Goldsmith

  • Best of 2010: "Bronze Age" Film Releases

    Roger Hall's site has now posted a collection of "Best of" lists, some of which appear here as well, at:

     
    Since I spent a little time highlighting many scores from the 1930s-1970s that appeared last year, it is time now to do the same for those scores from the 1980s-1990s that saw new, or expanded editions.  Some of us may not want to think that the 1980s are 30 years ago now--others are trying to forget!--but this is one of the reasons for so many of these scores finally seeing the light of day.  There are four worth tracking down if you can.
     
    Two are by Jerry Goldsmith and perhaps are reminders that we all miss the maestro.  His score for Mamet's The Edge is a personal favorite even in its first appearance on a brief RCA CD at the time of the film's release (1997).  La-La Land expanded the presentation to just over an hour and reedited to follow film order more, fans finally get to hear what many think was Goldsmith's last great score.  The label's other late 2010 surprise was a complete release of Star Trek V-The Final Frontier with another bad film to score, Goldsmith went for character and inner musical depictions to get at the film's weightier issues.  The opening of the first disc features music not previously heard in the film and there appearance helps lend a better arc to the music overall.  The sound here too is simply awesome.
     
    Dave Grusin has always had a foot in film music though his jazz career tends to occupy him more.  His big chance to do a Spielberg-based film came with The Goonies and Varese Sarabande finally released this fast selling club disc.
     
    For fans of electronic music, Silva has released a remastered version of Brad Fiedel's iconic score for Terminator 2: Judgment Day.  This is a great reminder of what was possible on the high end and in the hands of someone who knew how to work with electronics in the late 1980s/early 1990s.  Even though I'm not a real fan of electronic music, this is a must have score for students of film music.

  • Best of November (2010): New to the "Collection"

    After a couple week break, it is on to the rush of Holiday releases.  In the past couple of weeks there have been more film score "grails" released than most wallets can ever hope to keep up with as labels trot out some major releases.  Varese Sarabande may have the biggest surprise with its release of John Williams' score for Family Plot--one of the most-requested of the composer's 1970s work.  For some, a new Elfman-Burton box set will be the perfect, and likely only gift!, they'll receive as it comes in around $500 and features a number of previously unreleased cues from Elfman's scores.  LaLa Land also saw some jobs drop with the announcement of their final 2010 releases among which are a complete Star Trek V, Batman Returns, and Home Alone. 

    All that said, here are five releases received here that stood out for me in November:

    RCA released 6 of Charles Gerhardt's phenomenal film score recordings from the 1970s this fall and of them all, I'm partial to the all-Korngold program The Sea Hawk.  This is some of the most engaging film music from one of the finest 20th century composers.  And this album works quite well.  The collection of Alfred Newman scores on Captain From Castille is also a personal favorite.  But really, if you've never heard any of these releases do your self a favor and pick them all up as the sound is simply fabulous. 

    Korngold's Symphony in F# received what may be one of its finest recorded performances to date on a new Pentatone release, reviewed here earlier in November.  Marc Albrecht takes his Strasbourg orchestra to new heights in this well-shaped performance that captures the power of this music even more so I think than Andre Previn did a decade ago on DG.  This fabulous performance is recorded in Hybrid super-audio making it an audiophile's dream.  If you are partial to Mahler or Strauss, this work continues that Austrian symphonic trend coupled with Korngold's brilliant orchestration and engaging melodies.

    Another current trend is revisiting film scores that are classic and appeared early in the CD mastering era of the past 10-15 years or so.  This often means going back to the sources and remastering the material again often creating even crisper sound.  Intrada's recent release of Goldsmith's Patton score is one of those stellar releases that re-issues this score on CD from its original sources and then also includes the album release Goldsmith made at the time.  All remastered in amazing sound.  It truly is a highlight of the year for this quintessential score.  Fans can now compare the original soundtrack, Goldsmith's first album recording, and his later Varese rerecording for the first time.

    Carl Davis may not be as familiar to most American readers and film music fans, but he has an extensive catalogue of work for the BBC and English films as well as music commissioned to accompany silent films (especially those of Charlie Chaplin).  His private label has been releasing a mix of newer scores along with reissued material over the past year or so.  Carl's War is the latest release in his Carl Davis Collection and it is a gem.  The recordings here all were made earlier this year and focus on music for WWII dramas.  The Czech National Symphony is conducted by the composer in what amount to a series of suites for concert performance.  The disc begins with a concert arrangement of the theme and a march from The World at War.  Additional music includes suites derived from his scores for Goodnight Mr. Tom, Anne Franke Remembered, and Echoes That Remain.  There is also a new longer rhapsody based on music from one of his first film scores, The Snow Goose.  Overall, this is a wonderfully fulfilling hour plus of richly-scored and deeply moving music from one of Britain's finest film composers.

    There are five great ways to explore music this month.  It is rather odd that we are heading into the final days of 2010 with very little buzz on Oscar scores.  In 2011, I will most likely have to submit to the cultural shift in music recording and begin including reviews of releases of digitally downloadable-only productions.  Perhaps we'll need to have a "highlights" of those releases instead of individual reviews the way Royal Brown used to overview the latest film scores.  But we'll see what 2011 brings.  Happy listening.