"Not really a review. Just a clarification the piece skater Michelle Kwan used was composed by Lee Holdridge."
Passable, but not memorable
Jeffrey Lipscomb | 03/05/1999
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I was so excited while watching a tape of Michelle Kwan skating to "East of Eden". I had heard the music for years and could never remember the name. So, when I discovered there was a recording of it, I was enthralled. To my complete disappointment, the CD skips over the most lucid and poignant lines of the melody in favor of a sampling approach. I will probably never listen to the CD again. My only hope is Michelle will keep her program for a while."
A word in Rosenman's defense
Peter Hilliard | Roslyn, PA United States | 11/07/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Michelle Kwan fans, I understand your need to warn others that this is not the cd you expected. But for those of you who are just interested in intelligent film music, it really doesn't get any better than this. Here's a man who really understands the needs of a film, what film music should do, and what music should do. Anybody interested in well constructed '50s film scores should pick this up immediately."
A Great Entry Disc For Modern Music
Jeffrey Lipscomb | Sacramento, CA United States | 05/23/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I can't think of a more "user friendly" way for those listeners who find Berg, Schoenberg & Webern somehow "too atonal" or "too intellectually complex" to get more exposed to that musical aesthetic. As just one example: the music Rosenman composed here for the Planetarium sequence in "Rebel Without A Cause," dealing with the creation of the Universe, is music of eloquent chaos - and it's right out of the 2nd movement from Alban Berg's Violin Concerto! Not a literal "lift and use" like film composer James Horner is so frequently guilty of (he used the slow mmvt. of the Shostakovich 5th in both "Patriot Games" and "Clear & Present Danger"), but more of an homage to Berg.It boggles my mind that in 1955 film audiences in record numbers came to see this film about teenage alienation - and got exposed to the New Vienna School quite by accident! Adams' conducting is gorgeous, and the recorded sound is superb.Rosenman was a pupil of both Schoenberg and Roger Sessions. I am also rather fond of his score for Ralph Bakshi's animated version of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings." Rosenman went on to supervise the wonderful classical music selections used in Kubrick's film "Barry Lyndon." Kubrick here - and in "2001" and "The Shining" - probably did more for putting classical music in the mainstream than any other film director."