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| August 2000 Film Music CD Reviews | Film Music Editor: Ian
Lace Music Webmaster Len Mullenger |
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Joel MCNEELY
Sally Hemmings – An American Scandal
Original Soundtrack for the CBS mini series
CrotchetAt almost seventy minutes, there is plenty of music on offer here from this made for TV miniseries. It’s just a pity then that much of it sounds so similar.
The main theme is introduced in ‘I was Born Sally Hemmings’ with female voice setting things up before inevitably strings take precedence. While it’s structurally unsurprisingly, it manages to hit all of the expected emotional highs and lows that these kind of scores are required to. The other key motif of the score is first heard in ‘Haunted Paris/Consummation’, a quietly effective piano led, melancholy piece that provides some of the more auspicious moments to be found on the CD.
As this is a story set in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the score is strongly influenced and often incorporates the classical musical styles of that era. ‘Journey to Paris’ for instance is typical period drawing room fare, while ‘At Versailles’ brings to mind the pomp and circumstance of the wealthy and the powerful.
The two major themes are recalled in a number of tracks in many different guises, such as ‘Birth of the First Child’, ‘Love Letters’ and ‘Falling in Love’ to name only a few (the latter very, very romantic, pulling out all of the stops with flute, oboe and much tinkling piano and soaring strings).
Brass fanfares also feature, as in ‘The French Revolution’ and ‘Returning Home’, while folksy fiddle playing is heard in ‘Homecoming Celebration’ and ‘Critta’s Tale’ allowing for a fairly broad, if somewhat predicable musical palette. But ultimately this is a romantic work and the majority of the cues reflect the central love story tinged with looming tragedy.
Apart from taking inspiration from classical works, two actual pieces are used at key moments in the score; ‘Beethoven’s ‘Piano #8 "Pathétique"’ adagio cantabile’ in ‘Tom Hemmings Leaves’ and Corelli’s ‘Concerti ‘Grossi for String Orchestra, Opus 6’ on ‘Sally Must be Sold’
Probably the best way to describe Joel McNeely’s work on Sally Hemmings is overly familiar if perfectly serviceable. Many tracks (there are twenty eight in total) get lost amidst so much similar music and one cannot help feeling that a lot of it is excess to requirements outside of the miniseries itself.
To listen to the entire score in one sitting is a little wearing to be honest, as there simply isn’t anything here we haven’t heard many times before. Of course, this criticism can be levelled at many, many other modern soundtracks.
When you actually stop to consider it, how on earth do composers ever manage to rise above the obvious limitations and restrictions imposed upon them and produce works of art in their own right!? The truth is that it doesn’t happen very often. More often than not, as is the case here, the most you can expect is a very professional, sturdy job of work
Reviewer
Mark Hockley
Takayuki HATTORI
Godzilla 2000
Amazon USRoland Emmerich and Dean Devlin have given up on the Godzilla franchise after their one, badly received attempt to Americanise the saga, and are instead currently bidding to become respectable, Oscar-worth film-makers with The Patriot (see my review of the John Williams soundtrack album). Happily Godzilla, having got lost between the moon and New York city, is now back in his old stomping ground: the full colour centre of this CD booklet showing Mr. G squaring-up for three falls, a knockout or a submission with another even more ferocious looking man-in-a-rubber-suit monster amid a traditional cardboard cut-out model of a Japanese city. Of course the title Godzilla 2000: Millennium is both tautological and oxymornical, Toho apparently having rather less idea when the third millennium begins than did Clarke and Kubrick over 30 years ago. Still, nit-picking aside, it's nice to have Godzilla back where he belongs, especially when his musical accompaniment is as accomplished as this.
The score is by Takayuki Hattori, a relatively new film composer, having just five credits on the Internet Movie Database, including one for the 1994 film, Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla, which if the IMB is correct was Mr Hattori's feature debut score. The album contains 36 tracks, and flows so well that it is nowhere near as fragmented as that number might suggest. However, there are two short tracks of sound effects included in the body of the score which might have been better placed at the end of the disc. Meanwhile a third track of sound effects is placed between the end title and a bonus track, a fine new recording of Akira Ifukube's original Godzilla Theme. It's the inclusion of bonuses like these, together with the colour booklet and informative notes by David Hirsch, which mark GNP Crescendo out as a company which actually cares about its CD releases. So, top marks for presentation, and likewise top marks for superb sound and a generous playing length.
And the music? It's a complex, terrifically well constructed mix of traditional monster movie music, both Western and Japanese. There is an underpinning of electronics, but these are sensitively used and at least until the end, kept to a minimum. The whole package is bound together by an epic, portentous new theme for our monstrous anti-hero, while around this there is considerable variety. The main title is perhaps surprisingly subtle and atmospheric, lending a real weight of orchestral seriousness to the project, while much of the action and suspense writing which follows has a Barry (Thunderbirds, Space 1999) Grey meets Hammer Horror sensibility. One standout is 'The Encounter With the Mysterious Object', which develops the main theme into a stirring march. Elsewhere, 'Giant UFO Approaching' imaginatively sets brass and strings against a complex pattern of sampled drums. The final tracks command a real sense of pulp comic-book tragedy, with 'The Millennium Kingdom' playing the drama for everything it's worth, the electronic choirs finally going OTT, even hinting at Miklós Rózsa's Ben-Hur in passing! (Ben-Hur is subtitled A Tale of The Christ, and easy though it is to forget, the 'Millennium' only has significance in terms of Christ.) The pseudo-religious theme continues through track titles such as 'Astonishing Resurrection', with the end title being dubbed 'Godzilla - Dread God'. This begins with what sound like real, rather than sampled voices, and music akin to Renaissance Church polyphony, surrendering to a final stirring yet doom-laden rendition of the new Godzilla theme.
Takayuki Hattori has crafted a big, emotional, deliberately old-fashioned and sometimes kitsch score which is immensely entertaining. It won't be to every taste, but if you like your monster movie music bold and brash yet packed with melody this is the album for you. It would be most interesting to hear what Takayuki Hattori could do with a real epic. Something rather special, I imagine.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
Collection: The Best of Star Trek Vol 2.
Amazon USIt’s pretty much impossible to critically respond to the famous (perhaps even infamous) Star Trek theme by Alexander Courage. It has become indelibly etched upon our consciousness’. But the brief reprise that opens this second volume of cues from the vast Trek universe actually reveals it to be a rather dated piece. And if the truth is told, although I dearly love the original series, I never was particularly fond of it.
Still, putting that aside, I have always remembered the incidental music far more fondly. It managed to be as distinctive as the series itself and perfectly augmented the dramatic intrigue and excitement that would reliably unfold each week. Here we are treated to suites from three classic episodes, The Corbomite Maneuver, Balance of Terror and What are Little Girls Made of, all written by series regular Fred Steiner.
If one were going to be at all critical, you might say that despite the fact that we have three distinct episodes represented, the music for each is somewhat similar. Of course this is understandable (and perhaps even warranted) as we are dealing with a continuing saga. The music from both The Corbomite Maneuver and Balance of Terror is very much the darkly atmospheric, at times slightly Herrmannesuqe music that any Trek fan will instantly recognise. However, What are Little Girls Made of is the more varied of the three, with a quieter passage to begin with before a notable dramatic action motif is heard, one that served the series superbly on many occasions throughout its long run. In all three suites there is plenty to enjoy and admire and Fred Steiner’s name should be recorded as a crucial factor in the overall strength of the original Trek. His music always added weight and tension to the proceedings. This section concludes with a bizarre lounge version of the series main theme and though it may appeal to die-hard fans, it really only has curiosity value at best.
Dennis McCarthy’s ‘Theme from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ (version used in series four), is for me the weakest of all the various spin-off themes. It’s an adequate brass led, rather stately piece that creates little sense of anticipation. Thankfully his suite from the Deep Space Nine episode Way of the Warrior is a little more worthwhile, with action cues such as ‘Yo!’ and ‘Worf II’ having a brooding quality that is welcome, utilising plenty of brass and percussion. However, the somewhat self-indulgent rendition of ‘Fever’ (from the episode His Way’) sung by series regular Nana Visitor, is only for those who either deeply admire the actress or the song itself.
Jerry Goldsmith’s main theme from Star Trek: Voyager is of a much higher calibre. This is a hopeful, noble melody that is far more introspective than his more famous theme from both Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
David Bell’s score for the Voyager episode Bride of Chaotica is a pastiche of the kind of music used in matinee space serials such as Flash Gordon and the composer certainly captures perfectly the required flavour. My only concern would be that while this is a clever gimmick, ultimately it struggles to transcend that very fact. We can admire the technical accomplishment and possibly even be amused by the references, but finally we are only left with the music itself. Fortunately it is reasonably creative and as long as you are not adverse to the obviously dated style, it’s fairly enjoyable.
Jerry Goldsmith’s ‘Theme from Star Trek: The Next Generation (Season 2)’ was, as already mentioned, originally written for the first spin-off feature film Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In some ways I think this piece has suffered from over familiarity. While it worked quite well in the film, once I was asked to listen to it week in week out to open The Next Generation series, I have to admit I began to get a little tired of it. Also I have always winced at the editing on the series version, as I feel the piece as originally conceived by Goldsmith for The Motion Picture flows far better. Once the producers decided to use a truncated version it became rather less effective.
After this, Dennis McCathy delivers a suite from the Next Generation series finale All Good Things. Actually I feel rather disappointed that the under used and under appreciated Ron Jones, who scored several notable Next Generation episodes, was not chosen as the series main composer rather than McCarthy. Jones music was in my opinion far more inventive and distinctive. However the powers that be favoured McCarthy’s safer, more traditional scoring, of which this suite is a good representation. Certainly the music here strongly conjures in the mind the essence of Star Trek: The Next Generation and as I consider it to be a very fine series indeed, that obviously cannot be a bad thing!
For fans of Trek this is a must. But for those who have thus far resisted the allure of Kirk, Picard, Janeway and the rest of the gang, this is a solidly entertaining musical introduction :
Reviewer
Mark Hockley
COLLECTION True Grit: Music from the Classic Films of John Wayne
Amazon USI usually am wary of compilation-score albums that are drawn from the films of a single actor’s work, but this one caught my attention with its wide-ranging content spanning an array of film music styles. For all his many stolid and repetitious screen roles, Wayne also contributed no small number of significant performances during his long career — many of which must have, in one way or another, helped inspire some darned fine music.
And, like a good John Wayne Western, let’s cut right to the chase: This CD is worth purchasing simply to have the suite of themes from Jerry Goldsmith’s In Harm’s Way. Composed in 1965, when Goldsmith was on the verge of what, arguably, was his most creative period, this score features a riveting, horn-driven theme for Wayne’s character, ‘The Rock.’ Militaristic yet strongly melodic, the theme is a minor gem from the composer’s early career and is superior, I think, to his far-better known Patton theme from a few years later. The segment also includes the film’s main title sequence (‘First Victory’), which director Otto Preminger placed at the end of the film over dramatic special-effects footage of a storm at sea. For it, Goldsmith drops his already well-established thematic material to present, instead, starkly austere music depicting the bleakness of war. Paul Bateman’s take on this final cue with the City of Prague Philharmonic is slower and more deliberate than Goldsmith’s original version, but that’s a small caveat. (Goldsmith fans also should appreciate this trivia note: The composer appears in one of the film’s scenes -- conducting a small Navy band.)
"True Grit ... John Wayne" opens with music from four classic Wayne films directed by John Ford, who loved to use traditional folk melodies in his films. To see how effectively this can be done, pick up the video of Stagecoach and watch the opening 2 minutes -- a masterpiece of economical storytelling in which Ford cuts quickly between various set-up scenes punctuated by Richard Hageman’s equally fast-cutting themes that include standards ‘Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie’ and ‘I Dream of Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair.’ Both Ford’s and Hageman’s styles are passé today, but they were fresh and dynamic in 1939 and much of that freshness is captured by Bateman in a 10-part ‘Narrative for Orchestra’ that takes the listener along on the perilous stagecoach journey into Apache territory. Ten years later, Wayne gave a performance that ranks among my own sentimental favorites, in Ford’s She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. ‘Leaving the Fort’ offers a rousing version of that film’s title song, also incorporating the popular cavalry march ‘Gary Owen.’ Matched with Ford’s visuals, this is muscular music that becomes part of the film, and Bateman’s handling here brings it nicely alive.
Also well handled is a 7-minute suite from Max Steiner’s The Searchers -- even though Ford reportedly disliked the score, suggesting it sounded more appropriate for Cossacks than Indians. (He offered virtually identical criticism of Alex North’s music to Cheyenne Autumn.) In truth, Steiner’s music is gently insightful in its delineation of Wayne’s complex Ethan Edwards character, and even his drum motifs for the Indians are more stirring than stereotyped. The Quiet Man, with Victor Young’s impressive takes on various Irish themes, rounds out the Ford films, although he also directed the brilliant Civil War segment in How the West Was Won, which featured Wayne as the crusty Gen. William Sherman and is represented on this recording by Alfred Newman’s rousing main title music.
While I wish this CD offered more music from its title score, what we do have from True Grit is enjoyable. Apart from Wayne’s and Kim Darby’s excellent performances, this 1969 film features what I consider perhaps the best of Elmer Bernstein’s many outstanding Western scores — as much for the delicacy with which he underlines the character of the young girl, Mattie Ross, as for the humor and strength with which he invests Wayne’s Oscar-winning role of Rooster Cogburn. By the time he was ready to release the film’s original soundtrack on LP, Bernstein had decided to take a different tack, re-recording its themes and cues in arrangements by swing/jazz orchestrator Artie Butler. No doubt this afforded a welcome break from his usual soundtrack-recording routine, but it also denied us the full-blooded glory of the real score. Bernstein partially rectified that in the mid-1980s when he recorded 21 minutes covering 9 cues for an LP that also offered music from The Commancheros. That recording with the Utah Symphony, available on CD from Varese Sarabande, may be more authoritative than this version, but Bateman and veteran arrangers Leo Shuken and Jack Hayes (both of whom have often worked with Bernstein) have produced a worthy complement to the composer’s version.
Two Dimitri Tiomkin scores are included in this collection. The Oscar-winning The High and the Mighty is a theme indelibly connected with Wayne, who whistled it throughout the film as he helped fly a stricken airliner. Bateman does a commendable job, also, with the overture from The Alamo which, like How the West Was Won, features a dead-on arrangement by Christopher Palmer. The Longest Day and The Cowboys round out this CD’s offerings. The former is a simplistic albeit catchy march tune which Bateman handles adroitly, largely eschewing bombast for a surprising subtlety. The Cowboys is represented by the 9-minute overture popularized by its composer, John Williams, when he was with the Boston Pops. To the City of Prague Philharmonic’s credit, it handles Williams’ energetic French horn writing with a vigor that rivals the Pops’.
And this final note: The liner notes -- compiled with the aid of The John Wayne Film Society in Sutton-in-Ashfield -- features a handful of nice stills and mini-posters from the actor’s films. I especially enjoyed the contrast between the gaunt, obsessed Ethan Edwards of The Searchers and the almost-wistfully smiling David Crockett of The Alamo.
Reviewer
John Huether
Geoffrey BURGON
Brideshead Revisited: The Television Scores of Geoffrey Burgon
(Note this album was originally released in 1992 This version has been remastered in HDCD and Dolby Surround)
Crotchet Amazon UKHaving composed the music for some of the most prestigious television productions of the last twenty five years, Geoffrey Burgon here demonstrates his undeniable grasp of what is required to capture the spirit of such literary classics.
His music for Brideshead Revisited in 1981 is acknowledged as a major work and was hugely popular at the time (and indeed earned a gold disk for its original UK sales). Much of what’s on offer here has the same very English modern classical feel with Burgon reworking several other scores into suites to represent his output from the late seventies up to the early nineties.
In fact his Brideshead suite is subtitled ‘Variations’, as all of the pieces are worked around his main theme, an elegant, almost regal melody for strings and woodwind with a nice oboe solo holding it all together. ‘Julia’s Theme’ is also worth mentioning with its understated, emotional resonance that seems to speak of sadness and disquiet.
The music for 1979’s ‘Testament of Youth’ opens with a kind of dark march reflecting the on-set of war. Other cues like ‘Intimations of War’ are more melodic, but even this becomes militaristic and demanding mid-way through. This sense of war time anxiety is nicely conveyed, even during pieces that initially suggest a reprieve from the conflict.
‘Bleak House’ from 1985 features a slightly bitter-sweet main theme with an effective solo cornet carrying the signature line. A number of other pieces are very evocative of Victorian London where the Dickens story is set, although at times the music does meander a little. Even so, Burgon is a good enough composer to still make it all seem worthwhile. One particularly appealing track is ‘Dedlock Vs Boythorn’ with horn and trumpet vying with each other in an up tempo semi-comic romp, almost like a parody of the hunt.
‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’ (again from 1979) has a rather dour, affecting opening theme that nicely sets the tone for John Le Carre’s story of espionage and betrayal. The only other piece from the series featured, ‘Nunc Dimittis (Closing Music)’ was very popular when the series was first broadcast (becoming a hit single no less). Here it has been adapted for soprano Lesley Garret (it was originally written for boy treble).
Finally, various cues from C.S. Lewis’ classic ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ (1988-1990) provide what are probably the best selections on the CD, opening with ‘Aslan’s Theme’, a majestic, serious minded piece. Other tracks like ‘The Great Battle’ and ‘The Storm at Sea’ are fine dramatic action music with fanfares for both horn and trumpet announcing the advent of struggle and combat. Elsewhere ‘Mr. Tumnus’ Tune’ for flute and strings is a subtle, sorrowful melody which captures well the sense of reluctant betrayal that it signifies in the story itself. Also of note is ‘Aslan Sacrificed’ which quotes from ‘Bach’s B Minor Mass’ and it’s as dark and brooding as you might expect.
All in all, probably worth adding to your collection.
Reviewer
Mark Hockley
Richard HARVEY
Arabian Nights
Original Television Soundtrack
VARÈSE SARABANDE VSD 6141 [69:21]
Crotchet Amazon UK Amazon USRegular visitors to this site will remember that Mark Hockley reviewed the video of the programme that was screened on BBC TV earlier this year [Len, link please].
The music did not come across on the video nearly as strongly as on this album which is a rare treat. As must be expected there is much material that evokes Arabia. Harvey is very successful in creating its authentic sound in music of vivid colour. All instruments complement each other with a fantastic sound of mystery, sadness and drama as well as evocations of exotic climes.
The opening ‘Sultan’s Sharian’s Dream’ and ‘Main Titles’ is an evocative exciting yet dreamy mix of drums voices, cymbals. ‘Open Sesame!’ is thrilling and mysterious with great rhythmic drive. ‘Kasim’s Fatal Mistake’ is music to run away from monsters and Bacbac – Death of a Funny Man’ sounds like comic ballet music.
Overall this music appeals strongly and it is difficult to choose favourites. Sound is stunning.
Reviewer
Zara
Nino ROTA
Amarcord
Amarcord (meaning I remember) dates from 1973 and it won an Academy Award as the best foreign film of that year. Its story is slight – even inconsequential and it’s about the colourful characters that inhabit a small Italian seaside town during the fascist period. "A rich surface texture and a sense of exuberant melancholia" said the Illustrated London News critic. "Peaks of invention separated by raucous valleys of low comedy commented Sight and Sound. The booklet note says, " A young boy is conditioned by odd domestic realities and memories: school, church, the fascists, the "mysterious" parties in the luxurious hotel. Characters of the town: the saucy hairdresser, a crazy man called Giudizio, a puppet burnt in a popular rite. And that huge transatlantic ship full of lights that everyone looks at from afar, on small makeshift boats." The images I remember are of the evening strolls by the town’s colourful inhabitants, strolls so loved by the Italians to show off their finery. A charming film.
Nino Rota wrote one of his strongest and most memorable themes for Amarcord. It is redolent of its period and is strongly sentimental and nostalgic. Through the score, this theme is subject to a series of delightful variations scored for varying small instrumental combinations or for solo accordion. A strutting, laconic variation, for instance, is entitled ‘Gary Cooper’! Another variation is romantic and ornately dreamy.
Rota’s score portrays the more eccentric characters in the film and so is often grotesque and bizarre. There is swaggering pompous material that might be played by a self-important but none too talented town band, grotesque fairground music and crazy gallops with exotic music suggestive of the kasbah. There is some apposite source material, much of which is played in tea dance style: ‘Stormy Weather’, ‘La Cucaracha’ and the well-known tune ‘Siboney’ played in an attractive Spanish style and featuring a guitar solo.
Short but very sweet
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Combined Review:-
Nino ROTA La Dolce Vita
Nino ROTA 8½
Here are reissues of the soundtracks of two of the most important Italian films ever made, very major works by Frederico Fellini, perhaps Italy's most important director, featuring music by Italy's most important film composer, Nino Rota. Not that Rota was 'just' a film composer, but as increasing numbers of recordings of his concert music demonstrate, he was simply a major composer. Given the importance of these two films in world cinema history, I am going to begin with a grumble. Like it or not, La Dolce Vita and 8½, dating respectively from 1960 and 1963, being in Italian and made in black and white, will regardless of their classic status be unknown quantities to a many potential buyers. It's not my function to deliver a lesson in cinema history, but suffice to say that if you've never seen these movies, pester your local cinema until they give each a one day showing, and see them where they were meant to be seen, on the silver screen.
The point of my grumble is that for such classic yet relatively unseen films these two soundtracks are hopelessly documented. We get a short cast & credits listing, and one very short paragraph outline of what each film is about, repeated in five languages, and then quite pointlessly partially repeated again on the back of the insert and again on the back cover of the jewelcase. There is not one word about Nino Rota, about his approach to scoring the films, or about the presentation on the music on the CDs. We do however get a quite surreally pointless list of the countries each film has been distributed in. Making this all especially irritating is that these woefully inadequate booklets carry the heading "CAM's Soundtrack Encyclopedia"!
Some word on the presentation of the music on CD would be particularly valuable, because both discs carry the Dolby Surround logo. With no information provided I can only guess at what has been done. The discs certainly don't sound like they are in surround sound. The films were made in mono, and at the very best it is doubtful that the original music tracks were recorded in anything more than stereo. I am guessing, from the age of the recordings, and from the fact that they come from Italian movies, where multi-channel sound was not generally in use in the early 60's, that these are mono recordings processed with a three-dimensional digital reverb in an attempt to create a greater sense of spaciousness. To my ears the music sounds much more focused and coherent when I switch my amplifier to mono, and for the age of the recordings the sound is then good, though not exceptional.
Notes on Rota's actual use of music would be valuable too, simply because with these Fellini films he did not take a direct approach, but utilised everything from jazz and ragtime idoms, to interpolations of sometimes idiosyncratic arrangements of popular standards and classics. Quite simply, one might like to know what is going on during the hilarious arrangement of 'Jingle Bells' in La Dolce Vita. These are effectively patchwork scores, Rota's own wistful, sometimes swinging and infinitely catchy music blending with takes on 'Stormy Weather and 'Yes Sir, That's My Baby' (La Dolce Vita) or Rossini's overture from 'The Barber of Seville', and Wagner's 'The Ride of the Valkyrie', (8½), years before Kubrick and Coppola got their hands on them for the ultraviolence of A Clockwork Orange and Apocalypse Now.
Given that La Dolce Vita is a prophetic portrait of well-healed nihilistic youth in Rome circa 1959, it is hardly surprising that Anthony Minghella seems to have been inspired by Rota's mix of swinging jazz and pre-existing musics when it came to deciding upon a musical direction for The Talented Mr. Ripley. Doubly unsurprising when one remembers that the first screen version of Patrica Highsmith's novel, Plein Soleil, was released in the same year as La Dolce Vita. So, if you enjoyed the blend of music was soundtracked Minghella's film, you may well appreciate both these releases, spanning as they do, Renaissance to rock. Likewise, if you want souvenirs of a pair of cinema classics these are well worth seeking out. Be warned though, great scores as these are, and melodic as the music is, the cues are very much integral to the films, such that to the uninitiated the eccentric flavourings and changes of style may make very little sense. Very '60's, very cool, very Italian, not a little strange.
Reviewer
Gary Dalkin
La Dolce Vita
8½
Aldo Di MARCO
Sono Positivo
Occasionally we get scores for some pretty odd films to review on this site but this one takes the biscuit! How anybody can make or enjoy a comedy about being found HIV positive is beyond my comprehension. But the booklet notes read, " I’m positive: in other words, how to discover to have AIDS and live happily. After picking up his wife’s test results, the husband discovers she is HIV positive. But then his test results are HIV positive too as well as his gay brother-in-law…and also their freeloader friend. Who started it and where did it come from? After a few initial stray moments [I wonder what they were?], they all decide to face this new "reality" that units them and discover that the important thing in order to be happy is to be always true to oneself, following one’s own nature." The mind boggles!
This is clearly a farce with, by the look of the stills, trousers dropping at every opportunity.
Di Marco’s score is a frentic mix of many styles that can be usefully categorized as easy listening. Commendably it starts off with a few bars of menacing music in the style of John Williams’s Jaws presumably as a warning of the dire consequences of getting AIDS.
This soon segues into 1960’s/’70s pop style material that is laced with some more mock horror synth music. Then there is a kaleidoscopic mix of source material from what appear to be earlier film soundtracks with music that is mostly Latin. There are Cha Cha Chas, one of which has the extraordinary title of ‘I am not Fred Astaire’, Tangos, Mexican and Caribbean (complete with steel drums) pieces, proud Spanish rhythms, really exotic Latin numbers -- some that are catchy some that are slinky. There is a cue that is a take off of Morricone’s Westerns scores. There is even some nice relaxed romantic music for guitar.
A mixed bag for a film that would seem to have to work hard to win against its tawdry theme
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Antonio Victorino D’ALMEIDA
Capitães de Abril (April Captains)
A winner at Cannes recently, Capitães De Abril (April Captains) is the true story of the first twenty-four hours of 1974’s ‘Carnation Revolution’ in Portugal. Composer D’Almeida (himself Portuguese) has enlisted a whole range of instrumentation to bring this inventive score to fruition.
Divided into two suites, the first performed by The City of Prague Philharmonic and the second by the Orchestra di Roma (with solo pianist Alfonso Malao featured on both), the CD opens with ‘Capitaines d’avril’, a rather old-fashioned main theme that has a Continental 1960’s feel. But despite this being the central motif, the most interesting aspects of the work are provided by the imaginative dramatic suspense music that dominates the entire score. Pieces such as ‘O despertar dos soldados’, ‘Gente fina e foroz’, ‘As horas decisivas’ and ‘Temas da angústia’ all show real quality and ingenuity.
With his off-beat orchestration, utilising a varied palette, D’Almeida’ never allows these cues to become predictable. All kinds of quirky, dissonant musical devices are employed and while the music is not exactly melodic, it remains fascinating. If the lack of distinctive melodic passages finally makes the score somewhat remote, this is still nonetheless a technically accomplished work.
Other pieces fare less well however; ‘Temas da ansiedade’ with its mock waltz and the jazzy, laid-back piano and sax of ‘Música do bar’ for instance. And Suite 2 is far less rewarding, as there’s nothing here that moves the score on in any new directions. It’s very much more of the same, although with less inherent quality than before.
The CD concludes with ‘Capitaines d’avril’ featuring Ricardo Rocha on Portuguese guitar and D’Almeida himself on piano in a subdued version of the main theme. All very exotic and refined without being particularly effective. Then with lyrics provided by Pedro A. Magalhães, the main theme is given still another interpretation on ‘As brumas do Futuro’ sung by Madredeus, whose pleasant female vocal brings things to a close.
While not for everyone, there is enough originality on show, particularly in the dramatic suspense cues, to possibly make this one worth checking out.
Reviewer
Mark Hockley
************************************************************** EDITOR’s RECOMMENDATION August 2000 **************************************************************
Sergei PROKOFIEV (1891-1953)
Ivan the Terrible*. Alexander Nevsky†
† Anna Reynolds (mezzo-soprano) London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by André Previn.
(with Sergei Rachmaninov’s The Bells).
Sheila Armstrong (soprano); Robert Tear (tenor); John Shirley-Quirk (baritone)
London Symphony Chorus; London Symphony Orchestra conducted by André Previn
Crotchet Amazon UKThis is a very clever idea to package Prokofiev’s two major film scores together in this budget presentation and I urge all adventurous lovers of film music who are unfamiliar with this music to invest in this 2CD album. However I would add one caveat. Budget prices often mean sacrifices; and the sweeping marketing policy of EMI to pare down the notes for their mid-price/budget albums is a grave mistake as far as this reissue is concerned for no librettos are given. This might not be so serious with Alexander Nevsky but it is a grave omission as far as Ivan the Terrible is concerned, which occupies the whole of CD1 in this set, because there is a considerable narrative spoken in Russian. Clearly without a translation one is listening very much blind and this film is rarely screened or transmitted. Given some of the 26 numbers/movements have reasonably descriptive titles like: ‘The Gunners’ or ‘The Storming of Kazan’ but what are we to make of others like ‘The Swan’, and ‘Ocean’?
Lest I deter prospective purchasers, I hasten to add that this music can be very much enjoyed for its own sake (see review that follows).
[Suggestion to EMI: Print the words and include a little form with the CD inviting purchasers to apply for them at a reasonable price like £3]
Alexander Nevsky (1938)
Sergei Eisenstein’s classic film of Alexander Nevsky dates from 1938 and, incredibly, Prokofiev composed the music at breakneck speed in a matter of days (presumably the very complex orchestrations took longer?). The story is based on the Russian defence of Novgorod in 1242, in which the invading Knights of the Teutonic Order were held at bay most spectacularly during a battle on the frozen waters of Lake Chud.
In 1939 Prokofiev reassembled his Alexander Nevsky music in the form of a ‘cantata’ expressly for concert performance. As such it has proved extremely popular and is often performed. It is this cantata which is presented here. This 1971 André Previn recording made in the splendid acoustic of London’s Kingsway Hall is magnificent and stunningly thrilling.
The opening movement is entitled ‘Russia under the Mongolian Yolk’ and it is a vivid example of Prokofiev’s very individual style. The mood is suitably mournful and oppressive, and an extraordinary combination of (I think) bass clarinet and tuba produces a forbidding tone that seems to speak at the same time of those that crush and the crushed.
The following ‘Song of Alexander Nevsky’ begins with despairing voices until the tempo picks up and the mood turns to one of defiance. The next movement is another vivid evocation – ‘The Crusaders in Pskov’. You can visualise the heavily armoured Teutonic Knights with their dauntingly huge helmets. The crushing music, with heavy drums and cymbal crashes, speaks of their cruelty and barbarism. In response, the voices of the people turn from submission to revolt but the movement ends with a welcome moment of tenderness from the violins. ‘Arise, Ye Russian People’ is a fine noble tune with voices supported by colourful orchestrations that include bells and xylophone.
But the most significant movement, and the most memorable, is the celebrated 14-minute ‘The Battle on the Ice.’ It begins with a wintry scene: the chill is palpable with icy trumpets and shivering cellos. Swirling strings invite you to picture frosty beards of mist swirling over the surface of the Lake. Then you hear the Knights approaching from a distance. First, at a slow canter. Listen their pace quickens, now they are charging. Prokofiev sounds the chink of spurs, the clatter of armour – and the creaking, snapping breaking of ice as the Knights are confounded. This whole episode is a marvellous crescendo utterly thrilling with the voices adding power and dramatic tension. Combat, chaos, victory and exultation!
The mood of final minutes of the movement is echoed in the subsequent movement, ‘The Field of the Dead’. First we hear a beautiful limpid melody with liquid strings gently eddying, abbing and flowing; its as if we have been transported to the Elysian Fields. Then comes a poignant elegy with an affecting solo sung by mezzo-soprano Anna Reynolds. The cantata ends with the resounding celebratory ‘Alexander’s Entry into Pskov’ to the sound of many bells.
Ivan the Terrible (1942 –1944 and 1945-1946)
Following the success of Alexander Nevsky, Eisenstein was keen to employ Prokofiev on his 1942 blockbuster epic, Ivan the Terrible. The film was based on the life of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia whose reign (1547-84) was marked by a great progress in terms of political reform – but at a price. Those who dissented were dealt with severely, as in 1570 when he had thousands of people slaughtered in Novgorod (on very flimsy evidence) believing they were not among his keenest supporters. The film was made in two parts; part two began shooting in 1946. Part One had been awarded a Stalin Prize but the follow-up was denied a public showing on Stalin’s express orders. It is believed Stalin strongly identified himself with Ivan, and had no desire to be reminded of the atrocities that characterised the latter half of his reign. And so Ivan the Terrible did not receive a complete screening until 1958, five years after Stalin’s and Prokofiev’s deaths, and ten after Eisenstein’s
Concert-goers had to wait for their first taste of this huge score until Alexander Stasevich reassembled Prokofiev’s incidental music in the form of an ‘oratorio’ in 1961.
Ricardo Muti’s recording is -- to use that overworked phrase -- absolutely stunning, it reaches out at you and grasps you and holds you from first to last (narration frustrations, see above, notwithstanding). The work is divided into 26 sections, most averaging 2½ minutes but with a central section of two major dramatic episodes: The Storming of Kazan (9:47); and ‘Ivan’s Appeal to the Boyars’ (8:06). These two numbers (as do others) display a keen sense of the theatrical. The shorter preceding cue ‘The Gunners’, is noble and patriotic and forceful with brisk staccato combative material against tolling bells but there is also typical Slav melancholy and nostalgia. ‘The Storming of Kazan’ opens with trudging tuba figures, snare drumings and bass drum booms as though a heavy canon was being trundled into position. Then trombones snarl before the voices of the besieged(?) people are heard in hymn-like tones, the music, for a while, turning pastoral/mystical. But soon battle commences with raging trumpets, bass drum thuds crashing gongs and cymbals and the music becomes increasingly frantic – tremendously exciting stuff! ‘Ivan’s Appeal’ that follows mixes tension with tenderness. Impassioned strings mix with consolatory choruses.
Another spectacular number is ‘I will be Tsar!’ with huge cymbal crashes and choruses of big bells. This huge, theatrical set piece rivals the Coronation Scene from Mussorgsky’s Coronation Scene from Boris Gudunov! ‘March of the Young Ivan’ is another spectacular but here the choral and orchestral music after a heroic quick march, takes a decidedly unpleasant turn, all snide, wheedling and barbaric, revealing the less attractive side of Ivan’s character. This is just another example of Prokofiev’s skill in vivid portrait painting using just a splash of quirky colouring. Calmer material (but working up to a thunderous climax) comes in the number entitled ‘Ocean’ with Irina Arkhipova and choir intoning above impressionistic orchestral tissues. ‘Celebration Song’ is more restrained than its title might suggest, this is one of the warmest and most compassionate numbers in the work.
Rachmaninov – The Bells
Rachmaninov’s Choral Symphony, The Bells, could equally have been recommended listening when the composer was featured recently in ‘If Only They Had Scored For Films’, on Film Music on the Web, for this work is another powerful and vivid set of evocations.
Rachmaninov himself, in describing this work, remarked how the sound of bells dominated life in Russia. He had settled with his family in flat in the Piazza di Spagna in Rome in 1913 where he composed The Bells (and his 2nd Piano Sonata). The Bells, based on the verses by Edgar Allan Poe, is scored for soprano, tenor and baritone soloists, chorus and large orchestra, and it evokes the life-cycle of birth, marriage, terror and death. These in turn are related to different sorts of bells: silver, golden, brass and iron.
The opening movement, ‘The Silver Sleigh Bells’ celebrates youth, joy and romance with choir and tenor Robert Tear singing of a scenario with lovers dreaming under the stars. The following ‘Mellow Wedding Bells’ has soprano Sheila Armstrong and the choir singing tenderly of love consummated. But the music also has a mournful edge as though Rachmaninov, rather than Poe, was warning us of the responsibilities and ties of marriage and that it is the first step on the downward path to death and oblivion. Clamour, terror and despair characterise the break-neck Presto ‘The Loud Alarum Bells’. In Previn’s hands this movement has irresistible drive and pungency. The bleak monotonous declamations of the final movement ‘The Mournful Iron Bells’ that features that fine baritone John Shirley Quirk, is evidence again of Rachmaninov’s fatal spirit. (Seated at Tchaikovsky’s desk, perhaps he was very conscious of the latter’s Pathetique Symphony?)
This is another classic Previn performance with soloists choirs and the LSO in excellent form.
Once more, inclusion of the words of the work would have helped.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Performances and sound
Booklet presentation
Curio Corner
If Only They Had Written (More!) for Films – Arnold Bax (1883-1953).
(Len Please array the following covers here and add the recordings references in the usual place in this feature)
Arnold BAX
Symphony No. 3 The Happy Forest
CrotchetSymphony No. 5 The Tale the Pine-Trees Knew
CrotchetSymphony No. 4 Tintagel
CrotchetTone Poems: The Garden of Fand; November Woods; The Happy Forest; Summer Music.
Amazon UKI am bending the rules slightly to accommodate Sir Arnold Bax as one who "If Only They Had Written for Films" because he wrote so little for the medium (Malta GC [1943]; Oliver Twist [1948]; and Journey into History [1948]). By this time he was in his sixties and had retired to live in a room above a pub in Storrington, in West Sussex a county in southern England. One wonders what wonderful scores he might have written if he had been commissioned in the 1920s and 1930s when he was in his prime but then, of course, original scores were just beginning to be required as the "talkies" developed through the 1930s. Imagine, for instance, all the drama and ferocity of the 1st and 2nd Symphonies channelled into scoring a film about the Irish Uprising or about Michael Collins!
I am featuring Bax because a new recording on the budget label Naxos has just been released following their release of probably Bax’s most accessible Symphony No. 3 last year (Naxos is committed to releasing all seven Bax Symphonies conducted by David Lloyd-Jones). All Bax symphonies are highly dramatic and emotional and redolent of the wild landscapes and seascapes, and myths and legends of Ireland and the north west of Scotland. The 3rd Symphony is all of this with as one observer commented, "one of the greatest climaxes in modern music" culminating in a huge anvil stroke. The Epilogue is one of the most memorable episodes in British music, a rare haunting and mystical experience which the composer described in these words, " I suddenly became aware that I was listening to strange sounds, the like of which I had never heard before. They can only be described as a kind of mingling of rippling water and tiny bells tinkled’. [Click here for a review of the new recording of the 5th Symphony.]
Probably Bax’s most famous work is his tone poem Tintagel. This is a turbulent picture of the waters crashing against the cliffs beneath the Arthurian Tintagel Castle. But it also reflects the turbulence of the composer’s emotions for he was in a crisis of love having left his wife and escaped to Cornwall with his mistress, the beautiful pianist Harriet Cohen. Tintagel can be heard on a Chandos CD that also includes Bax’s 4th Symphony which, like Tintagel, celebrates the high point of a love affair that again finds a subconscious expression through the imagery of Atlantic breakers. The 4th Symphony is a portrait of the sea in many moods mostly as seen at Morar in Western Highlands of Scotland.
Sea mythology is the inspiration of The Garden of Fand one of four highly evocative tone poems on another Chandos album with the Ulster Orchestra conducted by Bryden Thomson. Here again, in Fand, the Atlantic Ocean is featured. A small boat is tossed by a huge wave onto the miraculous island of Fand where the sailors indulge in wild revelry until the rising sea suddenly engulfs the island. At the heart of the piece is one of Bax’s most ravishing tunes as Fand sings her song of immortal love that enchains the hearts of her listeners forever. (One wonders what brilliance Bax might have brought to the scoring of A Perfect Storm!) Of the other tone poems I would just mention November Woods written at the height of his passion for Harriet Cohen. This music is a brilliant evocation of howling winds and lashing rain beating through the trees. Bax was inspired as he sheltered in some woods on his way to a romantic tryst with Harriet; and as with Tintagel, the music is also an expression of the passion and torment of their situation.
Ian Lace
Next Month – Ottorino Respighi
Collection: Alice Faye – You’ll Never Know A Tribute
Crotchet Amazon USAlice Faye (1912-1998) starred in many 20th Century Fox musicals of the 1930s/40s until a series of disputes with Darryl Zanuck, who promoted the career of Betty Grable, virtually ended her screen career in the mid-1940s. She was a popular star, described as "beautiful, warm, honest, talented…" "Shortly after her almost meteoric first screen successes, she distanced herself from the tinsel of Hollywood in favour of motherhood."
Before Faye became a firm favourite with cinema-goers, she had been a singer with Rudy Vallee’s band and indeed she is heard singing with Vallee on the first two tracks of this 25-song album in recordings (no record labels mentioned in the notes) dating back to 1933. Her voice had a limited range and the songs on this album are frankly variable both in their quality and delivery. Many of the songs have been long forgotten and only a few will be familiar to today’s listeners, such as: ‘I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm’; ‘I’ll See You in My Dreams’; and ‘You’ll Never know’. It is interesting to note that the best of Alice Faye began to emerge in the late 1930s and it is mainly the soundtrack recordings where she is performing in a role before the cameras that her full expressive potential is realised. I’m thinking of particularly of ‘My Man’ from Rose of Washington Square. (Although her 1937 commercial recording of ‘There’s a Lull in My Life’ is equally impressively heartfelt).
I was disappointed that no mention and no numbers were included from Alice’s biggest starring vehicles [besides Rose of Washington Square (1939), and Hello, Frisco Hello (1943)] namely: In Old Chicago (1938), Hollywood Cavalcade (1939) and, especially! - Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1938)!
Alice Faye was married first to singer Tony Martin (1937-1940) and from 1941 until he died in 1995, the comedy vocalist and bandleader Phil ‘Woodman Spare that Tree’ Harris, best known for providing the voice for Baloo the bear in Disney’s animated The Jungle book.
Not the best in ASV’s Living Era series but nonetheless a nice slice of 30s/40s nostalgia.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Richard RODGERS and Oscar HAMMERSTEIN II
Original Broadway Casts:-
CAROUSEL and SOUTH PACIFIC
CrotchetThis is a very attractive and generous bargain – two original Broadway cast recordings for the price of one!
Carousel was the personal favourite of its composer, Richard Rogers. Its easy to see why, all those wonderful songs and that extraordinary almost-operatic 7½ minute ‘Soliloquy’ in which Billy the anti-hero Billy Bigelow imagines his unborn child first as a robust, mischievous boy and then as a sweetly feminine little girl, prompting him to scheme (ultimately causing to his death) to get money to give her a better lifestyle.
The two leads, Jan Clayton as Julie and John Raitt as Billy Bigelow sound very like Shirley Jones and Gordon Macrae who starred in the underrated 1956 20th Century Fox film (with Barbara Ruick outstanding as the slightly scatty but affectionate Carrie). Everybody remembers those haunting songs: the sweet sentimental ‘When I Marry Mister Snow’ (sung by Carrie as played by Jean Darling and not by Julie as indicated in the liner notes); the romantic duet for the leads "If I Loved You’; the exuberant ‘June is Bustin’ Out All Over’; the hauntingly lovely ‘When the children Are Asleep’; the wistful ‘What’s the Use of Wondrin’?’ (again mistakenly attributed to Carrie, when it is sung by Julie); and that fine elegiac consolatory song, ruined by its adoption by the soccer crowds, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.
The 1958 film of South Pacific wasn’t a patch on the original Broadway production with a distinctly underwhelming Mitzi Gaynor and an even more underwhelming Rossano Brazzi, both completely overshadowed by Broadway’s Mary Martin and Ezzio Pinza. Again, this show brimmed with memorable songs: the exuberant ‘A Cock-Eyed Optimist’; ‘I’m in Love With a Wonderful Guy’, and ‘There is Nothing like A Dame’; the sardonic ‘I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair’; the dreamy ‘Bali Ha’I’ and, of course the two love songs, ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ and ‘Younger than Springtime’.
A real treat
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Collection: Bailemos Tango (A Century of the Tango on the Dance Floor)
Amazon USThis is a fascinating collection of 19 tangos from the 1910s to the present taking in a abundance of styles so that one’s interest never flags. Many have vocal accompaniments. The lavish 16 page booklet with many historical monochrome photographs of the artists gives in depth notes of all the numbers and the history and traditions of the tango. All the pieces were recorded in Buenos Aires.
I will mention just a few of the most impressive numbers from this sparkling colourful collection. The flamboyant rhythm changes of ‘Luz Verde’ (Green Light), a 1920s style milonga with the ragtime sounds of the piano. ‘Fueye’ in the 1930s tango style with a freer jazz approach. ‘El Apache Argentino’ (The Argentinian Apache) with its sensual clarinet and picaresque melody. The infectious tune of ‘El Niño Jacinto’ (The Boy Jacinto), in the 1910s style of the milonga candobmé. Carlos Gardel (the Frank Sinatra of the tango cancion) singing in the equally catchy 1920s –style ‘Yira, Yira’ (Spin, Spin). From the 1960s is ‘Desde el Alma’ (From the Soul) strangely a tango in waltz style. Then in contemporary style is the unmistakable voice of Astor Piazzolla in ‘Los Sueños’. Finally, I must mention another very catchy number a sort of pizzicato for tango orchestra, ‘El Amanecer’ (Dawn).
Strongly recommended to all tango enthusiasts.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Collection: The Very Best of T-Bone Walker
DVD Review
The Sixth Sense starring Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Olivia Williams, and Haley Joel Osment as Cole. (This DVD includes many special features including a contribution from James NEWTON HOWARD who composed the score.)
Blackstar Amazon UK Amazon US
"I see dead people. They don’t know they’re dead. They only see what they want to see…
Do you ever feel the prickly things in the back of your neck? That’s them!"
Inspired, intelligent, imaginative, thought-provoking, The Sixth Sense is all of these and is deserving of its huge box office success. All its elements come together perfectly. All the actors turn in brilliant performances: Bruce Willis proving he can deliver a deeply sensitive performance, as well as balding brawn, in his role of child psychiatrist Malcolm Crowe; Toni Collette outstanding as Cole’s long-suffering mother, and brilliant in her final roadside accident scene with her little son, when she learns the truth about Cole’s apparitions and is reassured of her mother’s love; Olivia Williams in the difficult role of Malcolm’s wife; and, especially, the young Haley Joel Osment as the haunted 8 year-old child Cole – a truly astonishing tour-de-force from one so young.
This DVD is rich in absorbing extra features. In comparison, the majority of DVD programme fillers are so much clatter and dross. But these are meaningful and intelligent. Story boards and their final film realisations are shown. Also included are scenes that had to be deleted for the sake of pacing and coherence but seen after the film, help to enrich the viewing experience; the director’s philosophy is explained, cast details and theatre and TV trailers included. But perhaps the most meaningful feature as far as devotees of film music are concerned is the contribution of composer James Newton Howard. He has called the film a "religious experience". He shares the feelings of so many who have observed that this film is about the universal themes of loss, and living with and learning to cope with grief as well as the eternal question of what happens to our souls, as Newton Howard puts it, "when we leave this planet."
The film’s producers wanted Newton Howard’s music to have the ability to make us "feel the other world". In his contribution the composer says that there was a lot of discussion about what The Sixth Sense was about, what it meant and what were the various dimensions and levels, and experiences of The Sixth Sense -- its frightening side and its beneficent aspect. "The positive aspect is of course what transforms all these people in the end. The emotional responses of how it impacts on other people, especially the kid’s life and specifically his mother. There was a lot of stuff to contend with and a lot of information was imparted to me in the most imaginative and intelligent way by the writer/director, M. Knight Shyamalan." For instance, he told James to imagine he was in a room with an invisible animal and that he did not know where it was but that it could pounce at any moment."
His feature proceeds to demonstrate how Newton Howard scored two of the scariest scenes from the film: the early scene in which the deranged Vincent, a former patient of Malcolm’s breaks into the psychiatrist’s home and shoots him; and the scene in the bedroom of the poisoned girl where her ghost pushes the box containing the videotaped incriminating evidence towards a startled Cole. In another impressive segment, Newton Howard tells how he composed the music that underscored the scene in which Cole confesses his secret to Malcolm with the words quoted at the head of this review. He relates how a chorus of many, many voices was recorded at very low levels so that the listener is only aware of a slight hum but that is suggestive of thousands of anguished souls.
A truly outstanding release that can be seen over and over to appreciate all its treasures It should be in every film and film music student’s enthusiast’s collection.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
DVD Review
The Arthaus Musik DVD Video Sampler
Blackstar CrotchetFor those new to DVD and to classical music on video this is an intriguing sampler of a collection of Arthaus DVD’s which have recently been launched on the market, some of which have been reviewed on our sister site Classical Music on the Web.
This sampler includes ten selections of mostly well-known and well-loved classical ballet opera and concert music plus a medley of briefer excerpts in an 18 minute bonus track. These excerpts include: Bizet’s Carmen in the Royal Opera House production, the San Farncisco Opera’s production of Puccini’s La Bohème with Pavarotti and Freni, plus excerpts from Swan Lake and Mozart’s Requiem conducted by Claudio Abbado. All of these are staged in their classical productions or sung in beautiful Baroque surroundings. However, those who raise their eyebrows when confronted with modern settings or tinkerings with operas or ballets, will be daunted when they see the eccentric cavortings of the dancers in Tchaikovsky’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’. It’s as though they have escaped from some mental institution; and when they see Tristan and Islode throwing a sofa’s cushions around the stage, well… Among the other excerpts is a pungent snippet from La Divina – a portrait of Maria Callas.
Picture quality, from an aesthetic as well as a clarity point of view, is variable. The opera excerpts vary considerably from static and awful to very good. The ballet sequences are better and the concert sequences in their opulent baroque surroundings best of all.
At budget price, this is a good investment for one can decide what to buy and what to avoid! No rating applicable. Ian Lace
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