VA - The Classics at the Movies: Comedy Vol. 1 (2000)

While the films highlighted on Volume 1 of Naxos' Classics at the Movies: Comedy certainly had their moments of hilarity, the music that accompanied those instances are essentially straightforward classical pieces by composers such as Mozart, Handel, Bach, and Rachmaninov. This doesn't make the album bad; indeed, it functions well as a collection of popular classical compositions. It just has little to do with the films represented. Only Ravel's "Bolero" -- which played such a memorable role in the hilarious Dudley Moore/Bo Derek seduction scene in 10 -- has any real resonance as being from a specific film. For example, Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" is included as part of the soundtrack to Four Weddings and a Funeral, but isn't the piece better known in its real-life capacity? Pickiness aside, this set is sufficient enough musically, with strong performances by an assortment of orchestras and soloists throughout the album, with pianist Kathryn Selby and the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra delivering a particularly jaunty version of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."