The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - The Complete Recordings Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		5.0

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - The Complete Recordings Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 14, 2018

It may admittedly be the musical equivalent of “and get off my lawn”, but I’m old enough to remember when movie scores were cultural bulwarks, a dividing line between those “in the know” and those who just weren’t part of the in crowd. Soundtrack recordings regularly populated the highest echelons of the pop charts during my youth, and it wasn’t at all unusual to hear big hit songs that had begun their lives in feature films. One of the sadnesses of my adult life has been seeing the near death of the recorded soundtrack, or at least its constancy on what might be termed life support courtesy of a number of niche labels which continue to support the genre, typically with so-called “limited editions” of a few thousand units. I’ve often wondered if the less than scientific data analytics that probably helped to create those old Billboard or Cashbox charts back in the days before Soundscan and similar technologies really accurately accounted for how many units of soundtracks were actually sold, but it actually kind of boggles my mind that there are only a few thousand fans (if even that many) who are willing to fork over their hard earned cash to get the soundtrack album of their favorite film nowadays. In a somewhat similarly elegiac tone, I’ve also been a champion of Blu-ray audio, even when the high definition era seemed to often be geared more toward the videophile than those who pay at least as much attention to sound as they do to visuals. Rhino, perhaps in an attempt to attract "old school" types like myself, has brought out Howard Shore's remarkable score for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring on Blu-ray audio, though in what appears to be a simple case of substituting a Blu-ray audio disc for the DVD audio disc that was included in this 2001 release, down to and including the packaging of that previous release.

Howard Shore was a surprising choice to some to score The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but in hindsight, Peter Jackson’s decision seems eminently wise and even perhaps profound. Shore brings what I’d term a “Korngold-ian” approach toward this potentially unwieldy epic, weaving leifmotifs built around characters and concepts effortlessly throughout not just this opening film, but the subsequent entries that he also scored. The score makes use not just of virtually Mahlerian sized forces in terms of the orchestral batteries assembled, but also smaller ensembles as well as a host of interesting “ethnic” instruments. Both provocatively percussive (if I may borrow an album title from the early days of wide imaging stereo) as well as miraculously melodic, Shore’s score has rightly been recognized as one of the paradigms of modern film music.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - The Complete Recordings Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

There's no real video element to the Blu-ray disc, other than a static menu that offers all of tracks. It's actually not even necessary to have a monitor of any kind engaged to enjoy this release, since it plays more or less like a CD, with the tracks being accessible via your remote, and toggling between the two audio codecs accessible either through the audio button on your remote or the colored buttons (there's a key on the static menu for that aspect which shows pressing red is for DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and pressing yellow is for DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, which may be the one reason to need to see it). I noticed a tiny and probably inconsequential (to most, anyway) authoring error on the disc with regard to a check mark next to whichever track is chosen. It turns out using the audio button does not move the check mark, only pressing the colored buttons does.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - The Complete Recordings Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings — The Complete Recordings features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks, both 48 kHz 24 bit. There some pretty fascinating technical discussion in our forum devoted to this release that I'll refer interested readers to, but since I left my spectrogram in the Shire (that's a joke, for the humor impaired), I had to use those old fashioned tools called my ears to assess what I was hearing. I have to say that aside from an arguably fuller sound in the lower registers, a quality which is incremental at best, I really couldn't discern any noticeable difference between the Blu-ray audio and DVD audio from the previous release. That said, there's no arguing with the absolutely stunning sound this "new" release offers. Shore's score is a model of gargantuan changes, both in terms of orchestral forces, which can swell to the hundreds (often with choruses attached), and then "dwindle" to small ensembles or even passing soloists, with attendant changes in dynamic range and amplitude. The Blu-ray audio disc handles this all with appropriate ease, offering clear and convincing fidelity across the board. There's a significant uptick in amplitude and especially low end reproduction on the surround track when compared to the stereo track, as might be expected. This is a thrilling listening experience, one which will instantly transport most fans right back into the film, even if there are no visuals accompanying the music.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - The Complete Recordings Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While there are no supplements per se on the Blu-ray audio disc, this is a very handsomely packaged release, as can be seen in the pictures I've uploaded to the review. While some may wonder about the inclusion of the CDs, they're at least an alternative method for listening. The real allure here for music geeks (like yours truly) is the nicely written and very informative booklet, which includes little snippets of notation from the score.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - The Complete Recordings Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Folks who picked up the first release with the DVD audio disc probably don't need to double dip for this new version, but those who haven't yet purchased this amazing complete recording may well want to at least consider this release. It's a bit on the spendy side, especially for those who consider the CDs and booklet "unnecessary", but from a purely technical standpoint, the audio on the Blu-ray is practically perfect in every way. Highly recommended.