Richard Addinsell CD Reviews

by Harry H. Long

RICHARD ADDINSELL

ASV White Line CD WHL 2108

17 tracks - 68:14

Richard Addinsell: Film Music ***

RICHARD ADDINSELL

ASV White Line CD WHL 2115

13 tracks - 67:56

It is not too much of an exaggeration to say that commercial recording of film music had its beginning with Richard Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto. Its themes wind throughout Dangerous Moonlight, which culminates in a nearly complete performance. Wartime British audiences clamored for a recording of the piece, an eventuality which neither the producers nor the composer had anticipated. The composition may even have been prepared fairly hastily; Addinsell was approached only after Rachmaninov, among others, had rejected the assignment. The Russian composer must have remained uppermost in everyone's mind, however, as Addinsell used Rachmaninov's scores for stylistic reference, although the themes are his own. He even shaved time by resurrecting a student-written rumba for the concerto's second theme. Once recorded the piece was so popular that Miklos Rozsa found his suite of orchestral music from Spellbound named a concerto by Chappell Music, for publishing and recording (and no doubt publicity) purposes. Despite this, and one of the most prolific careers of any British film composer, Addinsell has been one of the most ignored of the top golden age scorers. A Marco Polo CD of five years back, conducted by Kenneth Alwyn, was one of the few tributes. Probably due to Alwyn, the two current CDs, performed by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia and again conducted by Alwyn, are an extension of the Marco Polo release, with very little duplication. Also, like their predecessor, they include short pieces of Addinsell's music for theater, radio and TV as well as the concert hall.

Addinsell's less than illustrious reputation is due possibly to this "second" career as a composer of light classical pieces; certainly he has the somewhat unjust reputation of being a lightweight composer of agreeable tunes--along the lines of Victor Young. If there is a drawback to the ASV CDs, it is that their programming will hardly alter that perception. Certainly, brilliant and buoyant melodies seemed to flow from him as effortlessly as water from a sieve. However, Addinsell is capable of moving beyond that when the effect is warranted. Furthermore, he had an uncanny knack for nailing the "sound" of a period or locale without appreciably changing his style.

It's unfortunate that most of the films Addinsell worked on suffer from the double-whammy of being old and British. Some of his best work was done on Blithe Spirit, Gaslight (the British version) and Fire Over England, films which receive little play these days. Still, I'll bet most FSM readers will have seen 1951's Scrooge with Alastair Sim. First off there's the big "scary music" opening which could easily have come from one of Hans J. Salter's titles for the extended adventures of Frankenstein and friends; Addinsell even drops in a Christmas carol just where Salter would have bridged with a love theme or gypsy tune. (The look of the movie is so like the old Universal horrors, it's hard to believe this was just some sort of accident.) The doomsday oboe which follows Scrooge through the beginning turns out to be the theme for Marley's ghost.

The opposite side of the coin is the music-box-like tune which plays while Tiny Tim stares at all the wondrous Victorian clockwork toys in a shop window and the delightful scurrying theme for flute and strings which accompanies Bob Cratchet. Both of these may be based on folk tunes, since Addinsell utilizes quite a few throughout the score. But this is never done carelessly or merely for the sake of color. Consider one segment which is not included on the ASV suite (probably because it wouldn't work out of context). During Scrooge's time with the Ghost of Christmas Present, a visit to the Cratchet house finds Bob proposing a toast to his employer that sets Mrs. Cratchet off on a tirade which is underscored in an almost subliminally low register in a halting, deconstructed manner. After she's finished her harangue, the music picks up speed and resolves into "Silent Night." Not only does this serve to reestablish the mood of the season, it's also highly ironic since Scrooge is experiencing the least silent night of his life. It is moments like this that lift Addinsell above being merely a tunesmith, but the selections are generally far too brief to demonstrate that. The bucolic Greengage Summer (the composer's favorite score) is represented by a suite that's just over 20 minutes; Scrooge clocks in at barely 13 and most of the cuts are well below 10 minutes. I'd suspect that Alwyn has been working for Silva for too long, but his Marco Polo effort is also marked by cruelly brief excerpts. At least we do get to hear those incredible melodies developed into moments of sweeping romanticism and high symphonic drama.

Some of these scores deserve fuller treatment. Blithe Spirit, with its loopily drunken opening and askew fanfares, would be one candidate; the score also boasts a terrific waltz. (Addinsell excelled at waltzes and was apparently as fond of incorporating them into his films as Herrmann was.) Including more than merely the threatening opening from Gaslight would be welcome as well. The same goes for Highly Dangerous, whose represented theme seems like a dramatic companion to the Warsaw. A film I know only by reputation, Hitchcock's Under Capricorn, is represented by a suite wherein the music seems perversely opposed to the story. Even when Addinsell is just producing pretty melodies, the orchestration is so gracefully transparent that the music never cloys. (Much has been made of the fact that Addinsell relegated this task to others, as if no other film or concert composer ever employed apprentices--but the sound of the music is so uniform from movie to movie that the composer surely had some say about the results.) Those who prefer the modern touch of Rozsa, Herrmann or Goldsmith will probably find Addinsell lacking in substance, but fans of Steiner, Korngold and early Waxman will enjoy these two CDs.

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