buy this album for the aforementioned cues that aren't available anywhere else."

Quite good, but not a stellar "Trek"

Media Mike | Georgia, U.S. | 05/18/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Silva Screen Records has made a name for itself releasing reproductions of modern orchestral soundtracks, with most of its products centering around a particular genre or composer. Star Trek has a history of quality music, so its no suprise Silva has taken a crack at music in the final frontier. This is a fine release, with some strong points and some weak ones as well.



IN GENERAL: For the purist looking for a "best of" compilation taken from the original soundtracks take note: this isn't that product. Rather, these are reproductions by Nic Raine conducting the City of Prague Philharmonic. That said, this is a quality group, and the general sound is professional and comes off quite well (for the most part..I'll mention a few exceptions). It is superior to the other releases I have heard from the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.



SELECTION: The biggest advantage here is variety of sources. The Trek feature films are all represented here, as well as the various series (except for the last one, "Enterprise"). The thouroughness seems to match or excel the oher Star Trek Compilation CDs that have been released. There are a few other offbeat additions..notably a four minute suite from the videogame Star Fleet Academy. Personally, I found this bland track to be four minutes of wasted disk space. The original series has many memorable moments (listen to the Amok Time/The Doomsday Machine soundtrack) which would be be more exciting and also a better fit on this album.



Jerry Goldsmith's standard Star Trek March is heard far too often on these 2 CDs. The march itself is terrific, but it has been used so much it has become the franchise's major theme and the album's producers rely on it by representing many movies by their "End Titles". Unfortunately, Goldsmith's end titles consistently use a three-section approach: two sections of the "standard" Star Trek March sandwich a middle section of music that is unique for that particular film. This is OK if you are listening to a single movie's soundtrack, but for a compilation album, the fourth or fifth time you hear the march, it is too much. It would have been a better idea to cut a few "End Title" performances in favor of other selections from the films' soundtracks.



PERFORMANCE QUALITY: For the most part it is very good and captures the spirit of the original soundtracks. Selections from Horner's scores for the second and third films stand out as particularly well done. The last movie, "Nemesis" also has a terrifically arranged suite, and most of the movie soundtrack reproductions are very good quality. The only exception is from "Klingon Attack" in which the awesome bass of the "blaster-beam" from the original cannot be matched by the comparatively hollow synthesized atempt here.



PERSONAL GRIPE: the inclusion of sound effects. Every so often a special effect like "Warp Drive" or "Dogfight in Space" pops up between tracks. This by itself would be extremely cheesy. Add to this that these are not the actual sound effects from the TV shows or movies and the cheesiness levels reach a level I think only a Wisconsin resident could appreciate. Sci Fi music (and Star Trek in particular) seems to inspire some labels to add special effects inclusions like this. Who knows why."