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On 13 September 1959 the Soviet Union\u2019s Luna 2 spacecraft crash-landed on the Moon. Almost ten years later, on 20 July 1969, Apollo 11 successfully landed with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, who became the first humans to step onto the Moon\u2019s surface. To commemorate those two extraordinary events, here are six outstanding scores which reflect how \u2013 even before and since these events – the popular imagination has been haunted by outer space and what distant worlds might be discovered there. Introducing… the best sci-fi movie soundtracks of all time!<\/p>
With a script by HG Wells, the father of much of today\u2019s science fiction, this is in theory an intriguing landmark in British cinema history. In practice it is a frightfully stilted, mannered and \u2013 at least by today\u2019s standard \u2013 slow moving drama, which takes its time to reach the technological wonders of the future, including the first manned flight around the moon.<\/p>
The most vibrant feature of the film is in fact Arthur Bliss\u2019s splendid score, its grimly triumphal \u2018March\u2019 being its most famous cue. Bliss himself made an excellent recording of the Things to Come <\/em>suite with the London Symphony Orchestra (Heritage HTGCD220)<\/strong><\/a>, and there is a modern recording of the complete score by Rumon Gamba conducting the BBC Philharmonic (Chandos CHAN 9896)<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>