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Latest CD releases reviewed

JOHN WILLIAMS
War of the Worlds Decca Classics
****

With this masterful new score, John Williams continues his long-time collaboration with Steven Spielberg - a uniquely successful partnership that has produced some of the most memorable film scores of the last three decades, from Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind to the Indiana Jones trilogy. Unlike Williams's recent overblown score for Revenge of the Sith, War of the Worlds fuses simple melodies, driving percussion and spare orchestration (brass, strings and piano) into extraordinary moments of brooding menace (Probing the Basement), aching pathos (Refugee Status, The Separation of the Family) and nerve-shredding tension (The Intersection, The Attack on the Car). With a knowing nod to Bernard Herrmann (who scored Orson Welles' infamous 1938 radio broadcast), War of the Worlds coruscates with wit, energy and drama. www.deccaclassics.com

Jocelyn Clarke