What a hefty collection this is! Thirty eight tracks in all that bring you nicely up to date with the latest film music, from Bridget Jones to Moulin Rouge. Several old favourites are in here as well: Barber's Adagio for Strings from Platoon, "Unchained Melody" from Ghost and "Everything I do" from Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. But on the whole the choices are fresh, such as including two tracks from Gladiator and two from American Beauty, which all adds up to not going for the obvious, but actively introducing the listener to alternative tracks from the movies which, let's face it, define the feel of a film more and more. In this vein is the inclusion of "Down to the River to Pray", sung by Alison Krauss, from O Brother Where Art Thou?; "La mamma morta" from Andrea Chenier, used in the film Philadelphia; Sting's version of "The Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair; "Che so ave zeffiretto" from The Marriage of Figaro used so wonderfully in The Shawshank Redemption; and Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 3 from Shine. My only criticism is that the disc doesn't seem to possess quite the same clarity as some of the original film score recordings. -Antonia Couling.

Between Batmans, Danny Elfman scored the marvellous Edward Scissorhands, and its sugar-plum effect on all his subsequent scores has been clear. "Birth Of A Penguin" opens this disc with a wonderfully cheesy organ blare, and then becomes a tinkling choral Christmas for the Cobblepots. The "ooh" of the choir continues to pop up at unexpected junctures, even deconstructing the formally martial Batman theme for the titles. The Penguin's theme is hardly recognisable in this prologue, but makes a grand entrance at "The Cemetery". The three-pointed portrait of schizophrenia is then completed by what's in essence a rather predictable Catwoman theme that nevertheless dazzles in the way its meowing strings bend and sexily glide. As before, poor Bruce Wayne/Bats hardly gets a look-in for screen time. But whereas the first score regurgitated one theme in a million brilliant variations, this sequel pares right back in favour of the new. "Batman vs. The Circus" is more about the composer's love for carnival standards than action scoring. The "End Credits" suite encapsulates everything in what could easily have come first as an overture. [+]

Mezzo Cecilia Bartoli could easily rest on her laurels as one of today's most charismatic, character singers for her lively portrayals of Mozart and Rossini heroines. But it's been particularly exciting to observe her growth as an artist in exploring the exuberant world of baroque opera, with its range of pyrotechnic demands-both vocal and emotional. Bartoli's show-stopping virtuosity in a Vivaldi aria from her Live in Italy recital gave a tantalising sample of her finesse in that style. For The Vivaldi Album, Bartoli conducted extensive research into the composer's manuscripts (a documentary tracing her quest is planned for subsequent screening). Although he's best known for his concertos-in typically baroque fashion, two of the arias in fact recycle material from The Four Seasons-Vivaldi was a ferociously prolific composer of operas for the cutting-edge theatres of his time and the arias gathered here demonstrate the word-painting magic of his music, from the sylvan setting of duetting flageolets in "Di due rai languire costante" to the storm-tossed passions of "Anch'il mar par che sommerga", where Bartoli spins out ripples of rapid-fire coloratura with a gravity-defying accuracy that will leave your head spinning. In addition to many such examples of vocal acrobatics, Bartoli brings exquisite nuance and limpid tone to the delicate echo effects of "Zeffiretti, che sussurrate" and there's no better test for the remarkable flexibility of her range-full and dusky at the bottom and thrilling at the top-than the huge intervallic leaps of "Dopo un'orrida procella". With her naturally large voice, Bartoli can at times tend to histrionic excess (in the recitative to the short aria from "L'Orlando finto pazzo"), but the expressive colour of her phrasing is wonderfully matched throughout by Il Giardino Armonico's lively panache. All power to Bartoli in her goal of reviving this neglected aspect of Vivaldi's output. -Thomas May.

Based on the inherently musical novel by Louis de Bernières, Stephen Warbeck's score for the film version of Captain Corelli's Mandolin is filled with Mediterranean colours and built around his yearningly beautiful "Pelagia's Song". Warbeck, who won an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love, his previous collaboration with director John Madden, wrote parts of the score before shooting began, then recorded other pieces so the film could be edited to the music. Such an approach inevitably results in an unusually close marriage of music and drama, so that even those who haven't seen the film will relive memories of the book. At the centre of the score is, of course, the mandolin, with several heartfelt pieces performed by Giovanni Parricelli. A haunting Italianate romanticism runs through many selections so that Warbeck's music will appeal to admirers of Nino Rota's The Godfather, or more generally the operatic lyricism of Ennio Morricone. Also featured are three source cues, as well as tenor Russell The Voice Watson's performance of two songs, including a rapturous version of the main theme. Delivering a score which is subtle yet intensely dramatic, Warbeck proves as he did with Quills that he is one of our finest film composers. -Gary S Dalkin.

Vikram Seth's novel An Equal Music is as evocative a portrait of the world of chamber music as you could wish for, but Seth is the first to say that words "can only attempt to describe what cannot truly be described". This two-CD set adds the inevitably missing dimension to a great book, with performances of works which feature in the story. They include the world-premiere recording of Beethoven's String Quintet in C minor, an obscure work which is central to the plot. This, like the rest of the selection, is beautifully played and recorded, for this is not a collection of second-rate recordings cobbled together to suit the theme. Vikram Seth himself has chosen the performances and, with performers of the stature of Iona Brown and Andras Schiff, the playing is as good as it gets. Included in the selection is Schubert's celebrated "Trout" Quintet. If the book gives a taste for the music and vice versa, these CDs will also get us delving further into this delightful and infectious repertoire. -Keith Clarke.