The Dallas Winds and Jerry Junkin’s 180-gram double-LP of John Williams at the Movies gets a 4 & 5-star rating from The Audio Beat:
“Since 1976, with the release of Guitar and… featuring guitarist Bunyan Webb in recital accompanied by flute and viola, Reference Recordings has offered the music-loving audiophile an elegant buffet of exceptional recordings of a wide-ranging selection of music. … Now, 43 years after that first release, comes this deluxe two-LP reissue of a multi-Grammy-nominated hybrid stereo SACD, which hit the streets a year earlier. … After just a few bars of the album’s rousing opener, “Olympic Fanfare and Theme,” written for the 1984 Olympics, the vibrant sound signals that a heck of a sonic and musical ride awaits. That first impression proves correct, as the band pulls out all the stops with performances throughout the four sides that would blow a door off its hinges. Besides the startling dynamic range, open-window transparency and spacious soundstaging, this cut (and others) contains some of the most carpet-curling bass-drum whacks I’ve ever heard. Prepare yourself for this one! … What also spoils us here are the astonishing dynamics, impact and vividness of this stirring recording. Even if you know these movies well, you’ve not heard the music from them sound like this.”
—Guy Lemcoe, The Audio Beat