Phoenix Symphony Orchestra & James Sedares - Bernstein, Elmer: Magnificent Seven - Complete Film Score (1993)

Elmer Bernstein's score for The Magnificent Seven, especially its title theme, was among the most popular Western movie music ever written (the title tune became the "Marlboro Cigarette Theme" and also turned up in the concert version of the Nice's recording of Bob Dylan's "She Belongs To Me"). But at the time of its release in 1960, Western movie scores weren't necessarily selling well, and United Artists failed to release an actual soundtrack album from the film. James Sedares and the Phoenix Symphony give a sweeping account of the music in this new digital recording, the fullest recording that the score has ever received. The new recording lacks some of the urgency of the movie's scoring, but makes up for it with a larger-than-life sound and a grand orchestral gesture, imparting to Elmer Bernstein's music the scope of a supremely bold concert suite. The notes are well-detailed and informative as well. And as a bonus, there is a performance of the seven-minute overture from The Hallelujah Trail, a film whose music was its best part.