April 10, 2015

  • Naxos Re-issues Malcom Arnold Film Scores

     Arnold: The Roots of Heaven/David Copperfield
    Moscow Symphony Orchestra/William Stromberg
    Naxos 8.573366
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Marco Polo began a wonderful series of film score recordings as the 20th Century was drawing to a close.  The music surveyed everything from Ibert to Herrmann and then went down some truly amazing paths when John Morgan and William Stromberg began a series of reconstructed Hollywood scores.  They covered everything from grand epic scores, Hitchcock, and even Universal Horror films.  Of these, they also managed to pull together to scores by Malcolm Arnold that were released in the composer’s 80th birth-year celebrations in 2001.  Morgan was able to locate two of Arnold’s film scores at Twentieth Century Fox and these would be an immensely important addition to the composer’s otherwise well-represented catalogue of recorded works.

    The first of these was the 1958 John Huston film, The Roots of Heaven.  Based on Romaine Gary’s novel, who also wrote the screenplay, the story follows one man’ (Trevor Howard) hope to stave off the extinction of the African elephant.  The film is also notable as Errol Flynn’s penultimate big screen appearance before his death from a host of compounded ailments the following year.  There is even a cue here that shows some work by Fox’s music head Alfred Newman (“Return to Biondi, part 2” and “Minna’s Goodbye”) who would provide material, with Arnold’s consent, to four scenes in all—essentially reworking preexistent material for scenes where producer Zanuck thought needed some music.

    The score opens with a gorgeous “Overture” which was used for the New York premiere of the film.  It is filled with some of Arnold’s unique melodic touches coupled with the sort of great orchestral style of the composer’s best work.  Of course, the jungle is not far off and the drums soon enter in to take us on that travelogue.  But there is also just a touch of jazzy swagger to the music.  The epic sweep of the score is also hinted at in a beautiful romantic central theme.  Some great oboe lines provide an ethnic feel (somewhat more appropriate for India!) with jungle drums as we head to “Fort Lamy”.  Arnold can always paint amazing musical pictures and one certainly can feel this lumbering majesty in “The Great Elephant.”  There are some other interesting touches as well, like the shaping and orchestration of “Minna’s Dream”—filled with the sort of classic film tropes one might expect but with delicate thematic touches.  The same could be said for the disturbing dissonance Arnold uses with his elephant theme for “The Elephant Hunt.”

    Malcolm Arnold’s last film score would be for the televised version of Dicken’s classic novel directed by Delbert Mann (Marty) who had been working with John Williams on Fitzwilly and two TV productions that bookend David Copperfield, Heidi and Jane Eyre.  The film had an equally great cast featuring Laurence Olivier, Richard Attenborough, Edith Evans, Michael Redgrave, and Ralph Richardson among others.  The music has a big sweeping romantic “Main Title” that by 1969 might seem a bit out of fashion, but it stands perfectly alongside Mann’s other telefilms musically.  Sumptuous scoring certainly is one of the great moving hallmarks of this score and Arnold’s main theme is certainly one that stays with you.  “Return to Yarmouth” provides some subtle variations on this idea with shifts to darker territory from its more major-mode beginnings.  A few stingers along the way and moments of menace also add to the character of the cue.  The music for “Mr. Micawber” is among the most humorous little cues for this great character.

     

    There is no denying the importance of these recordings.  They have been OOP on Marco Polo (8.225167) for a while, though still available used, and in some places as a digital download.  Naxos has now gotten around to re-issuing this though without really much difference in sound which means that sometimes it can fell slightly pinched and “boomy” on the low end.  This can effect climaxes sometimes, but it overall the textures are captured clearly.  More fortunately, the excellent detailed booklet notes by James Cox are also included here which walk the listener through each track as well.