Cinema Classics 1999

Back in the days of radio, everyone knew Rossini's 'William Tell' Overture as the theme from The Lone Ranger, but classical music didn't find a permanent niche in Hollywood until Stanley Kubrick decided to twirl that space station to the tune of 'The Blue Danube' Waltz in 2001. The 1999 crop of Oscar nominees has some obvious candidates, for clearly a film about a woman who was famous for playing the Elgar Cello Concerto has to include some of it, but there are also some strange pairings: could Erich Wolfgang von Korngold have ever seen the day when an aria from his opera 'Die Tote Stadt' would figure in THE BIG LEBOWSKI? And, most heartwarmingly, there's the triumphant, showstopping finale from the Saint-Saens 'Organ' Symphony, bringing home the bacon in BABE--PIG IN THE CITY. Essentially this is a fortuitous collection of favorites which, in a further bit of luck, shows off some of the stronger entries in the Naxos catalog. And so if, having sampled a little bit, you might want to hear a bit more...