John Williams Conducts John Williams: The Star Wars Trilogy

Comment: I bought this cd for the intrementals from sw. The artwork for the disc is a tad too busy for my taste. I did manage to mp3 two tracks from it so far, impairal march (darth vador's theme) and yoda's theme. It has most of the major themes from sw:tot.

Comment: We used the CD for a "Star Wars" birthday party. As guests walked up to the door we had it playing to set the mood. Then when we went to the "Cantina" we had the music from the bar scene playing. The musical light saber game we played was done to the triumpant end song. The music played a great part in making the party fun!

Comment: If you don't want to fork out for each separate film of the original trilogy, then this CD is the best. It contains a mixture of the original score and re-recorded suites. One advantage of having this CD over the soundtracks is the inclusion of two suites not found on the film scores.

Track 1, the Main Title is the only track from the original soundtrack. All other tracks are re-recordings of the suites that appear on the original soundtracks. They are not exactly the same, but this is not noticable unless you're a massively dedicated fan.

The great thing about this CD is there are three suites not found on the soundtracks:
3) The Little People. This is the theme that accompanies the Jawas heard predominantly on "The Moisture Farm" from the Star Wars soundtrack.
10) Here They Come. This is taken from the space battle at the end of Star Wars and features the rebel theme.
11) Jabba the Hutt. This is a suite based on Jabba's theme which echoes through a number of tracks alongside other themes on the Return of the Jedi soundtrack.

As far as the sound quality goes, this CD is great. It is conducted by John Williams himself with the orchestra that is familiar with Star Wars. 20-bit technology was used for 'high definition sound'.

The only drawback is that it is missing some of the themes from the trilogy:
1) "Han Solo and the Princess": the amazing love theme from the Empire Strikes Back. This is the theme that was used when they first kissed on board the Falcon and also right at the end when Luke and Leia stare out the window of the medical ship just prior to the end credits. This picture is ironically on the cover of the CD. This suite can be found on "John Williams - 40 Years of Film". However, it is not conducted by John. If this suite was included, the CD would receive 5 stars. This is a glaring omission.
2) "The Emperor's Theme": written for the appearance of the Emperor in Return of the Jedi. I haven't come across a suite for this piece, but "The Emperor's Throne Room" is probably the best rendition in the film. This theme, which employs a men's choir, is used again in the prequel trilogy; making it much more of an important feature.
3) "Lando's/Bespin Theme": first heard when the Falcon lands at Cloud City and Lando appears. "Lando's Palace" is the track on the original Empire Strikes Back soundtrack.

Despite these disappointments, this CD is still worthwhile as it contains extra suites from the soundtracks which should please the Star Wars fans and just about all the great themes from the movies which sould please the casual listener or a John Williams fan.

Comment: This is a great CD if you just want the best of the old Star Wars Trilogy. My kids love it. We've used it as a soundtrack for many of our homemade movies. You may have to pick up the soundtrack from Phantom Menace if you want to add Duel of the Fates.

Comment: This was a great buy - very glad to find Star Wars at such a good price! The disk arived safe and in great condition. I am very pleased with this purchase.