Wuthering Heights: A Tribute to Alfred Newman

Page Cook Memorial Review Column by John Cutts

ALFRED NEWMAN ***1/2

Richard Kaufman, Conductor

New Zealand Symphony Orchestra & New Zealand Youth Choir

Koch International Classics 3-7326-2HI. 6 tracks - 51:37

Although rumored to have been withdrawn because of technical "glitches," this is, to one who foolishly bought into the story, as welcome a surprise as might be wished for. A prime Newman program such as this is too rare a treat for it to be endangered in any way. Originally issued last autumn, I feel irked with myself for almost letting it slip by me. Of course, on my impulse-buy I may have lucked out in finding an untainted copy. But to any other dithering Newman fans around, what's to lose (most stores gladly replacing defective copies) against the likely pleasure of it all!

Not that it's roses all the way -- the tempos are erratic, marginally better in the slower melody line than in the upbeat ones; the editing, in suites from PRINCE OF FOXES and DRAGONWYCK, is so hamfisted -- in its pacing and pausing -- as to cause a genuine sense of confusion as to whether a theme has played itself out or not.

Yet, all this duly acknowledged and lamented upon, this is a valuable and much needed CD in that it brings back into a wider awareness six dazzling displays of musical virtuosity from the pen of Alfred Newman. Golden music from the Golden Age of movie making with suites from WUTHERING HEIGHTS ('39), PRINCE OF FOXES ('49), PRISONER OF ZENDA ('37), and DRAGONWYCK ('46), along with the love theme from DAVID AND BATHSHEBA ('51) and a symphonic march drawn from BRIGHAM YOUNG ('40). This is music of such power and strength that to have heard it, as I did as a youngster finding my way in movies, is to remain forever marked by it. I yield to no man in my admiration for Newman, and just to have this material to hand again, despite the general timidity of it all, is sufficient enough. Hopefully, future Newman compilations will do better by him.

There's an old musical joke about a conductor addressing an orchestra thus: "Gentleman, today we are not only going to play Tschaikovsky but we're going to beat him too!" I've always thought of Newman when hearing that. Positively tigerish in his orchestral demands ("Little Caesar with a baton," was one apt description), Newman was as exacting a leader as ever was -- and no one played Newman like Newman, his accelerated pacings are the stuff of Hollywood folklore. It follows then that few contemporary conductors can ever hope to match Newman's masterful evocations of his own scoring. In this instance, Richard Kaufman does a workmanlike job, but sadly no more than that.

You might recall that when the same Kaufman led the Brandenburg Philharmonic on two Marco Polo releases (CAPTAIN BLOOD and HISTORICAL ROMANCES) a few years back, the performance level erred toward the staid side. Nicely done, but no distinguishing excitement. Contrast the same orchestra under the leadership of William Stromberg in the BMG/RCA Victor issue of suites from Steiner's THE ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN and Korngold's THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER (arguably the best "reconstruction" to date, and criminally still awaiting release in this country), and the difference in orchestra handling is instantly apparent.

The Stromberg CD pulsates, to the point of listener intoxication, with movie music know-how and lively carry-through. It's a triumph unto itself. It will be interesting to hear how Stromberg handles the forthcoming Marco Polo release of Newman's HUNCHBACK OF THE NOTRE DAME score.

Getting back to a breakdown of what's on tap here, though -- it opens with a 12 minute Fred Steiner-arranged suite from WUTHERING HEIGHTS, a bit over-crowded perhaps, the themes jostling for breathing space, but very accomplished for all that; an 8 minute DRAGONWYCK suite features a sharp-edged main theme that's taken through various stages of development, getting more stronger as it goes, to reach a shattering all-out climax (so much so that a late introduced theme for the film's semi-hopeful ending gets flattened in the process ); the Christopher Palmer-arranged PRISONER OF ZENDA, sweetly subtitled "A Ruritarian Rhapsody for Orchestra," is all that one might wish for, capturing the film's romantic derring-do in a briskly-paced 7 minute valentine that gets right at the heart of it all, and whilst the BRIGHAM YOUNG 5 minute symphonic march (the work of the erstwhile Fred Steiner again) is not without its moments, it's also curiously flatfooted (the attach of the echoing-back main beat softened considerably). Newman was so taken with this theme that he used it over and over. Nothing was so guaranteed to capture the attention in a hurry. It was the musical equivalent of a shot of adrenaline kicking in, and in westerns such as YELLOW SKY ('48) and RAWHIDE ('51) it literally pulled you toward the screen and into the on-going action. A bravura piece of pounding externalism.

Of the two remaining selections -- the love theme from DAVID AND BATHSHEBA and the PRINCE OF FOXES suite -- the pride of place goes to the FOXES presentation. At 13 minutes odd, it's the longest and most substantial piece on offer and, despite its lamefingered editing it's by far the most overall exciting. Newman had a feeling for costumed drama assignments (think back on CAPTAIN FROM CASTILLE, THE BLACK SWAN and THE MARK OF ZORRO) and the stunning ingenuity of his work in this field is both unequaled and unparalleled. Cliche-driven writers have often termed Newman's spirited scores as "Korngoldian," intending a back-handed compliment of sorts; but as much as I revere the old Austrian wunderkind, I prefer Newman more. Korngold, I've always felt, was just as defined by his European heritage as he was trapped in it. Whereas with Newman, with no traditional background to inhibit him, he was always pushing away at his own boundaries. There's something wonderfully American about Newman's music, a quality of clean-cut clearness, and even when called to work on material that taxed his sources of reference, the finished result rang clear with his own lyric zest. I've always thought that if the great American illustrator, N.C. Wyeth, had ever written music it would have sounded just as Newman's did: bold, purposeful and altogether exhilarating. The man didn't have a dull note in him.

On film in PRINCE OF FOXES, Newman introduces the sublime "Camillia" theme by having it sung by an anonymous Venetian gondolier across a mist-shrouded lagoon, using it thereafter to underscore the Wanda Hendrix heroine. On the CD it only comes in a series of orchestral variations, but the lilting ache of the ever-flowering melody gets to you just as effectively, lingering on in one's recall of it long after the CD has run its course and has been put away. For this one pearl alone I'm inclined to forgive much over the mixed pro and con of things in general. FOXES is a score on which Newman spread himself wide in a furioso main-title, then a scherzo for a garden fete (reprised, in part, from his earlier HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME) and a jubilant hymn of spring celebration (not featured, alas, here) as well as two superbly contrasting martial marches (one, yet another HUNCHBACK borrowing, later to do service again in THE ROBE). It's a film that's alive with music. What I wouldn't have given to have been there on the soundstage, hearing it all for the first time, when Newman put it to film.

A handful of Newman, then. A mixed bag at best. But, hopefully, a start to more, better played Newman. Next up: the Marco Polo, John Morgan reconstructed, William Stromberg conducted HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. Fingers, as ever, firmly crossed.

Send your comments: MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com. We have called this the "Page Cook Memorial Review column" in memory of Cook, the late and longtime columnist to Films in Review who was interested in much of the material reviewed here.