Vienna to Hollywood: Impressions of E.W. Korngold & Max Steiner

Erskine's second collaboration with an all-star ensemble from the Vienna-based JAM Music Lab pays tribute to two Austrian composers who escaped Nazi terror, fled west and ended up creating the template for Hollywood film scoring. Principal arrangers Erskine and pianist Danny Grissett have taken some liberties with these old-school film cues, like adding an Afro-Cuban percussive undercurrent and swinging solo section on "March of the Merry Men" (from 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood) or turning "Old Spanish Song" (from 1940's The Sea Hawk) into an effervescent waltz-time swinger with harmonica ace Bertl Mayer carrying the melody.

Erskine's inimitable touch with brushes underscores the gentle piano trio number "Sterbelied," a melancholy requiem that also showcases Grissett's lyricism, and fuels an easy swinging rendition of Korngold's "The Boys Go Out to Play" that features L.A. session man Bob Sheppard on a flute solo.

The most recognizable song here is Steiner's "A Summer Place," from of a 1959 film of the same name. The two Korngold classical pieces showcasing a string quartet and the haunting "Ghost Note," a solo violin piece by Alyssa Park against an ambient backdrop, seem out of place with the rest of the program. 3 1/2-STARS