Music Album Review: 'Cinema Serenade 2: The Golden Age'
Cover Design: Giulio Turturro; Cover Photo: Edward Steichen. (C) 1999 Sony Masterworks/Sony Classical On July 27, 1999, nearly two years after the successful debut of Cinema Serenade, Sony Masterworks dropped Cinema Serenade 2: The Golden Age, an album that reunited virtuoso violinist Itzhak Perlman and conductor John Williams for a 12-track collection of movie themes – or songs used in movies – during the Golden Age of Hollywood. For this sequel, Perlman and Williams are joined by “America’s Orchestra”: the Boston Pops, which Maestro Williams led from 1980 to 1993 and still serves today as the ensemble’s Laureate Conductor. In contrast to their first album since their collaboration on Schindler’s List, Perlman and Williams chose a program of compositions heard in films released between 1936 ( Smile from Modern Times ) and 1952 (the traditional Irish gig St. Patrick’s Day from The Quiet Man ). They chose wisely, for as the liner notes by Royal S. Brown...