Besides being the famed producer for The Beatles, Jeff Beck and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, George Martin was an accomplished composer, and I’m willing to be you’ve listened to his music in one of the films covered here.Conducted by Craig Leon, the Berlin Music Ensemble covers the original music or the films “Yellow Submarine” and “Live and Let Die,” as well as some original vocal and instrumental sketches to “The Mission” and various other odds and ends.–
The Yellow Submarine is a winsome collection of strings, while the Bond flick includes dashes of the classic them with original ideas. There’s also incidental music to Dylan Thomas’ “Under Milk Wood” and a sweet reading of Bach’s “Prelude in E-flat minor. Most winning are the choral moments for The Mission, mixing liturgical reverence with some recitative orchestrations. Stately and clever, just like the composer/producer.