JOHN WILLIAMS, "American Journey" (Sony) ***
What's an Olympics, or a Steven Spielberg film, for that matter, without a John Williams score? Rare, it seems.
But to be honest, Williams' soaring, heroic melodies seem a comfortable fit in both instances, so leave the carping to other critics and sit back and enjoy the trip on this mostly new CD.
The hook is the inclusion of Williams' theme for the 2002 Winter Olympics, "Call of the Champions," a piece of embracing bluster with orchestra and wordless chorus (the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, no less). It doesn't quite match the stirring call to arms of his theme for the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics (also included here), but its sense of dedicated triumph probably will please most listeners.
The centerpiece of the rest of the disc is "American Journey," a 25-minute, six-movement score that tries to encapsulate nothing less than the 20th-century American experience from immigration through war to civil rights and technology. It's an ambitious, imaginative and intermittently engaging work, though the music isn't always up to the challenge.
Among the other shorter pieces on the disc, "Song for World Peace" has a welcome gentle lyricism, and fans of the NBC Nightly News music can catch it in its entirety on "The Mission Theme."
Hey, NBC is televising the Olympics. Is that a coincidence or what?
