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FILM MUSIC RECORDINGS REVIEWS |
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September 1999 Film Music CD
Reviews |
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© Film Music on the Web 1999. All rights retained. Reviewers retain copyright on their reviews. Disclaimer
COMPETITION WIN
a CD of your Choice
This month we begin our reviews section with coverage of scores written for Alfred Hitchcock (born August 13th 1899)
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EDITOR’S CHOICE – September 1999 ************************************************************** |
In celebration of the centenary of the birth (August 13th) of Alfred Hitchcock –
Collection: Alfred Hitchcock
Presents…Signatures in Suspense
 HIP-O HIPD-64661
[62:36] |
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This is a superb production. I cannot think of a more elegant and fitting tribute to the master of suspense. One is immediately impressed with the quality feel of this album. The design is an elegant gate-fold sleeve with the booklet housed neatly under a flap that has a picture of ‘Hitch’ photographed with a row of cans of films of all 49 of his thrillers up to Marnie. (Inside the booklet there is another witty picture of ‘Hitch’ hitching himself up to place a can of his 50th film, Torn Curtain on the pile that towers above him.) The booklet and elaborate sleeve are printed beautifully in black and white with very tasteful typography and excellent pictures. Another of these shows Hitch walking down flights of stairs with an assistant dutifully carrying his studio chair behind him.
But it is, of course, the music that is important and here we have some fascinating material that has never been released before and, even more important, the music of the majority of the tracks is conducted by the composers themselves.
The album opens with the theme that introduced the long-running TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents; Gounod’s ‘Funeral March of a Marionette,’ chosen by Hitch himself. Its mordant strains were a perfect match for his rotund personality and dry wit.
Dimitri Tiomkin conducts two themes. From Dial M for Murder, there is the love music for the scenes between Grace Kelly and Robert Cummins, which, at its centre, grows tawdry for this is the illicit affair that sparks off Ray Milland’s cunning murder plot. Cleverly, Tiomkin weaves the telephone’s dialling and ringing into his score. In contrast, constancy speaks in the love music for I Confess. It recalls the past love between the priest (Montgomery Clift) and Ruth (Anne Baxter). The quality of the sound on these two tracks is so-so.
Franz Waxman is represented by the edgy energy of ‘Jukebox # 6’, from Rear Window; an overt jazz piece with the composer conducting the Paramount Studio orchestra. This exuberant little piece has never been available before.
But it is, of course, Bernard Herrmann, whom we principally associate with Hitchcock. In this collection, we hear Herrmann himself conducting the Paramount Studio Orchestra in the ‘Scene d’Amour’ from Vertigo. The composer' reading is definitive: you feel Scotty’s pent-up sexual desire boiling over and the music fairly bristles with forebodings of imminent disillusion and tragedy. From North by Northwest, Herrmann conducts the MGM Studio Orchestra in the opening Fandango, but as it is used to underscore the scene where Cary Grant, forcibly intoxicated, careers out-of-control, driving down a country road. Also included are brilliant refurbishments of the old Decca Phase 4 (London) recordings Herrmann made, with the London orchestras, of Psycho (A narrative for Orchestra) and his deliciously wickedly funny ‘A Portrait of Hitch’ (from The Trouble With Harry). Psycho comes up especially well with all those shrieking murder-scenes chords very well defined. Previously unreleased is Herrmann’s Prelude from Marnie with the composer conducting the Universal Studio Orchestra. This prelude includes some poignant material that poignantly suggests the vulnerability of the beautiful Marnie.
From Bernard Herrmann’s more popular music-based score appropriate to The Wrong Man, in which musician Henry Fonda is wrongly accused of murder, we hear Elmer Bernstein conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the film’s Prelude. But the most interesting of all the Herrmann tracks must surely be another previously unreleased set of three excerpts from his rejected music for Torn Curtain. These are: ‘Prelude’, ‘The Ship’ and ‘The Radiogram’. In Herrmann’s hands his 16 horns and 12 flutes vividly evoke the harsh, steely, unrelentingly repressive Soviet-block regime. The Prelude is certainly far more arresting than John Addison’s relatively colourless, jazz-based, commercial score for which Hitchcock settled. Addison’s ‘Main Title’ for Torn Curtain is placed, for obvious comparison, immediately before the Herrmann material in this collection!
Henry Mancini also felt Hitchcock’s ire. He was released from scoring Frenzy. Stalwart Ron Goodwin (often underrated) stepped in and wrote a fine score that included the stately ‘London Theme’ that played under Frenzy’s opening titles. It is played by the City of Prague Philharmonic; so, too, is the Maurice Jarre’s jarring (forgive the pun) and very untypical Hitchcockian March from Topaz. These two tracks have been borrowed from Silva Screen collections.
Finally we have music from John Williams who scored Alfred Hitchcock’s last film, the black comedy, Family Plot. The ‘End Titles’ echoes the bizarre elements of this movie including Barbara Harris’s kooky psychic and the baroque influence of Cathleen Nesbitt’s millionairess as characterised by the harpsichord.
It seems a pity that, after all that praise, I need to carp but the design of the booklet makes the sequencing of the (non-numbered and non-timed) tracks ambiguous. That is to say if you follow the programme through by the sequence of the track by track analyses. Unless you know the music, you need to check with the order of programme, printed on the rear of the sleeve to ensure you know which selection you are hearing. A Silly and irritating oversight; otherwise an outstanding release.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
| Collection: Psycho – The Essential
Alfred Hitchcock
SILVA SCREEN 2CDs FILMXCD 320 [132:49]
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This is a new compilation of all previously released selections. Although regular Silva customers will know this to be so, we feel the company should make this point clear on their packaging. The release has clearly been assembled to celebrate the centenary of Hitch’s birth and in that respect it performs a valuable service because CD1 has some unusual and interesting material paralleling the HIP-O CD reviewed above. Silva have now deleted the original albums on which they were included. Silva also assure me that every track has been re-mastered in Dolby sound and HDCD. Quite a few selections have been re-edited even to the extent, in one case, of adding a fragment of orchestral texture.
CD1 commences with Gounod’s Funeral March of a Marionette (not ‘the’ as is printed on the CD). Here, the City of Prague Philharmonic play it in full. There are four selections from Hitch’s British films. First there is Jack Beaver’s score for The Thirty-Nine Steps which is exciting and menacing enough with some romantic and vaudeville elements. Philip Lane develops Charles Williams and Louis Levy’s brief and fragmentary music for The Lady Vanishes so that it emerges here as a miniature piano concerto very much in the popular style of the day. Lane also reconstructs and orchestrates Louis Levy’s Stage Fright Rhapsody compiled from the music he scored for the film. Finally there is Richard Addinsell’s sentimental Celtic-flavoured music for Under Capricorn. But all these scores pale in contrast to the more dynamic music from the Hollywood composers. The most intriguing is the little known music of Hugo Friedhofer for Lifeboat (again a Lane reconstruction). This is a very powerful evocation of the sinking freighter at the beginning of the film with the swirling waters vividly caught; so, too, is the plight of the few survivors crammed together in the lifeboat.
It has to be said that Silva face formidable competition in many of these tracks especially the Herrmann selections. Remaining with CD1, Gerhardt delivers a more polished version of Waxman’s Rebecca; Waxman’s Suspicion fares somewhat better as does the David Buttolph arrangement of Poulenc’s music for Rope. However, I much prefer the George Korngold-produced 16 minute suite from Strangers on a Train in a cracking, tense performance by Charles Ketchum on a 1985 Varèse Sarabande recording. (This Alfred Hitchcock album is now deleted – if you see a copy anywhere don’t hesitate snap it up!) I did like the Bateman’s reading of the other Tiomkin score - for Dial M for Murder, a dynamic, startling rendition of this dark and highly evocative music. Franz Waxman’s jazz-based ‘Lisa’ for Rear Window makes a pleasant conclusion to CD1.
Much of CD2 is made up of Herrmann material which has been reviewed fairly recently. There are creditable performances of the music from Vertigo, Psycho, Marnie, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Trouble With Harry, and Torn Curtain - all widely available elsewhere and best performed by the composer himself. The most interesting track is Lyn Murray’s sparkling sophisticated music for To Catch a Thief. The rest of CD2 is made up of a stirring rendition of Jarre’s so-so March from Topaz, a nice stately reading of Ron Goodwin’s London theme from Frenzy and John Williams’ witty end titles for Family Plot – oh and a good iron-hard sounding main title for Torn Curtain as written by John Addison, and actually used by Hitch. A variable collection
Reviewer
Ian Lace
CONLON/VERTIGO Book/CD/Video Review:FEATURE FILM Douglas Gordon's vision of Bernard HERRMANN's Vertigo
This is an extraordinary visual and audio homage to Hitchcock's Vertigo and, in particular, to Bernard Herrmann's celebrated score. Vertigo, arguably Hitch's masterpiece, has always attracted attention. Acres of text have been written about the film and its deep psychological significance. Beautifully refurbished videos of the film have been released - the latest with a documentary about the film. Varèse Sarabande recordings have included the majority of the cues, including Joel McNeely's excellent 1996 recording with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (VSD-5600).
Now James Conlon's recording, running time 74:35, which is the heart of this project, includes all the music that Herrmann wrote for the film.
The book shows Conlon conducting the Paris Opera Orchestra in this performance of Herrmann's score. Close-ups of the conductor's head and hands were filmed by Douglas Gordon's cameras. The selection of the shots from all the different cameras and the editing were all Douglas Gordon's decisions. These close-ups shots, together with deep crimson and black background dissolves, constitute the total content of the 75-minute 35mm film which is the version I saw. There is also the video installation version that exactly parallels the time of the Hitchcock film (122.5 minutes). This version shows Conlon, in frame during the musical cues, while the camera tracks through the concert hall during the unscored sequences of the film to the subliminal accompaniment of its dialogue and background noises.The book comprises stills compiled from the film. It includes, helpfully, a few small stills from Hitchcock's film scattered at strategic points through its pages These film stills are inset within a much larger frame of the conductor's gestures. The book has the actual CD inset so that it becomes an integral part of the front cover design. Inside the pocket, a booklet contains two detailed essays by Raymond Bellour on Gordon's work and an excellent thought-provoking article by Royal S. Brown on Bernard Herrmann's score.
Review: The Film and the Book
To quote Bellour's notes …"…to take the music and only the music whose spellbinding power and prestige lend it an autonomy which the composer's quality alone cannot explain - and to match this music to images inspired by the music itself, is a turn of the screw that strikes very near to the inner madness of its source…"
The inner madness of its source. Yes, there it is, an inner madness that so many of us know in one form or another. That is why so many of us are fascinated with Vertigo because we can see our fears reflected in it. There is the fear of falling itself. This is very much a metaphor for the process of falling in love. We may fear it because we loose ourselves in it; we become vulnerable, we are made giddy by it, we drown in it. We loose control. Consider how often composers have associated love with turbulent waters and how poets have called falling in love "a little death." We become vulnerable, at the mercy of another. Sometimes, as in the case of Scotty, the love becomes obsessive and those that have experienced such an obsession will probably know its prolonged destruction and searing pain. Taking the psychology of the film to another level, there is a sense of both the 'Lieberstot', the love death of Wagner's Tristan & Isolde and, as Royal S Brown adroitly observes, the other side of the coin, 'Toten lieb', Death love, for Madeleine's obsession with Carlotta Valdes. There is, too, the connotation of Scotty being seen as something of 'an Orphic stalker.'
The music matches the story; it is ambivalent - full of unresolved resolutions. Aural and visual images seem to combine to form a sort of dream verging on a nightmare; in fact, Scotty's nightmare is a crucial part of the film. How many of us, I wonder, can identify with such dreams? How many of us are fascinated enough to want to see Vertigo again and again so that we might discover some clue that might help us resolve its many mysteries in order, perhaps, to resolve our own unresolved resolutions? We can wonder and wonder, but we will never know what drew and held Judy Barton to Gavin Essler or what happened to Scotty after Judy's fall, or the answers to dozens of Vertigo's arcane enigmas.
I offer all these thoughts because I believe they have a bearing on the film and book. But first, I am going to admit I know little of modern art and this film comes under that heading [The Pompidou Centre, Paris's museum of modern art figures strongly in the film's credits.] I therefore refuse to swim in shark infested waters to hazard an uninformed opinion of the film as art per se. I will therefore confine myself to making remarks about how well the film conveys the atmosphere, the intensity, the passions and the emotions of the film. After all, it is supposed to be the conductor's job to draw out all of these from his orchestra. I think this film partially succeeds on this level. Certainly, such sequences from the Hitchcock film, as the opening scene where Scotty looses his grip on the hand of the detective who falls to his death is powerfully conveyed. Conlon's quivering, folded fingers appear to be grasping on with a desperate intensity before they indicate Scotty's loosening grip. In many sequences, fluttering hands in close up, looking like frightened birds, give the impression of the sensation of falling and of a great unfathomable loss. But, of course, the conductor indicates emotions with his whole body and this is where I think the close-up technique falls down in its persistency. We only get a fraction of the communicative process. It might be the most important fraction (?) nevertheless, it is a fraction. Now Mr Conlon's reading is very good indeed as I observe below but he is young. I wonder if more might have been communicated had Mr Gordon chosen an older conductor who had lived in a more emotionally ravaged body? But, then, we might not have had such a wonderful performance!
Review: The CD
The first thing one notices is that the score is played through as one complete long cue (Douglas Gordon's decision). There are no separately screenplay-indicated cue divisions. For most people who know the film and Herrmann's score well, this will prove to be no problem for they will recognise the 'mile-posts' as they pass by. The breaks are brief and the music is remarkably seamless and works well as a complete composition in its own right.
Conlon impresses immediately with great attack and lucidity in the opening credits music and rooftops chase music. He is thoroughly involved in the music all the way through and delivers a passionate, intense reading that is very satisfying. The tower climaxes are shattering in their dynamic intensity. In contrast his hushed pianissimos are delicate and sensitive to the nuances of the screenplay. I was very impressed with his take on those muted brass chords that sound so remote, so detached - a dream within a dream. His 'Scene d'amour' is approached well and its climax terraced most convincingly. This is definitely one of the best if not the definitive reading of Herrmann's score now available on disc.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Film and book
CD
Feature Film a book by Douglas Gordon (also includes the CD) is available from Artangel 36 St John's Lane, London EC1M 4BJ price £24:95 plus £6 postage and handling. Artangel e-mail: artangel@easynet.co.uk. In the U.S.A., the book is available, price $45 through D.A.P., 155 Sixth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10013 (phone: [212] 627-1999; fax: [212]627 9484). For any information on screenings of the 35mm version or showing of the video installation, contact Artangel.
| Jerry GOLDSMITH
The Haunting
OST
VARÈSE SARABANDE VSD-6054 [35:14]
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How appropriate that this score should follow the Hitchcock albums above for Jerry Goldsmith quotes appropriately from Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo score, for this new horror film. The swirling figures you hear right at the beginning of Herrmann’s score to suggest giddiness and morbid fear of heights is appropriated by Goldsmith to underscore ‘The Carousel’ and ‘Return to the Carousel’ cues on this new album. In the latter they are further heightened to give the impression of a grotesque demonic ride.
This is a powerful Gothic score that, no doubt, emphasises the shock/fright quota of the film. (The stills from the film showing the shadowy house with its dark halls full of menacing statues; and the girl trapped in her bed in a thicket of vine-like lances indicates what to expect!). Goldsmith as usual impresses with much more than the tired ghost-film-music clichés. There are sour, echoing, remote off-key figures, slitherings, sudden thumpings and shudderings, and bird-like chirpings from a huge array of acoustical instruments suggesting a plethora of hidden menaces about to pounce. One particular effect sounds like a series of submarine sonar pings. This might work in the film but it sounds vaguely hilarious on the CD. I would mention the ‘Picture Album’ cue which opens with a tense, foreboding with small bells and xylophone/glockenspiel over low bass dronings. Goldsmith then cleverly uses dynamics and the whole sound stage to manipulate the audience, heightening their apprehension as threats appear to emanate from all different directions separately or in varying configurations. For relief there is the quieter more reflective ‘A Place for Everything’. This is hesitant music of some charm but its tranquillity is soon broken by cold, strange ominous figures and those sonar pings. There seems to be a potentially wonderful theme in this score that is never able to free itself from the surrounding darkness to reveal its glory.
After a tremendously chilling climax that is manifested in ‘Finally Home’ there is the valedictory cue ‘Home Safe.’ Beginning as a hollow-sounding, desolate cry of immeasurable and inconsolable loss, the music slowly transforms and warms so that we hear the carousel associated with laughter and childhood innocence. There is also another reference to the Vertigo score – this time the Scene d’Amour. The music ends with a heavy sigh.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Elmer BERNSTEIN Wild Wild West Music conducted by the composer
Slammed by the critics, loved by audiences, this weird western, with its jaw-dropping special effects, including neck-seeking razor-frisbees and 80-ft high steam-powered mechanical spiders, must have been quite a challenge to Elmer Bernstein. He has risen to it by creating a rip-roaring and amusing score that embraces practically every musical genre that you can think of.
The first track immediately sets out the conflict between the traditional old west and the new mechanical age. Bernstein uses uses the theremin (sounding like a demented musical saw) against whirling percussion and swift monotonous piano chords to evoke remorseless, relentless, impersonal machinery, then he counterpoints one of his bracing high-spirited Western themes reminiscent of The Magnificent Seven.
The mechanical evocations thread their way through the score with Bernstein using great imagination and resourcefulness in harmony and orchestration. The score is often very colourfully witty especially in ‘East meets West’ and ‘Of Rita, Rescue and Revenge’ in which there are some quite off-colour glissandos and other peculiar effects. Sometimes he will use weird jazz-inflected music again with the theremin giving it an inhuman sheen.
The most interesting cue is the kaleidoscopic ‘Loveless’s Plan’ Beginning with a guitar solo over rambling woodwinds that quietly contemplate a western theme in Coplandesque style, the music passes through a bewildering series of transformations. First, we hear solemn organ chords that introduce a noble Elgarian theme (with chorus joining in in Handelian mode). Then castanets interrupt a rendition of ‘God Save the Queen’, to introduce a few bars of Baroque music which then becomes an electronic "escaping-steam" caper with guitar. Suspense, creepy figures follow with the most extraordinary music of all a sort of demented mechanical belly dance presumably for the mechanical spider as it lumbers over the desert?
An extraordinarily colourful, exciting and witty score for an OTT movie.
Great fun.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Lalo SCHIFRIN (composer and Musical Director) Tango
When classical music Deutsche Grammophon allow their label on the front of an album of film music it has to be something! It is!
Carlos Savra’s film is currently enjoying great success around the art houses in the UK (the main distributors do not know what they have passed up!) It is about a gifted film director abandoned by his wife. To forget her, he throws himself into work on a film about tango and in doing so falls in love and has a torrid affair with a beautiful dancer who is the mistress of the film’s main financial backer. He is not oblivious to what is going on and takes a contact out on the hapless film director. Images of the director’s life and memories shown against an oppressive military repression and the great wave of European immigrants at the turn of the century all converge in the screenplay.
Argentinian composer, Lalo Schifrin, composer of such major scores as Bullitt, Mission Impossible and Dirty Harry, was the natural choice to score the film for he had been Astor Piazzolla’s pianist in the world famous tango composer’s early years. Schifrin is remarkably versatile, equally at home in jazz and classical music – and tango is close to his heart. The tango has of course featured in many movies. It’s appeal has remained undiminished since the beginning of the century from brothels to sophisticated parties and ballrooms, and from Buenos Aires to Hollywood via Paris (some of the numbers have that unmistakable Paris left-bank jazz style).
A group of exceptional performers gathered for the recording session. One of them was over 80 years old, and all were associated with the epoch of the film. Some of the tangos are classics such as ‘La cumparsita’; ‘El choclo’ and ‘Caminito’ and there is Astor Piazzolla’s ‘Calambre.’
The producers considered tangos, milongas and creole waltzes and chose what they considered indispensable for the film. The score comprises tangos in many moods: proud and haughty, sensual and voluptuous, strongly rhythmical and energetic; jazz-inflected; quiet and sentimental, romantic, nostalgic, and cheeky and humorous. In one memorable number ‘Corazón’, that has some engagingly shifting rhythms, the tango invades the waltz. Schifrin himself composed seven numbers to heighten the atmosphere and story line of the film. His ‘Tango bárbaro’ is edgy, nervous and dangerous; the shadows also trail his melodic and romantic ‘Tango del atardecer’ while ‘Tango lunaire’ recalls the 1920s in the manner of Kurt Weill.
One of the most impressive tracks is in marked contrast to all the rest. ‘La represión’ is a powerful orchestral composition played here by the Buenos Aires Symphony. It speaks of merciless military might with bass and snare drums crushing resistance. Women’s voices, in Greek tragedy mode, bewail the chaos and brutality. A final solitary bell tolls over the devastation.
If you have to choose between the plethora of tango releases pouring onto the market at present, make it this one
Reviewer
Ian Lace
| John OTTMAN
Lake Placid
OST
VARÈSE SARABANDE
VSD-6055 [47:10]
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Ottman seems to thrive on action movie scores with a dark edge. For this tall tale about a giant crocodile menacing a lake (yes, ironically named Placid) he has created a monster of a score utilising a huge orchestra with a massive array of percussion instruments.
Although he does not achieve the stomach-churning terror that John Williams created with his infamous Jaws motif, Ottman comes close enough with his powerful and quote varied musical shock effects. He uses considerable resource and ingenuity. The swirling currents, the watery patterns of light and shade, and the murky depths of the lake are very vividly evoked together with a hidden presence of danger that you feel will leap out at you at any second. Ottman uses deep tuba, fluttering higher brass, numerous swift-stated, staccato, dotted rhythm chords, twisting, curling, gyrating figures on harp and strings, clanking metallic and dead wooden block strokes to evoke water disturbed by the giant beast, its swift, silent passage and its sudden, deadly attacks.
Some relief is given with a brief love theme for strings, piano and harp but the 40 minutes or so of this disc is largely made of horrific aquatic figures which begin to pall at length. As vivid as it is, this album will really only appeal to those who want a memento of the movie. I do not think it will be visiting my CD tray very often.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Alessandro VLAD and Stefano ARNALDI Tea with Mussolini
This is an exquisite, string-dominated, varied score full of Italian warmth and nostalgia. The opening track sets the mood with a surging melody that passionately sings of caring and compassion (in Mussolini’s Fascist-dominated Italy). Soon the piano enters to add a theme very reminiscent of the popular style of previous successful Italian films like Cinema Paradiso and Il Postino.
This is a film about civilised disobedience and stars Cher, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith and Lily Tomlin a formidable barrage of feminine acting talent. Therefore, the screenplay is seen through their eyes and the harsher aspects, the military threat, is consequently more muted than would be the case if this were an action film. The composers use just cold staccato timpani beats and strings to achieve a necessary atmosphere of threat – and very successfully too (composers who go over the top in their efforts to achieve similar results might take note).
In addition to music of intrigue and suspense, which is minimal, the score includes many forms. Associated with tea rooms we have elegant Viennese waltzes, romantic tangos, and upbeat jazz and blues. We even have folk-song in the shape of No John (No John, No) There is Italian-style pastoral music. Although the album occasionally has its longeurs, they are outnumbered by many entrancing tracks. I will mention just three. (But first, I must report that the majority of tracks are given titles in Italian. Although the album lists 22 tracks, when you come to play the CD you will notice there are in fact 23 - all very confusing.) What I think is ‘Camicie nere agli Uffizi’ begins with beautiful piano ripples and arpeggios as the music meanders serenely before it modulates to allow the main theme to be stated very pensively. This introspection is, in turn brushed aside by the inhumanity of the military style material.
‘Tea Trolley’ begins dolefully with some interesting string writing, violins and cellos in disconsolate opposition before a bluesy jazz influence manifests itself. The music is still dragging its feet until a clarinet lets light into the texture and the music takes flight. Then there is the breezy spree of the ‘Autobus’ ride with muted trumpet standing in for the motor horn. This is one of the very few cues allowing coloration from the brass. It also includes saxophone, clearly this is a jolly ride.
Tea With Mussolini is the first release from First Night Soundtracks. We wish them well and look forward to more releases of the same high quality
Reviewer
Ian Lace
| Mark McKENZIE
Durango
OST City of Prague
Philharmonic INTRADA
MAF 7087 [46:56]
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Durango is about a cattle drive, no not in the Wild West but across Ireland in the 1940s. Mark McKenzie’s charming ebullient score blends heroic and romantic surging western styles (very reminiscent of James Horner’s main theme for Legends of the Fall) with traditional Irish music.
The film has not, to the best of my knowledge, reached the UK yet so I know nothing of its plot. Looking at the CD booklet, however, one of the illustrations shows the outside of a store or pub/saloon looking just like a frontier town saloon and its called ‘Durango’ so maybe the cattle drive begins or ends there? Being set in 1940, presumably the film also includes some conflict of interests because of the war raging elsewhere. Those interests could be either German or British or both; remember Eire was independent of the conflict. (This threat manifests itself first in the cue, ‘The Journey Begins’ and more strongly in ‘Fire’ with its air of menace and relentless military drum beats.)
McKenzie’s score is mostly string-based giving it a warm pastoral and nostalgic glow.
He also uses traditional Irish instruments: bodhran drums, uilleann pipes, penny whistle, recorders and pan pipes. There are some nice touches - the unspoilt Irish countryside of the old jaunting car is evoked in the rhythms of the Main Title, and in ‘Elope’ the harp gently whispers the love theme that will surge out as ‘Mark and Annie’s Love Theme.’ ‘Haunted Hill’ blends nobility with some eerie string tones and harp chords to suggest some fairy magic. Many tracks include Irish folk material, jigs etc.
If you liked Mark Isham’s score for A River Runs Through It and Thomas Newman’s music for The Horse Whisperer, you will love this one even though it is rather derivative and repetitive
Reviewer
Ian Lace
An aside. So many of films we see about Ireland tend to show the Ireland that is no more, they give an impression of neglect, poverty and general backwardness. Nothing could be further from the truth of the Ireland of today. The Republic is booming; it is the fastest growing economy in Europe. Galway is the fastest growing city in Europe with investment pouring into new technology, medicine and education – more than 50% of the City’s population is aged below 30. In Dublin the demand for housing is so great that, recently, an eight-house development was completely sold within 8 hours of it appearing on the market – the houses sold for £1 million each! They had just 4 bedrooms!
| Charlie MOLE
An Ideal Husband
OST City of Prague
Philharmonic BMG 74321
669222 [50:06]
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This film is the latest quality costume drama with Cate Blanchett as the lead name.
The music is a well recorded and well performed confection of hotel salon music. Think of Barber’s Souvenirs - a devastating apotheosis of this sort of music. Straussian (Richard Rodgers and Sondheim/Gemigniani may also be recalled) waltzes mingle with mini helpings of soundtrack dialogue. The music is for full orchestra (extremely beautifully recorded) or for mini-ensemble. The non-threatening nostalgia of the comfortably affluent wanders abstractedly through a score which is never less than pleasant but which sometimes skates dangerously near monotony. In the same way that person specifications are written for appointing people to jobs this score sounds as if it might have been written to a director’s specification. There is no danger in this score and it may well make excellent background music for a dinner party - especially if you programme out the speech tracks. Undemanding gentle contours. Not a peak in the film music world but a highly competent (and I would expect, apposite) score.
Notes: personnel listed. Orchestra not identified. Decent though brief comments about the score. More photos than information - nothing changes. Not a compelling purchase as music. This is definitely a film souvenir CD. I would still watch out for Charlie Mole and his orchestrators in the future.
Reviewer
Rob Barnett
Erich Wolfgang KORNGOLD Devotion
Devotion was a Warner Brothers film which had its wicked heedless way with the story of the Brontë sisters. In the film the sisters were played by Nancy Coleman, Olivia de Havilland and the delightful Ida Lupino. Other familiar names included Paul Henreid (given short shrift by sleeve-note writer Brendan Carroll) and Dame May Whitty.
Korngold’s passionately romantic score for Devotion has been known largely through the film soundtrack itself which, to the best of my knowledge, has not been issued on CD. (Charles Gerhardt included the cue ‘Death of Emily Brontë’ in his Sea Hawk album – The Classic Film Scores of Erich Wolfgang Korngold; RCA GD87890) Here is the lion’s share of the score omitting only the music by Lanner and the Strausses (all conducted on the soundtrack by Korngold).
The score has its playfully naïve episodes (e.g. Packing Montage) and the occasional chintzy moment. There is also no disguising that over almost seventy minutes of music it has a few longueurs..
Otherwise the score has an invigorating saturated romanticism (Farewell at end of track 4). Korngold was clearly influenced by Stravinsky Firebird and de Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain. The moors play an important role in any story of the Brontës and here the Gothick sea-green waves of his music for The Sea Wolf seem to be not all that far away. Explosively gale-plied music depicts Branwell and the Horses while Brussels reaches out to the listener in an evocation of a new minted morning: starched collars, dazzling sunlight and crinoline. Charlotte’s Romance is rather ruminatively Baxian. The music is on its toes in The Boat and high romance and tense mystery stalk The Graves in a style similar to the music from the Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.
The orchestrators as opposed to his usual single collaborator (the angelic musician Hugo Friedhofer) were a team of six including his friend Ernest Toch (who wrote the music for the film The Cat and the Canary). The history of the whole project was not a happy one and the film was panned. Brendan Carroll is pretty dismissive still, although the music rises above the other components of the film.
Authoritative extensive notes (English only) by Korngold authority Brendan G Carroll. John W Morgan’s tribute to the film music luminary the late Tony Thomas (1922-97) graces 2pp of the 32 pp booklet. The notes which come with so many film music CDs (at least those of Marco Polo) must be counted as legitimate and significant entries in the film music bibliography.
This is a luxury article in every aspect with the orchestra (much criticised over its part in the Malipiero symphony project) shining through with the exception of what sounds like rough and ready strings in (Branwell’s Death). The orchestra’s standards are overall a credit to them and to William Stromberg. The end result suggests many hours of preparation. A headline production.
Reviewer
Rob Barnett
Ian Lace adds:-
The title, Devotion, and the leading players Olivia de Havilland (Charlotte), Ida Lupino (Emily) and Nancy Coleman (Anne) Brontë signal that this is what we used to call a woman’s picture. Not surprisingly, therefore, Korngold responds sensitively with a "feminine" score that sighs and yearns and has many ‘fluffy’ and decorative touches. These manifest themselves profusely in such cues as ‘The Girls’ and ‘Brussels’. The girls’ sense of family devotion is heightened in passionately Romantic climaxes in cues like ‘Farewell’ and, of course, in the glorious Devotion theme itself which is worth the price of this CD alone. Even the wit of Branwell’s drunkenness is restrained. It is as though it reflects sisterly tolerance and concern rather than masculine vulgarity. Emily’s nightmares and premonitions of death hold a more womanly terror too.
The cue ‘London Montage’ contains the most assertive music in the score for the whirling presses as Charlotte’s book, Jane Eyre is printed. This is wonderfully orchestrated by Hugo Friedhofer and the theme that emerges from the mêlée was originally used in Captain Blood, now used as an elegant minuet for Thackery. I was also impressed with the witty evocation of a carriage ride ‘In the Park’. Korngold writes music that vividly suggests the bleakness of the moors and the wind searing the sparse trees and grasses. But, with the exception of a few bars, this is not English pastoral music rather it is more Viennese/Hollywood.
Devotion was one of Korngold’s last assignments for Warner Bros. It is not top- drawer Korngold; one has the impression that much of the inspiration and material is being retreaded. Yet this is a major score and even second-drawer Korngold reaches higher than a lot of top-drawer film music by lesser composers.
Again, John Morgan is to be congratulated on a first class job of reconstruction and Bill Stromberg leads the Moscow players in a moving performance of this unashamedly lush Romantic score.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
A further comment from Jeffrey Wheeler
I agree with Mr. Barnett and Mr. Lace on many things, but I think they slightly under-credit the power of this score.
It is one of Korngold's lesser efforts, that is true. Korngold repeats his message numerous times. not solely from within the soundtrack proper, either, but from previous scores. However, these ideas doubtlessly bear repeating, and are such a fresh experience after reviewing a contemporary piece of film scoring morass ("Stigmata") that anything with Korngold's brand of sentimentality, skill, and beauty is almost shocking in its emotion, and further proves just how noteworthy the score is till its very end. From those terms, I garner a greater certainty about "Devotion's" magnificence.
The performances are, as my colleagues said, generally top-notch. As for Stromberg and Morgan, they have not outdone themselves, but neither have they degraded their efforts. This is a finely produced album; it shows the interest, the love of the music, and, I must add, the good-natured humor, from every person involved in its inception.
This is an elegant score, and deserves all of the accolades it can get. So, it may take somebody a little 'getting into' to enjoy the score, but one will probably find meeting Erich Wolfgang Korngold halfway is invariably worth the endeavor.
Reviewer
Jeffrey Wheeler
| Max STEINER
Distant Drums; South of St Louis; Cloak and
Dagger; My Girl Tisa
2CDs SCREEN
ARCHIVES SAE –CSR –0001 [103:00] |
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I had been campaigning for years for the release of Max Steiner’s music from Distant Drums so I have to confess that I was predisposed to like this album. I remember being so stunned by the music when I saw the film back in the early 1950s, that I sat through the movie twice just to hear the music again. (Despite Ray Fiola’s rather harsh view of the film itself, I remember thoroughly enjoying its fabulous Florida Everglades locations and non-stop action; but, then, my critical faculties were rather immature.)
Distant Drums is one of four Steiner scores on this double album dedicated to United States Film Productions - an independent production unit operating on the Warner Bros. lot and having their product distributed by Warners. Max Steiner’s scores are clearly under the influence of the ‘parent’ studio for they carry that unmistakable Warner Bros sound.
For Distant Drums, Max wrote one of his most exciting scores highlighted by one of his most inspired heroic march themes - that for Captain Quincy Wyatt (Gary Cooper looking very dashing in buckskins and sporting that distinctive banded headgear). Supporting Wyatt’s theme, are other strong themes for the well-meaning if inept Lt Tufts (played by a rather wooden Richard Webb) and for the Everglades itself. The former is another stirring march motif and the latter a broad melody suggesting the beauty of the location. This melody, however, is never allowed to flower properly because it is shot through with a Seminole motif and other menacing material to suggest lurking danger from Indians and alligators. For comic relief, a lugubrious hornpipe motif underscores the naval lieutenant’s gaffes. Spanish-type rhythms are also heard in the Fortress episodes, sometimes assertively sometimes furtively as when Quincy’s men attack by stealth. Steiner’s music for the Seminole Indians is vividly and colourfully scored. As usual with any action movie that Max scored, the music races along and the tension is screwed up notch by notch. What a shame that the music from the last two reels of this film has been lost. A succession of themes for this part of the film has been reconstructed (presumably by John Morgan?)
The other major western score is that for South of St Louis (1948) that starred Joel McCrea, Zachary Scott, Alexis Scott, Dorothy Malone, Alan Hale and that oily villain Victor Jory. Again, this was a screenplay full of action with a rather more dubious hero than was the norm in those days. Steiner responds with another robust, rip-roaring score with music that races headlong or lumbers at the pace of the covered wagons. Listening to this music, I was once again impressed how Steiner can respond to lightening changes of scene and mood with equally speedy yet smooth musical gear changes, and how he can suggest so many moods and events simultaneously. The showdown gunfight is masterly, percussive piano doubling timps to strike a stark, dramatic rhythm as well as screwing up the tension. For me, only Tiomkin using similar techniques in his western scores, could equal this type of writing. The score uses a number of source tunes like ‘Dixie’ and ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’ appropriate to its Civil War setting. Other strong points: Steiner’s use of Latin themes and rhythms for the Matamoras (Mexico) settings and his striking arrangement of the popular La Paloma.
Only the overture of Cloak and Dagger (1946) is included. It is a sombre march implying intrigue and espionage before the music moves into a more upbeat mode suggesting victory.
My Girl Tisa (1948) was more kindly received by the critics. It starred Lili Palmer, Sam Wanamaker, Alan Hale and Akim Tamiroff. It was about an immigrant girl in New York in the 1890s who falls for an aspiring politician. She is threatened with deportation when her attempts to bring her father into the country from Hungary cause conflict with a dastardly white slaver.
With the exception of Distant Drums, all these excerpts commence with the Warner Bros. imposing fanfare composed by Max Steiner. (Max thought it inappropriate for Distant Drums.) I make this point because it is always a marvel how Max manages to modulate this fanfare so well and so smoothly into the Main Titles themes of his scores. For My Girl Tisa, Max’s main theme is one of his loveliest sweepingly romantic creations. Immediately afterwards we hear Max’s take on the type of melody one would hear being whistled in the streets or sung in the music halls of turn-of –the-century New York followed by caring, compassionate motifs associated with Tisa. Darker material denotes the evil machinations of Tescu. Steiner cleverly uses harps and zither to create a warm sentimental Hungarian atmosphere (after all he came from Vienna so this was home territory).
The packaging for this production is excellent. Despite my little carp above, Ray Faiola’ notes, including a full track-by-track analysis, are excellent. Ray reminds us that United States Productions also released Pursued, Marjorie Morningstar (both scored by Max Steiner) and The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell (boldly scored by Dimitri Tiomkin). Let’s hope that Screen Archives are considering releasing these?
Finally, seeing John Morgan’s name amongst the credits, I wonder if he might also consider a new modern recording - a Max Steiner compilation album to include the best of Distant Drums, together with The Hanging Tree and several other of Steiner’s western scores such as The Oklahoma Kid, The Lion and the Horse and Silver River?
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Dimitri TIOMKIN Lost Horizon Limited Edition: BYU Film Music Archives, 5030 Harold B Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602
Lost Horizon is a film to bring back memories. For this reviewer this involves rainy Sunday afternoon TV matinees (black and white era of course). Those memories are rekindled by this disc.
The film’s initial release ran to 132 mins but successive copies shrank and shrank down to 95 minutes for the latest TV releases. Fortunately the full article has been reconstructed.
This is the first appearance of Tiomkin’s complete score. As such this is both an historical and an historic recording.
Charles Gerhardt included a substantial Lost Horizon suite in his Tiomkin instalment of the RCA Classic Film Music series. I recall rather warming to the technicolor exoticisms of that LP although in terms of the music I always considered that disc by no means a peak amongst the twelve LPs. I have not heard the CD reissue of the Gerhardt but am sure that its BMG/RCA incarnation preserves the impressive close-up wonders of the wide-stage sound-picture from the mid-1970s.
This recording is in all ways complementary to the Gerhardt. Gerhardt’s modern (well 1970s anyway!) in-depth stereo is a joy to hear whereas the sound direct from 1930s 78s, while high in atmospheric magic, is both mono and low-fi. The casual collector will want the Gerhardt. The dedicated Tiomkin hunter will grab this disc and bless those wonderful people at the Brigham Young University Film Music Archive for their necromantic work in breathing life into a fabled score.
The Gerhardt is a 23-minute suite whereas BYU offers the full article including sections never used in the film. I wonder if the suite is the same as the suite performed at the Hollywood Bowl on 16 August 1938 and conducted by Tiomkin.
The film was directed by Frank Capra and had Ronald Colman as its tragic-debonair lead. The only other big name we might remember now is character actor Edward Everett Horton. The story of Shangri-La is tremendously well handled.
James Hilton’s novel ‘Lost Horizon’ (on which the film is based) had been published in 1933 to modest attention and sales. When Hilton’s next novel ‘Goodbye Mr Chips’ came out it was a runaway success. ‘Lost Horizon’ was republished in 1935 and was soon selling 6000 copies a week.
The story of a remote and exotic land of the ever-young had a powerful pull. There must have been many in the film’s audiences who recalled the lost youths (either their own or their children’s or lovers or friends) of the Great War only 20 years previously. The spell cast by images of a world of simple pleasures was enthralling. This was accentuated by the fact that this was still a world where Tibet was a genuinely remote place known if at all from the pages of National Geographic.
Capra’s choice for the music fell on the shoulders of Dimitri Tiomkin. This was the first time the two had collaborated. Tiomkin was assisted by a team of nine orchestrators. The team included some names famous from both concert hall and film studio. These included Hugo Friedhofer, Robert Russell Bennett and William Grant Still.
There are two distinct Tiomkins in this music. There is the mystic seer and the naively playful innocent. The seer offers (especially in the first five tracks) a pretty apocalyptic brew of exuberant sunrise piled repeatedly on dramatic sunset in music which has escaped from a late (very late) romantic symphony by Scriabin. If you know Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy you will know what to expect. There is also a touch of the French composer Florent Schmitt and Holst’s Planets. Mysterious harp washes deck out the arrival of the caravan (7). The Entrance to Shangri-La and Nocturne (8/9) are quite Delian with the choir’s ecstatic contribution well put across. The choir (Hall Johnson Chorus) appear relatively infrequently although they are also used in Shooting Sequence (12).
The playful Tiomkin who evokes children’s nursery songs and playtime jingles can be heard in Swimming Sequence (11), Valley of the Blue Moon (14), Lovett and Barnard (17) and Sow a Wild Oat (18).
Romance is taken to excess in The Cherry Orchard which is appallingly sentimental and ‘gloopy’ but this is the only track ‘blighted’ by sentimentality. Of course the violins are called on for the glycerine from time to time and they do this, trouncing all competition, in Conway and Sondra (20). George and Maria (19) reminded me of the weary march music from Delius’s music for Hassan mixed with the silvery beauties of Strauss’s Rosenkavalier music (Presentation of the Rose). Strauss’s Alpine Symphony can be heard in Snow Sequence (24). The oriental march of Funeral Procession perhaps leans slightly towards Ketèlbey territory but it is played with taste and the music is a cut above Victorian syrup. The final track (26) Toast to Robert Conway (the Colman character) marries the valedictory (Auld Lang Syne) with elements of Korngold, a fluttering ambience and the sunrise music of Delius’s Appalachia.
The CD is exhaustively documented and well designed although I did initially wonder about the cover art until I realised that it was taken from an original cinema release poster. As for everything else the level of detail offered in the (English only) notes is massive. I would have liked more of an introduction to Tiomkin but otherwise no reservations. The booklet runs to 32 pages with 41 photos, actor portraits and stills from the filming plus half a dozen poster repros. Full cast and technical credits are listed with tech notes from the digital editor (Ray Faiola), Jack Smith’s track by track plot line, Rudy Behlmer’s essay on the film and its backgrounds and James V D’Arc’s introduction including the fascinating story of the finding of a well preserved set of 78 discs used for this major event.
Recommended to the film music fanatics everywhere. The sound is what it is: 1930s vintage, but pretty good given its 60+ years youth. There is no beating its completeness, authenticity and tingling atmosphere.
Reviewer
Rob Barnett
Collection: Great Composers (of Film Music) John Williams
Album Comprises: Star Wars – Main Title; The Empire Strikes Back – The Imperial March; Return of the Jedi – Parade of the Ewoks; Jurassic Park – Theme; Amazing Stories – Main Title; Superman: The Movie – Main Title; Midway – Midway March; Schindler’s List – Theme; Presumed Innocent – End Credits *; Sabrina – End Credits; Family Plot – End Credits; Stanley & Iris – End Credits *; The Poseidon Adventure – Main Title; The Cowboys – Main Title *; Earthquake – Main Title; The Towering Inferno – Main Title
* Original Soundtracks conducted by John Williams
These selections have all appeared on previous Varèse Sarabande albums. Avid collectors will not need to make the investment unless they want them in one convenient package but for those who have none or few of them this compilation is enthusiastically recommended. All the tracks are played with great verve and polish and the sound is superb.
Any comment is superfluous. All the discs, from which these selections were came, were praised by the critics. The selection is intelligent for it demonstrates very well the rich diversity of John Williams’s genius. It ranges from the magisterial Star Wars music through the heroic Superman theme to the poignancy of Schindler’s List, the surging seascapes of The Poseidon Adventure, and the sparkling romance of Sabrina (with a magical piano solo performace by pianist Lynda Cochrane) to the gentle fragility of Stanley & Iris (a radiantly lovely score for a very underrated film.)
Excellent
Reviewer
Ian Lace
************************************************************** EDITOR’S RECOMMENDATION – September 1999
**************************************************************
Leonard BERNSTEIN Wonderful Town
Wonderful Town, was based on the play My Sister Eileen, which in turn, was filmed by Columbia, in 1942, under that name, starring Rosalind Russell (Ruth) and Janet Blair (Eileen). It was filmed again in 1955 using the same title, this time with Betty Garrett, Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon, Bob Fosse and Tommy Rall. Columbia were too mean to fork out for the winning stage-score and engaged Jule Styne and Leo Robin to write a substitute. It was no match for this Bernstein original.
Wonderful Town opened on Broadway in 1953 and ran for 559 performances. It starred Rosalind Russell again as Ruth, but with Edith Adams as Eileen. Today, Wonderful Town is largely overshadowed by Bernstein’s other stage works like On the Town and West Side Story which is a pity as this sparkling new Rattle recording proves. Its story is about two sisters from Ohio and their wacky adventures in New York’s Greenwich Village. Eileen’s beauty enslaves the men, including half the police force in the very witty ‘My Darlin’ Eileen’ in which they insist she is Irish because they think she "comes from Kilarney." But Sister Ruth just wants to become a successful writer. Bernstein’s exuberant, jazz-based score is big and breezy especially in the colourful celebration of the larger-than-life characters of ‘Christopher Street.’ The score also embraces the conga, swing and rag forms. All the singers are excellent, attacking their characterisations with great enthusiasm and commitment, and relishing the sharp-witted lyrics of Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Audra McDonald as Eileen is sweetly sentimental in ‘A Little Bit in Love’ while Kim Criswell, as Ruth, is wickedly funny in ‘One hundred easy ways to (loose a man). The ever-versatile and impressive Thomas Hampson is dreamily romantic in ‘It’s Love.’
This album is a real tonic. Outstanding.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
| Ennio MORRICONE
A Fistful of Sounds: A Fistful of Dollars. For A
Few Dollars More. Once Upon a Time in the West.
The
complete soundtracks BMG Camden 74321 660402 2CDs
[87:27] BARGAIN 2CDs listed by Crotchet at only £8.99 the pair |
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Spaghetti Westerns are inextricably associated with the director Sergio Leone, with Clint Eastwood and with the music of Ennio Morricone. The look, feel and sound of these films have become ikons of the 1960s; part of a wild collage which includes The Beatles, Psychedelia, long hair, Lambrettas, BSAs, leather jackets and lava lamps. In the field of classical music the avant-garde were moving well away from what melody-hungry audiences wanted. This tendency to experimentation and deconstruction found its way into Morricone’s scores.
We have the original music soundtracks of three classic Morricone scored films. The sound is excellent: very immediate and with a subtle hint of graininess which captures the original experience of the films.
A Fistful of Dollars: The title sequence and Almost Dead grab the attention superbly. The music is sulphurous, with breathy flute, bells, simple melodic cells, abrasive guitar solos and the male chorus shout-singing ‘We can fight!" The conventional Square Dance is a let-down but the other tracks are tense, reclusive, tender and dark as the night. The Theme from A Fistful of Dollars (track 7) has a cinder warm trumpet solo played and rolled with smoky muscular delicacy.
For A Few Dollars More is not separately identified among the tracks on disc 1. However it begins with track 9: Resa Dei Conti with music-box tinkling, black bass guitar, moaning choir includes a stormy loud organ solo worthy of Vierne, Widor or Saint-Saens (Symphony No. 3). Tense metallic sounds dominate Osservatoriu Osservati. A memorable guitar solo, reverberantly high in the clouds, is the central feature of Il Vizio di Uccidere.
Once Upon a Time in the West: The title track uses a theme that teeters perilously close to Roses from Amsterdam but by way of compensation there is a creamily vocalising soprano voice. The same honky-tonk Western saloon music claims Farewell to Cheyenne as well as Poker d’Assi (15) of the previous disc. Penderecki’s Hiroshima Threnody seems to have inspired the howl of the dying in As a Judgment (2). There are many ear-tingling sensations in this score: dusty wastes, hurdy-gurdy fairylands, wailing harmonics, honeyed and hood-eyed viola solos (9), jokiness (complete with hideous swannee whistle), a slow distant scream of strings (11) shrill dithyrambs (13) and finally a silvery stratospheric vocalise in a theme that links with Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet.
Morricone’s scores are film music classics with much depth and variety. I can and do recommend this set.
Reviewer
Rob Barnett
Ennio MORRICONE La Musica, Il Cinema
Rome-born film composer Ennio Morricone has more than 350 film scores to his name. His concert hall music is not as well known. In this disc the two worlds meet in a surprising and not always totally agreeable way. The Cadenza for solo flute and magnetic tape sounds decidedly exotic - a step onwards from Griffes’ Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan..The Four Studies (1980s) for solo piano are tougher going and alternate crepuscular sounds bedecked in atonal colours with rushes and storms which reminded me of the pianola music of Conlon Nancarrow. The Rag in Frantumi (piano) (1986) is more of the same although the rushes are potsherds of ragtime convulsions. Challenging and not at all in Morricone’s accustomed style of honeyed romance.
That oxymoronic vein of sorrowing/joyous romance asserts itself in the last four tracks - arrangements for flute and piano of his film music. These all link with music he wrote for films between 1969 and 1979. Per le Antiche Scale muses in Poulencian purity, with hints of Fauré and Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. L’Ereditta Ferramoniti is a perfect little nostalgic reflection, as is the musing Allonsanfan/Il Prato. Mosè is the song of a rather morose poet which in the piano voice links across to the peppery concert works which take up the first 6 tracks on the disc.
The performances seem dedicated, accomplished and fully engaged by the music. The notes are fine but regrettably are not a complete translation of the original Italian text. A disc for venturesome Morricone fans although it yields Dresden fragile charms for others.
Reviewer
Rob Barnett
John BARRY Raise the Titanic The complete Film Score
I am very grateful to the editor for letting me review this disc. The OST tapes have disappeared along with most of the performing materials. Silva and Nic Raine (who better) have previously reconstructed and recorded a suite from the music. Here, however, is the complete score in full sombre glory. This is music that breathes the sea air and Northern romance stalks the icy beauty of its pages.
I thought of many classical cross-references as I heard the disc (which by the way is stunningly recorded). There is the passion of the big tragic theme from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet (titles and tracks 12 and Titanic enters New York Harbor) alongside the dark sea wastes and 'murmuring miles' suggested by Gösta Nystroem's Sinfonia Del Mare (a work that should be sought out by all film music aficionados!). Did I also detect a hint of the wide-screen vista of Tara's Theme from Gone with the Wind?
Some light-heartedness (and not a little nostalgia) comes over in To Cornwall and Memories of the Titanic. The plangent drowned romance of some sunken ballroom (6) is also there. There are some deep bass songs in this score and the inky depths are memorably suggested page after page. Deep Quest Saved (coming after the spectacular grand theme complete with echoes not only of Prokofiev but also of Korngold and Herrmann) takes us back to romantic James Bond territory - already a domain well and truly John Barry's. It also is not far away in terms of excellence from Barry's love music from the King Kong remake.
The string tone of the Praguers is very acceptable and the brass are superbly caught. Shortish running time seems an irrelevance this time! This is one of my all-time favourite albums. It is enhanced by David Wishart's detailed notes (English only) in his usual fresh unhackeyed style.
Reviewer
Rob Barnett
Ian Lace has a rather different opinion -
Straightaway I have to confess to having a deaf spot for the music of John Barry. With few exceptions, like Somewhere in Time, and while I appreciate his melodic gift, Barry's work does not impress me. So, when a recording of his film music comes my way I usually pass the disc onto a more sympathetic reviewer. However, since I am writing this review during the summer vacation with scarce reviewer resources (although Rob kindly agreed to review the CD after I had written these words), I decided to make an exception in this case and cover this release resolving to be objective. I have to say, that as usual, I was disappointed. So readers will therefore pity me for not understanding or enjoying Barry's idiom, hate me or cheer me according to their inclinations.
I thought the main themes undistinguished and their development and orchestration limited. Scratch the surface of much of this lugubrious music and, with only slight modification, it has all been used before in the Bond films and other earlier Barry scores. Again, there are those high strings accompanied by plodding terribly earnest horns that stalk the score from one end to the other, an orchestration device that Barry flogs to death. Thankfully they sound increasingly elated as the Titanic surfaces and is escorted into New York harbour. Why is it I wonder that John Barry's music always sounds as if it was recorded in an echo chamber or an immense toilet? There is some relief in a brief shanty in 'To Cornwall', what is described as a chaste waltz variation, and a piano and saxophone led cue 'Memories of Titanic'
Come back James Horner and Titanic all is forgiven!
Reviewer
Ian Lace
composition
performance
SILVA SCREEN responded to Ian Lace thus:-
While (obviously) applauding the 5-star review for RAISE THE TITANIC - although isn't "shortish running time" a bit harsh when we recorded every last note of the score and are still 20 minutes longer than most American score albums - I find it rather odd that a self-confessed non-Barry fan should also review the same album. I don't really think that this is being particularly objective as RAISE THE TITANIC is the quintessential Barry score, so the declared bias against his music is always bound to rise to surface. (dreadful pun intended) However not liking the music is one thing but surely the performance cannot be faulted? (mind you, I would say that being the Producer!) Maybe a duel rating should be introduced: one set of stars for the actual composition and one for performance/recording quality? This might also help when reviewing both modern and historical recordings?
Ian Lace's final word:-
Agreed it is unusual for a self-confesses non-Barry fan to speak out. I wrote in the spirit of devil's advocate expressing a purely personal point of view (How many critics will confess to personal dislikes or explain them ? How many editors bother to ensure their critics are not demonstrably antagonistic to the composer?). Regarding my view of this CD and Mr Barry's music in general I remain unrepentant but I will revert to my established practice and pass on all Barry music to my reviewers in future. I take Silva's point though about separating ratings for composition and performance. So, taking this Raise the Titanic album I award: for Silva
I will now retire to reach for my shield as irate Barry fans prepare to launch missiles at me in our chat room or bulletin board.
Ian Lace
| Collection: Prelude to a Kiss
Plácido Domingo
(tenor) and Renée Fleming (soprano) with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
conducted by Daniel Barenboim
DECCA 460 793-2 [60:32] |
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Programme comprises:
Leonard Bernstein: Prologue; ‘Tonight’; Rumble; ‘Somewhere’ (West Side Story)
Gounod: Il se fait tard…Ô nuit d’amour! (Faust)
Gardel: El dia que me quieras
Moreno Torroba: Quisiera verte y no verte; Jota castellana;
Verdi: Già nella notte densa (Otello)
Duke Ellington: In a Sentimental Mood; Do Nuthin’ till You Hear from Me; Prelude to a Kiss
Lehar: Dein ist mein ganzes Herz (Das Land des Lächelns); Lippen schweigen (Die lustige Witwe)
This compilation was recorded live during a concert at Orchestral Hall in Chicago on January 28th 1998. Renée Fleming’s voice has a considerable range and her expressive powers are equally impressive. Comment on Domingo is superfluous.
The programme opens with a vibrant reading, full of disdain and rebellion, of the Prologue to West Side Story from the Chicago orchestra. When Kiri Te Kanawa and José Carreras recorded the complete production of West Side Story, under the direction of the composer, for DG in 1985, many of my colleagues, and myself, commented that they sounded too old for their parts as the teenage lovers. The same comment applies here. It all depends on your taste and attitude – whether you consider that West Side Story has aspirations towards the opera stage or whether it should be regarded as a sophisticated musical. I favour the latter appreciation. Fleming, especially, brings too much of the opera house to her Maria destroying her character’s vulnerability and fresh spontaneity. Her singing here is too mannered for my taste.
The operatic excerpts are much more successful. Gounod’s Faust duet is well nigh perfect. Fleming as Marguerite beautifully conveys both the elation and fright she feels at the ardent advances of Domingo’s Faust. In the Otello duet, heard before the onset of Iago’s corrosive influence, Domingo in the title role is virile as he boasts of his military exploits and full of ardour as he confirms his love for a compliant yet passionate Desdemona (Fleming).
Domingo enjoys the tangy Spanish rhythms and inflections of the three traditional songs accompanied by Barenboim at the piano. Carlos Gardel’s El dia que me quieras (‘On the Day that You Love Me’) is gently ardent; the amusing Quisiera verte y no verte (‘I do and I don’t Want to See You’) finds the singer in a quandary of whether to pursue and surrender to love (and probably enslavement) or whether to flee and preserve his liberty; and Jota castellana is a beguiling little song speaking of the lover’s tenderness for his beloved.
Fleming has three songs with jazz-based music by Duke Ellington. They give her the opportunity to display her considerable technique. In a Sentimental Mood her voice goes soaring, arching, gliding and is held in its high registers while embracing the tones and inflections of a typical coloured blues singer. In Do Nothin’ till You Hear from Me, the smoky lower reaches of her range are used with an engaging syncopation. The lines, "When we’re apart, the words in my heart reveal how I feel about you..." give her the opportunity to display some engaging ambivalent coquettery while she shows how good a jazz singer she is in her improvisations during the closing moments of the song. The lovely Prelude to a Kiss allows her to develop this improvising still further.
Finally there are the two Franz Lehar numbers with Domingo singing Dien is mein ganzes Herz with the depth of feeling we used to associate with Richard Tauber. Domingo and Fleming team up for a glittering final duet, the Waltz song from The Merry Widow.
Except for the West Side Story numbers, recommended.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Rob Barnett thinks:-
This is a very mixed anthology. Much that is here will give great pleasure. Quite a bit is compromised.
Fleming and Domingo fans can perhaps choose to ignore my reservations. I write however as neither. I am quite neutral towards both artists.
A celebrity album - it is given the full Decca treatment: De Luxe slipcase, ditto booklet, romantic portrait of Domingo and Fleming, full side-by-side translations from original language into (as appropriate) German, French and English. The West Side Story tracks do not have translations into French and German due to copyright factors.
The timing is a bit parsimonious but no doubt the big name factor cures all.
Although not declared or claimed my first thought and expectation from the packaging was that this would be a collection of duets featuring the two protagonists. Wrong! Four of the fourteen tracks are duets. Two are purely orchestral. Four each for Domingo alone (including three Spanish songs) and Fleming alone (including three Ellington tracks).
The singing is operatic and rather adipose. This maturity of voice can be particularly worrying in the Bernstein duet: Tonight. Here is music of dangerous love. The music should have a tetchy voltaic charge. Heck this is about a teenage Romeo and Juliet situation! Here it often succumbs to middle-age spread and I refer also to the orchestral contribution. The prelude is rather slack but the orchestra brightens for the Rumble. In fairness Tonight is often sheerly beautiful and Fleming is simply breath-taking in modulation and finessing of dynamics on the words "We’ll find a new way of living" in Somewhere.
Gounod’s Faust: Il se fait tard and O nuit d’amour: Domingo’s French pronunciation of ‘laisse’ and ‘caresse’ as ‘laissez’ and ‘caressez’ struck me as odd although this may represent operatic tradition. In any event his duet with Fleming is warmly done.
The orchestra then drops out of the picture and Barenboim returns to his first love, the piano, and accompanies Domingo most sensitively. Domingo knows this repertoire very well and seems completely at ease with two lovely songs by Moreno Torroba (Quisiera verte and Jota Castellana - the latter a gem of a discovery for me) and one by Gardel (El día que ma quieras). In the Gardel track Domingo’s voice drifts queasily between the speakers at 1.24.
Three Ellington songs are as arranged (in Ravelian impressionist style) by Larry Ham. Fleming is here in major cross-over territory (as both were in the Bernstein tracks). Is she suited to the repertoire? I am not completely convinced but the jury is still out on the point. Her singing often seems effortful (especially in In A Sentimental Mood. On the other hand she often produces the most magical effects: listen to her bluesy melismatic ululation between 3.00 and 3.20 in track 10. Do nothin’ till you hear from me is gutsily defiant. In Prelude to a Kiss (the album name-track) her ‘big girl’ voice represents a stylistic collision with the music. Still her quasi-sprechgesang and the warm meander of her voice across the bars will cheer the chilliest heart.
The final two tracks are Lehár’s Dein ist mein ganzes Herz and Lippen Schweigen. The former left me feeling that a rather queasy hand was at the orchestral tiller and Domingo, though perennially warm of voice, suffers from a slight wobble which I find distracting. The final Lippen Schweigen is charmingly done by the two stars.
Difficult to mark this one. It is such a strange mix of genres and achievement. I have catalogued my reactions as they came to me: both pleasures and disappointments. Track by track marking might have produced a very wide spread from two stars to four and a half. The overall mark is really an average impression.
Reviewer
Rob Barnett
Collection: A Tenor at the Movies: Tito Beltrán
Programme:
A Tribute to Mario Lanza:
‘Be My Love’ (Brodszky/Kahn) The Toast of New Orleans
‘Because You’re Mine’ (Brodszky/Kahn) Because You’re Mine
‘Because’ (D’Hardelot/Teschemacher) The Great Caruso
‘The Loveliest Night of the Year’ (Rosas/Aaronson, Webster) The Great Caruso
and from The Student Prince :-
‘Beloved’ (Brodszky /Webster)
and by Romberg/Donnelly:
‘Drink, Drink, Drink’
‘Deep in my Heart Dear’
‘Serenade – Overhead the Moon is Beaming’Opera at the Movies Arias from:- Rigoletto; Tosca; Les Pêcheurs de Perles; La Fanciulla Del West; Pagliacci; Martha; and Turandot
Songs from the Movies:
‘Mattinata’ (Leoncavallo) The Great Caruso
‘Torna A Surriento’ (De Curtis/DeCurtis) Hear My Song
‘Granada’ (Lara) Because You’re Mine
‘The Second Time’ (Lai/Rice) Bilitis
‘Where Do I Begin’ (Lai/Sigman) Love Story
‘Mi Corazón Continuara’ (My Heart Will Go On) (Horner/Jennings) Titanic
One is immediately struck by the remarkable resemblance of the timbre of Beltrán’s voice to that of the late Mario Lanza. Nothing wrong with that – the Three Tenors have openly acknowledged their debt to the American tenor. Beltrán shares the same passion and feeling for the lines of the songs and his voice equals Lanza’s power (sometimes it’s too forceful for the material) to project over choir and orchestra without any sense of strain. Where Beltrán does disappoint is in his English diction and enunciation. ‘The’ becomes ‘de’; there becomes ‘der’ etc., tending to spoil his Lanza reminiscences; but I nitpick for this really is an astonishing reminder of the sad wasted talent that was Mario Lanza. [The book Mario Lanza – A Tenor in Exile is reviewed on this site.]
Beltrán sings the favourite operatic arias listed above with passion and power if not always with subtlety. This popular programme concludes with three well-known Neapolitan songs featured quite regularly in movies and three original songs from recent or not too old films. The over-exposed, and already trite ‘My Heart Will Go On’ from Titanic is sung as ‘Mi Corazón Continara’ but even the novelty of another language coupled with Beltrán’s ardour cannot lift it for this reviewer.
This is an album which will appeal to Lanza enthusiasts and, hopefully, will encourage more people to further explore the world of opera; and, clearly, former racing car driver Tito Beltrán is a young tenor to watch.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
NOSTALGIA and CURIO CORNER:
This month we kick off with two Original MGM Broadway Cast albums, from RYKO, of two musicals based on two hit films directed by Billy Wilder: The Apartment (Promises. Promises) and Sugar (Some Like It Hot):-
Burt BACHARACH Promises, Promises [Book: Neil Simon; Lyrics Hal David]
Promises, Promises based on Billy Wilder’s film, The Apartment, that starred the fabulous Shirley MacLaine and the wonderful Jack Lemmon ran for three years and 1,281 performances. The show won a Tony Award and this album several Grammies.
Burt Bacharach’s music is very much of its time – shades of the Bossa Nova and Tijuana Brass - frankly it sounds really old-fashioned now. The lead singers Jerry Orbach (in the Lemmon role) and Jill O’Hara (in the MacLaine) are enthusiastic and reprise the film actors’ characterisations well. The numbers are sunny and upbeat; giving an overall more breathlessly exuberant impression than the rather shadowy poignancy of the story needed, perhaps. The big hit ‘I’ll Never Fall in Love Again’ is sung in a suitably astringent manner by Orbach and O’Hara though. This great Bacharach song with its clever lyrics (like: "…what do you get when you fall in love? – enough germs to catch pneumonia …and he’ll never phone yer!) would go on to be a major hit, independent of the show, in more lush or brash arrangements depending on the artists who delivered it and the song collections in which it was packaged.
The other romantic sentimental songs are: ‘Whoever You Are’ and ‘Knowing When to Leave’ the latter song also achieved success independent of the show. The other, mostly patter songs are so-so and forgettable but the breathless, tongue-twisting snake-like rhythmic ‘She Likes Basketball’ is a plus; it tests Orbach’s stamina to the limit.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Jule STYNE Sugar [Book: Peter Stone; Lyrics: Bob Merrill]
With the exception of a single very good song this disc simply demonstrates the stultifying lack of surprise and individuality that became the norm for the American musical. Time after time I thought of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies which seems at the same time to both caress and lampoon the mainstream from which Sugar comes. Follies stands far above this theatre fodder.
Sugar’s music is brassy, obvious and still-born. None of the light hand obvious from the film on which it is based (Wilder’s Some Like It Hot). Oh there’s no doubt that the music zips brazenly along like an Edsell on paraffin but the movement is the movement one expects from a decayed corpse when an electrical current is passed through it. I am sorry to be so dismissive but this is a dismal musical with one bright exception.
Let’s end on the positive. What is the exception? This is the song It’s Always Love (sung by Tony Roberts) and I cannot recommend it too highly. Do try to hear it. It is a sardonic celebration of love - regretful and tragic. This, with its minimal music and straight presentation, cuts through the thin tinsel and neon motor that passes for a heart in musicals of this ilk. This song draws blood! A treasure and the reason why this musical scores any stars at all. A five star song set amid a soulless wasteland.
Little background on the musical is provided in the leaflet although all the artists are well profiled. The presentation is well up to Rykodisc’s usual and exemplary high standard.
Reviewer
Rob Barnett
Percy GRAINGER Short pieces for piano
The reason why this album is included is that a new film about a period in the life of the larger-than-life composer, Percy Grainger, is about to reach theatres and it is likely to be as controversial as the recent film about Jackie du Pré.
This is a most engaging programme of 18 varied pieces performed with power and sensitivity by Janine Sowden. The music is described as Free Rambles dished up by Percy Grainger and that signals that you should expect the unexpected. Bach’s great organ work, the Toccata and Fugue in D minor receives the Grainger treatment and is served up in the composer’s unique flamboyant style. There is then a delightful meander through the ‘Last love duet from (Richard Strauss’s) Der Rosenkavalier.’ Grainger arranges his tour so that we may anticipate wedding bells for Sophie and Octavian as well as being reminded of the Presentation of the Rose from Act II of the opera. Tchaikowsky gets the Grainger treatment too with a humorous take on his Flower Waltz, so too does Elgar with a surprisingly straight rendition of Nimrod from the ‘Enigma’ Variations.
Additionally there are arrangements of Grainger’s own compositions including: Colonial Song and Country Gardens. Of interest to film music fans will be the inclusion of Grainger’s idea of three Gershwin mumbers: ‘Love walked in’; ‘Embraceable You’ and ‘The man I love.’
Recommended
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Collection: TREASURES OF OPERETTA
This is a sparkling collection of 36 operetta selections. The many composers represented include: Johann Strauss II, Oscar Strauss, André Messager, Victor Herbert, Emmerich Kálmán; Franz Lehar; Carl Zeller; Lionel Monckton; Carl Millöcker; Robert Stolz; Carl Michael Ziehrer; and Richard Tauber. Many of the tunes will be familiar even if the names are not, like the lovely ‘Let me dance and let me sing’ from Die Csárdásfürstin by Kálmán and ‘My Hero’ from The Chocolate Soldier by Oscar Strauss. Favourite operettas are included: The Merry Widow, Casanova, The White Horse Inn and Merry England
The performances may not reach the peaks achieved by the Viennese orchestras and singers like Hilde Guedon, Renate Holm, Gundala Janowitz, Erik Kunz, Werner Krenn and Richard Tauber, nevertheless the Chandos artists show great enthusiasm and commitment. Marilyn Hill Smith’s light soprano voice is ideal for many of these songs and her colaratura singing is very impressive in operettas like Der Schätzmeister (Ziehrer), and Der arme Jonathan (Millõcker) in which she her voice soars over ‘The Doleful Prima Donna.’ She is marvellous as the amusing Sybil (Jacobi) in which she sings the marching song ‘The Colonel of the Crimson Hussars.’ Where she is not so successful is in the later operettas of Lehar where he was approaching the style of grand opera. In Giuditta a smokier more seductive voice (like that of Hilde Gueden) is needed to successfully put over ‘On my lips every kiss is like wine.’
Peter Morrison is a strong if adenoidy hero. He colours his voice so that he sounds extraordinarily like Richard Tauber and Nelson Eddy when he comes to sing those numbers associated with them like ‘My Heart and I’ from Old Chelsea and ‘At the Balalaika’ from Balalaika (Victor Herbert) respectively. He is a robust and ardent romantic hero and a staunch patriot in the stirring ‘The Yeoman of the Guard from Edward German’s Merrie England. Morrison is also charmingly witty, when he muses over his many lady friends, as he endures the rigours of ‘Military Life’ from Der Fremdenführer; and as he despairs about his wife’s figure in ‘Thin, thin is my Gwendolin’ from Ziehrer’s Die drei Wünsche.
The choirs give staunch support as does the Chandos Concert Orchestra under Barry Knight who points up the often hilarious subtleties of the music like the orchestral horse laughs that comment on the heroine’s ‘Scale Song’ from Ziehrer’s Der Schätzmeister.
In conclusion I must mention the very impressive rendition of Johann Strauss’s ‘The Nun’s Chorus and Laura’s Song from Casanova.
An enchanting collection.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
| **************************************************************
EDITOR’S RECOMMENDATION – September 1999 ************************************************************** |
Collection: Ca c’est Paris! A celebration in 24 Vintage tracks 1927-1948
This collection sparkles and bubbles like vintage champagne. Here are 24 songs full of Joie de vivre and sometimes a little triste but all celebrating the City of Lights and Love. Many of the artists and many of the songs have appeared in films created in France and Hollywood. Heart-throb Tino Rossi, for instance, appeared in over 25 and, of course Maurice Chevalier was singing in those wonderful Paramount musicals of the late 1920s and early 1930s and right up until his appearance in Gigi (and beyond).
Chevalier had a long standing affair with Mistinguet, the star of the Folies-Bergère. It is her gravely voice that opens and sets the atmosphere for the programme with her ebullient rendering of the title song of this album. Period dance bands add nostalgic charm like the great accordéonist Maurice Alexander and his Orchestre Musette playing ‘Sous Les Toits de Paris’ and ‘C’est Paris’. Chevalier sings ‘Paris Stay the Same’ from the film The Love Parade and ‘Place Pigalle’. That other wonderful song ‘Pigalle’ is sung with lovely French emphases by Georges Ulmer and Marius Coste and his Orchestra. The incomparable Edith Piaf sings ‘Les Amants de Paris’; Jean Sablon sings ‘Paris, tu n’as pas change’ and George Guetary, ‘I dreamt I was back in Paris.’
Then there are songs praising ‘Paree’ by non-French artists including: Al Bowly, Rudy Vallée, Tony Martin and Noël Coward singing ‘The Last Time I saw Paris.’
The title song of the Doris Day film April in Paris is also here but sung by Les Allen with Henry Hall and The BBC Dance Orchestra!
A wonderful bracing collection, ideal to cheer long car journeys.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Collection: Forces’ Sweethearts - 23 Songs from the Heart-Throbs of World War II
Collection: Forces’ Sweethearts - 23 Songs from the Heart-Throbs of World War II
Vocalists: Judy Garland – Vera Lynn – Martha Raye – Connee Boswell – Peggy Lee - The Andrews Sisters – Ella Fitzgerald – Elsie Carlisle – Helen Forrest – Lena Horne - Maxine Sullivan – Dinah Shore – Frances Langford – Deanna Durbin – Anne Shelton - Jo Stafford – Doris Day – Mary Martin
These singers comforted and reminded the men who fought bravely in the far-flung theatres of war of their wives, sweethearts and families back home by the popular female vocalists of the day. For the British it was undoubtedly Vera Lynn who dominated. She is represented in this collection by two unforgettable songs: ‘The White Cliffs of Dover’ and ‘We’ll Meet Again’ The American troops were entertained by such great stars as The Andrews Sisters who brought a very upbeat and often witty style to their singing of such favourites as ‘ Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy’ and ‘I’ll be with you in Apple-Blossom time’; plus Frances Langford who sings ‘Serenade in Blue’ here and Dinah Shore, ‘Skylark’ and ‘I’ll walk alone.’
I will admit to being of an age (just) when the songs on this album were heard regularly on the radio. I recalled, with affection, Lena Horne singing ‘Stormy Weather’; Peggy Lee’s ‘The way you look tonight’; Deanna Durbin with ‘Say a prayer for the boys over there’; Anne Shelton singing ‘Lili Marlene’ and ‘I’ll be seeing you’; and Elsie Carlisle and ‘A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square.’
A wonderful nostalgic trip
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Sarah O’Brien (cello) - dans mes rêves je reviens (with Claudine Lapointe, piano)
Self Promotional CD001 http://www.sarah-obrien.com
The delectable Miss O’Brien and her partner spin their charms over arrangements of well-known and not so well known works comprising a programme that will enchant, late on a cold winter’s evening while gazing into a log fire. From nine selections, I would mention appealing renditions of Sondheim’s ‘Send in the Clowns’ and the main theme from John Williams’s Schindlers List score; both poignant and both admirably suited to the autumnal colours of the cello. Ms Lapointe’s accompaniments are as delicate and imaginative as they are appealing.
Sarah was born and raised in England but moved to Los Angeles in 1993 where she now works as a studio player in addition to touring and varied live work. She can be contacted on: obriensl@ix.netcom.com and her web site is: http:www.sarah-obrien.com
I wish Sarah and Claudine well.
I must rule that this is the one and only time that Film Music on the Web can accept such material for review otherwise the flood gates would open and we would be inundated inhibiting our time to review film scores. So please, artists, do not approach us with similar CDs because I regret you will be disappointed.
Ian Lace
Book Review
Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies Harper Collins Entertainment 600 pages + £16:99 (UK Price) Amazon
(Note: The Amazon American cover is different)
This new volume replaces the trusty Halliwell's Filmgoer's Companion (last edition: 1997) published in twelve editions over the last thirty-or-so years. Together with Halliwell's Film and Video Guide (shortly to appear in its 2000 edition - watch this space), this new volume is a treasure of information for all movie fans; and, incidentally a very useful tool for journalists like myself.
Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies has an additional 200,000 words over the last edition of the Filmgoer's Companion. There are details not only about composers, but also of the stars of today, yesterday and tomorrow, about the bit players and the character actors, the producers, the writers, the cinematographers and all the other talents involved in the making of motion pictures.
In this new book, there are year-by-year listings of Oscar-winners, of leading festivals and of critic's awards. There is a brief history of the movies. There are lists of top movies, and of movie books and periodicals; and a glossary of technical terms. The new media are not forgotten. There are details of Movie Guides on CD-ROM, and of movie resources on the net.
Turning to our interest, the careers of all the major Golden and Silver Age composers are included, with reasonably comprehensive lists of their compositions although one might argue with the selections of films scored by Max Steiner for instance. The work of today's composers is included too. Looking up Thomas Newman, for instance, I notice his career is covered up to Meet Joe Black, his 1998 score; and Danny Elfman up to A Simple Plan. There are omissions however, there is no entry for John Ottman, for instance (The Usual Suspects, Lake Placid etc).
A minor gripe: the contents page indicates that there are page numbers, yet in the copy I have the pages are not numbered (perhaps these were eliminated in the guillotining process during printing?). Fortunately, this is not a vital error, because, of course, the main entries that form the bulk of the book are arranged alphabetically.
An essential companion to the film fan and film music enthusiast.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Comment from the Editor
Thank you for your kind review of Halliwell's Who's Who in the Movies. One small point regarding page numbers. For some reason I've never understood, HarperCollins designers put Halliwell's page numbers on the inside of the page rather than the outside or centre. I'm sure that if you look carefully where you'd least expect to find them, you will discover that the pages have numbers!
John Walker Editor
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