Herrmann - The Film Scores
One of the more laudable side effects of the "crossover" craze affecting (or afflicting,  depending on your perspective) the classical music business has been the reclamation of film music  as part of the mainstream symphonic repertoire. It's always belonged there. Before there were  movies, composers wrote music for plays, and this so-called "incidental" music has given us some  of out most popular classics, including Grieg'sPeer Gynt, Beethoven'sEgmont,  Mendelssohn'sA Midsummer Night's Dream, and Bizet'sL'Arlesienne. Hermann  was one of the great film music composers of all time, and his scores fit naturally into a great and  illustrious tradition, nowhere more so than in this award-winning recording.--David  Hurwitz