Originally posted by: hairy_hen

I have that Skywalker Symphony cd as well--it's interesting to hear the various concert arrangements of things that weren't recorded in full for the films. I think the group was only put together for the one recording, wasn't it?

I don't know- somehow I was under the impression that they had been assembled to replace the London Symphony Orchestra when the prequel soundtracks were to be recorded. That didn't happen obviously, but maybe I just misunderstood. I was quite disappointed with that CD- I thought their version of the "Jabba the Hutt" theme was pretty poor compared to the Utah Symphony's version, and the other tracks were no match for the London Symphony's versions, IMO, so I returned the CD.

The Utah Symphony CD is quite good, actually. Their versions of the Star Wars tracks are excellent, although some of them seem a bit slower than the original versions. Their album was the first to feature the 20th Century Fox fanfare before the main Star Wars theme, which was very cool.

They were also the first to record some previously-unreleased tracks like 'Darth Vader's Death', and the 'Jabba' theme- which I don't think the London Symphony ever recorded in full.