Exemplary stuff. Not only does Arista’s brand new 20-bit digital master show a massive sonic improvement over those previous incarnations from Alhambra and Varese (there’s now far more bloom, range and lustre than before – oh yes, and some fabulous deep bass sonorities, too), producer Shawn Murphy and executive producer Laurent Bouzereau have, in collaboration with both John Williams and Steven Spielberg, wielded together an extremely generous 77-minute sequence which, as well as sensibly mirroring the movie’s narrative elements, restores nearly 35 minutes of extra material.
The consequent insights into Williams’s masterly organic thinking really are too numerous to mention, so I’ll make do with just one potent example. At 0'57'' into “Encounter at Crescendo Summit” (track 5 – an early cue neither previously released nor used in the film), horns intone a brief ascending idea that seems of no great passing significance. Violins take up the same motif at 1'19'' into “False alarm” (track 7, and another first appearance on disc). Ten minutes on, and both “Forming the mountain” and “TV reveals” (tracks 11 and 12 – yet again, never before released) contain further, more extended workings of the same material, until, at 0'38'' into “The mountain” (track 14), we finally hear the first exultant full flowering of the theme associated with Devil’s Tower as it looms before Roy and Gillian in all its isolated splendour (remember that unforgettable crane shot?) A trivial series of observations, you might think, but one, I would suggest, which irrefutably demonstrates the composer’s compellingly rigorous long-term scheme.
There are those who maintain that Williams has yet to surpass the stunning achievement of his score for Close Encounters; on the evidence of this thrilling album, I’m inclined to agree. Arista’s packaging is very much in the luxury class, and if a more desirable reissue comes my way during the remainder of 1998, I’ll be extremely surprised.R1 '9809114'