This pair of CDs was recorded live earlier this year to celebrate the music of John Williams and the centenary of the Los Angeles PO. Beginning with Star Wars (1977), it offers a substantial feast of music-making of the highest calibre, as one would expect from this orchestra under their conductor Gustavo Dudamel. Although the LAPO are seldom credited on a soundtrack (Ernest Gold’s It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is an exception), these players have this music coursing through their blood, as it did for their former music director, Esa-Pekka Salonen, on a Bernard Herrmann CD (Sony, 1/97).

This is a big orchestra for a big occasion and the DG engineers capture and blend it in a natural manner, never missing a detail, as borne out by glittering selections from Harry Potter, which are a joy to hear in these elegant, beautifully shaped performances. Dudamel’s love of the music and his grip on the form is never in doubt, tricky transitions flowing seamlessly, his players responding to an accelerando with an adrenalin rush, and suspension in an unfolding drama given full measure by the obeservation of a pause, as in the coda to ET.

The theme from Schindler’s List is a familiar one but listen out for a worthy companion in ‘Sayuri’s Theme’ from Memoirs of a Geisha, especially as played by cellist Robert deMaine, who makes an eloquent plea for the heroine’s subjection. ‘Out to Sea/Shark Cage Fugue’, a brilliant composition from Jaws, navigates counterpoint and fugue in jovial fashion with meancing brass interjections. Not since Bligh’s Bounty set sail on the briny in Bronisław Kaper’s music for Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) have nautical breezes blown so freely.

The advantages of live recording are displayed in another action piece, a blistering account of the ‘Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra’ from Indiana Jones. In Jurrasic Park the theme is given a noble profile. ‘Throne Room and Finale’ – a big tease if ever there was one, with the composer delaying the return of the Star Wars theme for a March in the Walton style – is every bit as uplifting as one remembered. In the big set pieces, ‘Adventures on Earth’ from ET and Close Encounters, the orchestra enjoy themselves unashamedly, the strings investing the big tunes with so much warmth. ‘Flight to Neverland’ from Hook, which occupies a mere 45 seconds on screen, is given a rhapsodic treatment that is simply spellbinding. This is a five-star celebration and a thanksgiving for a composer newly restored to health.