If you are looking for a CD of this classic cinema
score then there truly is no contest. Genadiy Papin of the Mosfilm
Studios has produced a gripping sound-image with tactful emphasis
given to solos and colour-points such as the celesta, saxophone
and piano. As for the tumultuous music, written despite doubts
and under the pressure of the sickening situation in his native
Austria, this is a confident, voluptuously plumped-up score, drawing
in part on ideas from his symphonic study Sursum Corda
(recorded on ASV) and on the contemporaneous opera Die Kathrin
(recorded on CPO). The latter was moving towards production with
Jarmila Novotná and Richard Tauber in Vienna as the film
score was being written. While there is much 'echt Wien' here
(tr.11, 3.10, Gold where the plumply smiling face of the
composer seems to beam down in knowing mastery) there are some
affectingly English pastoral touches as in The Jail (tr.15,
2.11). The Love Scene (tr.17 - the longest continuous episode)
melts between Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn's Hebrides and Ravel's
Daphnis. It is a score that, from one point of view, is
disorientating. Its unresolved contrasts include some intensely
dark music juxtaposed with Chocolate Soldier Vienna, super-Elgarian
triumph (tr.23, 5.10), a jackanapes march and child's play battles
where seemingly no-one comes in harm's way.
The only substantial competition is by no means
an exact match. The closest, and that pretty distant, is That's
Entertainment Digital's CD TER 1066 (also on Varese-Sarabande).
This had the advantage of George Korngold as producer and Maurice
Abravanel's one-time band, the Utah Symphony conducted by Varujan
Kojian. This was made in Salt Lake City in May and June 1983.
It was issued the same year - the very dawn of the CD but the
timing is sheer LP mindset as you will see. That TER disc
played for only 43 minutes across sixteen tracks. The Marco Polo
disc is the most complete recording so far running to almost eighty
minutes across 25 tracks. Even this is misleading because with
a handful of exceptions the TER tracks are not an exact match
for the Marco Polo's. Parts of the Morgan tracks appear in isolation
in the TER and vice versa. More practically, as far as I can tell,
the TER disc has long ago been deleted.
As for documentation the Marco Polo obliterates
the TER. TER offered a single fold of stiff card, albeit
by George Korngold, but reflected with basic factual material
the need to counter the slight level of knowledge of Korngold.
This was all of twenty years ago long before the efforts of CPO,
Chandos, Carroll and Jessica Duchen (I am sorry that she is not
mentioned more often). Marco Polo has a 28 page booklet printed
with gratifying legibility and making optimum use of space. It
is no longer necessary to set out the main incidents of Korngold's
life so the booklet is given over to an account of the making
of the film and the score with recording sessions (stills from
which grace the centre pages, courtesy of the authoritative Mr
Carroll). I am delighted that the role of Hugo Friedhofer as principal
orchestrator is mentioned. This he did under Korngold's direction
and with assistance from Milan Roder and copyists Art Grier and
Albert Glasser. There is also a pretty full synopsis with tracks
keyed into incidents as well as an account by the redoubtable
John Morgan of the trials and tribulations ... and victories ...
of restoring the score. This is, by the way, John Morgan's and
William Stromberg's thirtieth CD in the Marco Polo series.
This is the most thorough restoration of the
score. It is performed with 'great-hearted' elan and is thumpingly
well recorded. An extremely compelling disc. It deserves to do
well alongside the Robin Hood 2 DVD package being issued
by Warner Bros on the 65th anniversary of the picture. There is
no competition.
Rob Barnett
Ian Lace has also listened to this disc
Korngold aptly described his film scores as ‘operas
without singing’. His The Adventures of Robin Hood score
is one of his three accepted masterpieces in the genre – the others
being: The Sea Hawk (1940) and Kings Row (1941);
three classic scores from Hollywood’s Golden Age. How many film
composers of today could muster fifteen separate themes of this
quality, I wonder?
Here at last, is the complete score from this
brilliant, unsurpassed swashbuckler. The 78 minutes of this album
is a considerable addition to the 43 minute LP recording of the
music (produced by George Korngold) released by Varese Sarabande
in 1983 with Varujan Kojian conducting the Utah Symphony Orchestra
[This record also appeared as TER (That’s Entertainment Records)
1066]. Preceding this release were two short suites recorded by
the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Gerhardt
in his pioneering Classic Film Score Series (again produced by
George Korngold) and released in 1972 (four minutes in the LP
version of The Sea Hawk compilation of Korngold film music)
and in 1975 (twelve-plus minutes in a further Korngold compilation
– Captain Blood on RCA Victor CD80912). These polished
Gerhardt performances were full of high romance and bravado (especially
the ‘Tournament’ and ‘Love Scenes’) and are still highly recommended
as highlights of the Robin Hood score.
[The Adventures of Robin Hood (Warner
Bros. 1938) starred, in the title role, Erroll Flynn, the supreme
screen action hero – nobody could swash a buckle with as much
panache as Flynn; surely, if anybody does, he deserves a posthumous
Oscar despite the bad press he has received over the years. The
film also starred Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marian, Basil Rathbone
as the dastardly Sir Guy of Gisbourne and Claude Rains as Prince
John. A special 2 DVD set of The Adventures of Robin Hood
with many extra features is soon to be released in the USA and
in the UK early next year]
Once again John Morgan deserves warm congratulations
on his painstaking and meticulous reconstruction work. No detail
seems to have escaped his attention. For instance, he has restored
those magical flutter-tonguing flute phrasings in the ‘Love Scene’
that had been missing on previous recordings of this music.
Brendan G. Carroll, President of the International
Korngold Society, contributes very erudite notes including a detailed
track-by-track analysis. Especially interesting is his account
of the Korngolds’ flight to Hollywood to score the film, leaving
Austria in the nick of time as the Nazi occupation began – a hair-raising
experience that would have made an exciting screenplay in itself.
Korngold’s elaborate score was written under
extreme pressure and Carroll relates how Korngold despaired of
ever delivering the music to time and even tried to opt out of
his contract and had to be persuaded by Warner Bros.’ Music Department
head Leo B. Forbstein personally. The opulent orchestrations were
very much the responsibility of Hugo Friedhofer working to Korngold’s
broad outlines; and teams of copyists worked around the clock
to deliver parts in time for the recording sessions. Much of the
heroic music was based on Korngold’s early orchestral work, Sursum
Corda (I recommend the Matthias Bamert recording with the
BBC Philharmonic on CHANDOS CHAN 9317 that also has Korngold’s
Sinfonietta). This work includes strong use of
Korngold’s beloved motto theme of rising fourths - ‘The Motif
of the Cheerful Heart’. The heraldic fanfares heard in Robin
Hood’s ‘The Tournament’ scene are based on this motto theme.
There is so much in this score to admire: the
thrilling ‘Tournament’ and ‘Procession’ and ‘Battle’ music, the
gorgeously romantic ‘Love Scene’, the astutely observed comic
characterisations of Little John (Alan Hale) and Friar Tuck (Eugene
Palette). Then there is the sinister music for the Norman oppression,
the noble theme for King Richard the Lionheart, and the heroic
trumpet theme for Robin himself and its tender complement for
Maid Marian.
One of the very best of Marco Polo’s Film Music
series. A thrilling, romantic score beautifully restored and performed.
Highly recommended
Ian Lace
Moscow Symphony Orchestra/William
Stromberg