This article contains minor spoilers for The Suicide Squad. We have a spoiler free review here.
Surprise! The Suicide Squad has a soundtrack for the ages. Ok, look, it’s a James Gunn movie. You are not surprised.
But nevertheless, even by Gunn’s eclectic standards, The Suicide Squad soundtrack is just banger after banger. It’s more diverse than the ’70s Am radio-friendly (and Walkman-appropriate grooves) of his Guardians of the Galaxy “Awesome Mix” soundtracks, but serves the story just as well. Don’t forget, Gunn is known for writing the songs he hopes to use directly into his scripts.
During a chat with James Gunn, I asked him what the first two songs he knew he wanted to use in The Suicide Squad were. To be perfectly honest, I expected the answer to be The Jim Carroll Band’s classic “People Who Died” but Gunn surprised me with not one,...
Surprise! The Suicide Squad has a soundtrack for the ages. Ok, look, it’s a James Gunn movie. You are not surprised.
But nevertheless, even by Gunn’s eclectic standards, The Suicide Squad soundtrack is just banger after banger. It’s more diverse than the ’70s Am radio-friendly (and Walkman-appropriate grooves) of his Guardians of the Galaxy “Awesome Mix” soundtracks, but serves the story just as well. Don’t forget, Gunn is known for writing the songs he hopes to use directly into his scripts.
During a chat with James Gunn, I asked him what the first two songs he knew he wanted to use in The Suicide Squad were. To be perfectly honest, I expected the answer to be The Jim Carroll Band’s classic “People Who Died” but Gunn surprised me with not one,...
- 8/7/2021
- by Mike Cecchini
- Den of Geek
There are always plenty of Christmas-music roundups this time of year. This one's different. The others usually focus on the newest offerings. Nothing I've gotten this year has really struck a chord, but there is no shortage of favorites from years past that have proven their merits and held up over time. It is those in the classical realm, where trends matter least; and choral, because it's sacred choir music that's at the heart of the celebration of Christmas, that are listed below.
Ancient
If you want some Christmas music you don't already know by heart, just look further back in history.The early music movement of the past half-century has unearthed many long-forgotten masterpieces from the Medieval and Renaissance eras.
Sequentia: Aquitania: Christmas Music from Aquitanian Monasteries (12th century) (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi)
This was Sequentia's second album of Aquitanian Christmas season music, following on the heels of the much-praised Shining Light.
Ancient
If you want some Christmas music you don't already know by heart, just look further back in history.The early music movement of the past half-century has unearthed many long-forgotten masterpieces from the Medieval and Renaissance eras.
Sequentia: Aquitania: Christmas Music from Aquitanian Monasteries (12th century) (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi)
This was Sequentia's second album of Aquitanian Christmas season music, following on the heels of the much-praised Shining Light.
- 12/24/2015
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) never left Germany but became internationally respected by his peers during his lifetime and a symbol of pure musicianship for future generations. A virtuoso organist, harpsichordist, and violinist/violist who may have also played lute, as a composer his mastery of counterpoint and fugal writing remain unmatched, yet he was also open to the influences of contemporary Italian and French composers.
Born into a highly musical family in Eisenach, Germany, Bach became organist at the Neukirche in Arnstadt in 1703 at the age of 18. His first major appointment was as court organist to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar, in 1708; six years later the Duke made him Concertmaster. In 1717 Bach became Kapellmeister and music director to the music-loving Prince Leopold of Anhalt in Cöthen, where Bach wrote much of his greatest secular music. Bach's duties switched to writing choral and organ music for use in church services...
Born into a highly musical family in Eisenach, Germany, Bach became organist at the Neukirche in Arnstadt in 1703 at the age of 18. His first major appointment was as court organist to Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Weimar, in 1708; six years later the Duke made him Concertmaster. In 1717 Bach became Kapellmeister and music director to the music-loving Prince Leopold of Anhalt in Cöthen, where Bach wrote much of his greatest secular music. Bach's duties switched to writing choral and organ music for use in church services...
- 3/21/2015
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Italian composer Ottorino Respighi (July 9, 1879-April 18, 1936) was a master of colorful orchestration whose evocative symphonic tone poems and suites arranging Baroque material in modern garb have been audience-pleasers since they were first heard.
The son of a piano teacher who gave him lessons on both piano and violin, Respighi excelled on the latter. It was while first violinist in the Russian Imperial Orchestra at St. Peterburg that Respighi was able to study with master orchestrator Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He may have studied later with composer Max Bruch in Berlin (this is disputed), then returned to Italy, mostly working as first violin in the Mugellini Quintet. He moved to Rome in 1913 to teach and lived there for the rest of his life, which was ended by heart failure at the age of 56.
Luckily for listeners, a high percentage of Respighi's most popular works, in graceful, idiomatic performances, can be found on an...
The son of a piano teacher who gave him lessons on both piano and violin, Respighi excelled on the latter. It was while first violinist in the Russian Imperial Orchestra at St. Peterburg that Respighi was able to study with master orchestrator Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He may have studied later with composer Max Bruch in Berlin (this is disputed), then returned to Italy, mostly working as first violin in the Mugellini Quintet. He moved to Rome in 1913 to teach and lived there for the rest of his life, which was ended by heart failure at the age of 56.
Luckily for listeners, a high percentage of Respighi's most popular works, in graceful, idiomatic performances, can be found on an...
- 7/9/2014
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Generally I try to give my genre review roundups a certain breadth, but this time I'm focusing on solo piano recordings, with one exception at the end that's still keyboard-centric.
Jenny Lin: Get Happy (Steinway & Sons)
Looking at the tracklist, one might think this is a jazz album: "Blue Skies," "I Got Rhythm," "Begin the Beguine," "My Favorite Things," etc. The subtitle, though, is "virtuoso show tunes for piano," and all of these are thoroughly notated arrangements, most by classical pianists -- Earl Wild, Alexis Weissenberg, Christopher O'Riley, Stephen Hough, and Marc-Andre Hamelin are among those credited, though from the jazz side Dick Hymen and Cy Walter are also heard from, and Andre Previn goes both ways, musically speaking.
The subtitle is a bit off in one instance, in two senses: as Lin freely admits in the fine interview that makes up the friendly yet informative booklet notes, David...
- 11/26/2012
- by SteveHoltje
- www.culturecatch.com
Probably some of you were a little too busy with, er, other things on your mind while reading Fifty Shades of Grey to realize author E.L. James was giving you the perfect playlist for your very own, um, enjoyment. Or if you’re that great a multi-tasker, in between buying that complete set of restraints and riding crops, you’ve already downloaded all the Thomas Tallis, Bach and more that accompanies Ana and Christian’s adventures in and out of the “Red Room of Pain,” For the rest of us, Emi has actually compiled a bunch of those songs into Fifty Shades of Grey – The Classical Album (alas, that means no Britney Spears or Kings of Leon will be included).
“I am thrilled that the classical pieces that inspired me while I wrote the Fifty Shades Trilogy are being brought together in one collection for all lovers of the books to enjoy,...
“I am thrilled that the classical pieces that inspired me while I wrote the Fifty Shades Trilogy are being brought together in one collection for all lovers of the books to enjoy,...
- 8/7/2012
- by Sabrina Rojas Weiss
- TheFabLife - Movies
David Shariatmadari continues our writers' favourite film series with Milos Forman's opulent tale of Mozart and his rival
Did this review hit the right note? Write your own review here or get composing in the comments below
There are films that take your breath away before they've even begun. The first four minutes of Milos Forman's Amadeus – the credits, in fact – contain more drama and pathos than many directors manage in 120. The scene is Vienna, a winter's night in the 1820s. From somewhere inside a grand apartment a man screams "Mozart!" as the snow billows outside. "Forgive your assassin!" He is answered, first by a great dismal chord from the last act of Don Giovanni, then by two servants, who are bringing the cream cakes they hope will shut him up, but end up breaking the down the door. Inside they find their master has slit his throat,...
Did this review hit the right note? Write your own review here or get composing in the comments below
There are films that take your breath away before they've even begun. The first four minutes of Milos Forman's Amadeus – the credits, in fact – contain more drama and pathos than many directors manage in 120. The scene is Vienna, a winter's night in the 1820s. From somewhere inside a grand apartment a man screams "Mozart!" as the snow billows outside. "Forgive your assassin!" He is answered, first by a great dismal chord from the last act of Don Giovanni, then by two servants, who are bringing the cream cakes they hope will shut him up, but end up breaking the down the door. Inside they find their master has slit his throat,...
- 12/20/2011
- by David Shariatmadari
- The Guardian - Film News
In the tailwind of the 20th anniversary release of "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial", "Amadeus" -- the best picture of 1984 and winner of eight Academy Awards overall -- is another standout 1980s movie to resurface in theaters (locally at Hollywood's restored Cinerama Dome) with a new look, added scenes and spruced-up sound. But this time there's no CGI-created Mozart needed to fix little problems.
Indeed, 20 minutes longer and boasting digitally remastered sound, "Amadeus Director's Cut" is akin to 1998's "The Last Emperor Original Director's Cut" in that the film is enriched overall by material filmed originally and edited out.
Without dramatically altering the experience or presenting new potential problems like with Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now Redux", and now exactly three hours, "Amadeus Director's Cut" is an absorbing recreation of the tragic life of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It's got more music, more drama, more of what made it a big winner with audiences and critics 18 years ago.
This limited theatrical release, supervised by director Milos Forman, producer Saul Zaentz and writer Peter Schaffer, is obviously not destined for the big payoff of the George Lucas and Steven Spielberg revivals of recent years. But Warner Bros. is to be praised for giving audiences a chance to see this magnificent film in theaters before a no-doubt successful DVD/video release.
A filmed-in-Czechoslovakia project that at once rivaled the opulence of Hollywood's gaudiest era -- the 1920s of Erich Von Stroheim -- and yet spoke passionately to contemporary audiences through the brilliant performances of F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce, "Amadeus" is in its own class. With longer segments of Mozart's works now included, one can appreciate and revel anew in the not-Oscar-anointed efforts of conductor and music supervisor Neville Marriner and Twyla Tharp's choreography and opera staging.
But as one leaves the theater perhaps even more devastated than the first time by the thrown-out-with-the-trash end of Mozart (Hulce) -- who in Shaffer's stage play and terrific screen adaptation is undermined and driven to an early grave by rival Viennese composer Antonio Salieri (Abraham) -- director Forman's expensive, not-catering-to-the-masses film seems so unique today. "Quills" recently mined the same territory, but the quiet, banal evil that silenced one of the late 18th century's unrivaled geniuses only achieves its full power with possibly the most cruel ending since the very different but devastatingly ironic "The Bridge on the River Kwai".
There's nothing like beginning with a suicide and ending in the madhouse to wake one up in this or any moviegoing season, but "Amadeus Director's Cut" -- including more of Elizabeth Berridge's adeptly nuanced performance opposite Hulce's tremendous characterization of the lead -- has many wondrous and dark things to reveal to current audiences and classic film aficionados.
Along with Oscar-winning art direction, costume design and makeup and memorable supporting players like Jeffrey Jones as Emperor Joseph II, Abraham's towering presence throughout is one of the great screen performances of the past two decades.
AMADEUS DIRECTOR'S CUT
Warner Bros.
The Saul Zaentz Co.
Director:Milos Forman
Original stageplay and screenplay by:Peter Shaffer
Producer:Saul Zaentz
Executive producers:Michael Hausman, Bertil Ohlsson
Director of photography:Miroslav Ondricek
Production designer:Patrizia Von Brandenstein
Editors:Nena Danevic, Michael Chandler
Costume designer:Theodor Pistek
Color/stereo
Cast:
Antonio Salieri:F. Murray Abraham
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:Tom Hulce
Constanze Mozart:Elizabeth Berridge
Emanuel Schikaneder:Simon Callow
Leopold Mozart:Roy Dotrice
Emperor Joseph II:Jeffrey Jones
Running time -- 180 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Indeed, 20 minutes longer and boasting digitally remastered sound, "Amadeus Director's Cut" is akin to 1998's "The Last Emperor Original Director's Cut" in that the film is enriched overall by material filmed originally and edited out.
Without dramatically altering the experience or presenting new potential problems like with Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now Redux", and now exactly three hours, "Amadeus Director's Cut" is an absorbing recreation of the tragic life of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It's got more music, more drama, more of what made it a big winner with audiences and critics 18 years ago.
This limited theatrical release, supervised by director Milos Forman, producer Saul Zaentz and writer Peter Schaffer, is obviously not destined for the big payoff of the George Lucas and Steven Spielberg revivals of recent years. But Warner Bros. is to be praised for giving audiences a chance to see this magnificent film in theaters before a no-doubt successful DVD/video release.
A filmed-in-Czechoslovakia project that at once rivaled the opulence of Hollywood's gaudiest era -- the 1920s of Erich Von Stroheim -- and yet spoke passionately to contemporary audiences through the brilliant performances of F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce, "Amadeus" is in its own class. With longer segments of Mozart's works now included, one can appreciate and revel anew in the not-Oscar-anointed efforts of conductor and music supervisor Neville Marriner and Twyla Tharp's choreography and opera staging.
But as one leaves the theater perhaps even more devastated than the first time by the thrown-out-with-the-trash end of Mozart (Hulce) -- who in Shaffer's stage play and terrific screen adaptation is undermined and driven to an early grave by rival Viennese composer Antonio Salieri (Abraham) -- director Forman's expensive, not-catering-to-the-masses film seems so unique today. "Quills" recently mined the same territory, but the quiet, banal evil that silenced one of the late 18th century's unrivaled geniuses only achieves its full power with possibly the most cruel ending since the very different but devastatingly ironic "The Bridge on the River Kwai".
There's nothing like beginning with a suicide and ending in the madhouse to wake one up in this or any moviegoing season, but "Amadeus Director's Cut" -- including more of Elizabeth Berridge's adeptly nuanced performance opposite Hulce's tremendous characterization of the lead -- has many wondrous and dark things to reveal to current audiences and classic film aficionados.
Along with Oscar-winning art direction, costume design and makeup and memorable supporting players like Jeffrey Jones as Emperor Joseph II, Abraham's towering presence throughout is one of the great screen performances of the past two decades.
AMADEUS DIRECTOR'S CUT
Warner Bros.
The Saul Zaentz Co.
Director:Milos Forman
Original stageplay and screenplay by:Peter Shaffer
Producer:Saul Zaentz
Executive producers:Michael Hausman, Bertil Ohlsson
Director of photography:Miroslav Ondricek
Production designer:Patrizia Von Brandenstein
Editors:Nena Danevic, Michael Chandler
Costume designer:Theodor Pistek
Color/stereo
Cast:
Antonio Salieri:F. Murray Abraham
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:Tom Hulce
Constanze Mozart:Elizabeth Berridge
Emanuel Schikaneder:Simon Callow
Leopold Mozart:Roy Dotrice
Emperor Joseph II:Jeffrey Jones
Running time -- 180 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
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