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JOHN WILLIAMS Munich Decca Classics *****

2005 was a vintage year for 73-year-old veteran composer John Williams, who scored four very different films in 12 months: the summer blockbusters War of the Worlds and Revenge of the Sith, and the prestige films Memoirs of a Geisha and Munich. The latter combines elegant melodies, spare orchestration and pulsing rhythms (particularly the haunting Munich and Avner themes) with the dynamic colours of western and middle-eastern instrumentation (solo oboe and piano counterpointed with cimbalom and oud) and the delicate ululation of soprano Lisbeth Scott. Williams's score moves effortlessly between the threnodic (Munich 1972, Remembering Munich, Prayer for Peace) and the dramatic (Letter Bombs, Stalking Carl, The Raid in Tarifa) to create a score of extraordinary complexity, at once romantic and avant garde, and exquisite power. Munich is Williams at his best. www.deccaclassics.com

Jocelyn Clarke