I'll always hang on to the original LP, if only for the center spread of color photos including the shot of languidly lounging slave maidens. Thank heaven Heston wasn't the only one in that movie who "dropped trou," (as my buddies used to say in high school).
Be that as it may, this thread has convinced me finally to spring for the expanded CD, a move I've long resisted because the expansion was only one track. But hey, if it's as good a track as you guys say it is, I'll gladly go for it. I only wish Mr. Scott would offer a trade-in value on the older CD, especially since he admits he blew it the first time around by not including the "Bachanale." But I shan't complain too loudly on this point. Anyone who writes music of Scott's caliber deserves unstinting support.
But hey, if it's as good a track as you guys say it is, I'll gladly go for it. I only wish Mr. Scott would offer a trade-in value on the older CD, .
Yeah,I was peeved at first,having it twice.hough the blow is softened by the fact the original,'incomplete'cd was autographed by Scotty himself. Also the original cover is crap.It makes ancient Egypt look blue,when everyone knows it's yellowy/orange.
"Someone told me that Scott claimed that he was re-recording bits and pieces from the score at the end of other sessions on other albums he was recording, and then would assemble these to get the whole CD produced on the cheap. This doesn't sound at all feasible to me, amd must be apocryphal."
I don't know anything about A & C, but re-recording bits and pieces at the end of other sessions is more common than you probably know.
Someone told me that Scott claimed that he was re-recording bits and pieces from the score at the end of other sessions on other albums he was recording, and then would assemble these to get the whole CD produced on the cheap. This doesn't sound at all feasible to me, amd must be apocryphal."
The source is none other than Scott, himself, in the notes to the original pressing of the CD:
"Over the years many people have asked if there would ever be a recording of the entire score. The publishers were approached on many occasions but were not interested in investing in a work of this nature. The idea finally came to me that if nobody else would record it then I would do it myself, not all at once, because of the enormous cost, but a section at a time at the end of other recording sessions."
The source is none other than Scott, himself, in the notes to the original pressing of the CD:
"Over the years many people have asked if there would ever be a recording of the entire score. The publishers were approached on many occasions but were not interested in investing in a work of this nature. The idea finally came to me that if nobody else would record it then I would do it myself, not all at once, because of the enormous cost, but a section at a time at the end of other recording sessions."
Nevertheless, I still maintain that the whole expanded CD is the ORIGINAL London soundtrack recording.
At the very LEAST, the LP cues are identical with those on the CD, incidental background noises and all. As for the expansion, to record additional cues with an East Berlin orchestra some two decades later having the same studio ambience and performance feel as the original is highly improbable -- that's like trying to mix re-recordings of additional cues from LAWRENCE OF ARABIA with tracks from the original soundtrack album, and expecting an exact sonic match.
Someone told me that Scott claimed that he was re-recording bits and pieces from the score at the end of other sessions on other albums he was recording, and then would assemble these to get the whole CD produced on the cheap. This doesn't sound at all feasible to me, amd must be apocryphal."
The source is none other than Scott, himself, in the notes to the original pressing of the CD:
"Over the years many people have asked if there would ever be a recording of the entire score. The publishers were approached on many occasions but were not interested in investing in a work of this nature. The idea finally came to me that if nobody else would record it then I would do it myself, not all at once, because of the enormous cost, but a section at a time at the end of other recording sessions."
Let's all be honest shall we?
John ,was shall we say fibbing just a bit.....
As others have already mentioned, there is no doubt it's the original soundtrack recording when you compare the LP to the CD.
I don't know anything about A & C, but re-recording bits and pieces at the end of other sessions is more common than you probably know.
I suppose it IS common, but how does it pan out? I mean, each orchestra would have a different recording dynamic, different venue ambience etc. ... Maybe he DID try this, but the resulting dog's din couldn't be mastered!!!???
The OST's great anyhow. It's funny though: this score cries out 1970s English, which differs considerably from '30s English or today's. As North's Cleo has a jazz element peeping through, so this has a sort of 70s TV aura about it, light but heavy.
Exactly. Or more precisely, Mr. Scott was happy to have us have it... and honored to have us have it. A&C was his magnum opus. Who could fault him for wanting to rescue it from LP limbo?
The image on the CD above is the greater part of the back cover of the gatefold LP. The painting wraps around the entire outer LP cover; the front cover continues with a reclining bare-chested Antony (Charlton Heston - my copy is autographed "Chuck" Heston over his white lower tunic) and Cleopatra (Hildegard Neil) behind him holding a pearl necklace that seems to be wrapped (symbollically?) around his neck.
Here are the LP track titles: 1. Main Titles (Love Theme) (03:39) 2. Give Me to Drink Mandragora (Cleopatra's Theme) (01:59) 3. Confrontation with Pompey (01:27) 4. Antony and Octavia (Caesar's Sister) (01:49) 5. The Barge She Sat In (04:16) 6. One Will Tear the Other (01:00) 7. The Battle of Actium (05:11) 8. Prelude to Part 2 (Love Theme) (01:31) 9. Whither Hast Thou Led Me Egypt (02:24) 10. Death of Enobarbus (02:04) 11. He Goes Forth Gallantly (03:46) 12. Sometimes We See a Cloud That's Dragonish (02:40) 13. Death of Antony (Love Theme) (03:54) 14. Pretty Worm of Nilus (01:46) 15. She Shall Be Buried by Her Antony (End Titles) (02:05)
I think this is the cover you tried to show...right? You shouldn't have left the http:// in the URL.
Your image didn't show up until I put the below image in here, now all of a sudden it works???
Looking at this whole thread late, I was reminded of reading the troubled production history of this in Heston's "The Actor's Life" (the best celebrity memoir of all time, bar none) where apparently everyone but him was convinced Hildegarde Neil was a bad choice for Cleopatra. Three years later, Peter Snell even suggested that Heston salvage the film by reshooting the part of Cleopatra altogether.
It would be interesting to see the final results to see for myself if the harsh judgment of Neil was correct. But the film has all but disappeared altogether.
The only time I've ever seen it was on a VHS pan-and-scan release. Neil did a few other films, though the only one I remember was ENGLAND MADE ME, also, curiously, with another memorable score by John Scott, though not as wonderful as A&C, but certainly enough for me to still have the lp, an import from England as I recall.
A&C is a tough play to begin with. Dramatically, the two lovers are together from the very beginning, so the crux of the drama is really about how everything around them brings about their destruction, a foregone conclusion from the very beginning. (Interestingly, back in the mid-70's, when I was in the Acting School at NYU, we had a sort of exchange program with the Royal Shakespeare Company, who were then performing in Brooklyn. One of our teachers from there, Patrick Tucker, a very knowledgeable, very funny man, told us one day, "If you can't understand what Shakespeare is saying, just assume it's dirty," and pointed out all the metaphors about food in ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, where the two leads always refer to each other in terms of foods. Extremely astute observation. Check it out...)
A different question then... Is it the whole thing? It says "the complete score" on the CD, yet in the liner notes it mentions something about "fifty sections of music".
Supposedly that means that about 50 cues would be listed on the film's official cue sheet. But the number of cues does not translate directly into the number of tracks. For example, Alex North's "Spartacus" has a revised Overture that consists of three cues (numbered #1 - Metapontum Triumph, #2 - On To The Sea/Revised, #3 - Metapontum Triumph). It's one track though.
By the way, A&C seems to have been a roadshow in England, complete with a souvenir program. Over the years, I managed to snag two copies on E-Bay, one of them actually autographed by star Charlton Heston.
BobB, thanks for posting the videos. It looks like you meant to put two different cues up - it seems to be the same one twice. Perhaps you meant to include this one as well?
JOHN SCOTT AND HIS ORCHESTRA * LOVE THEME (FROM ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA)
![](http://<A HREF="http://soundtrackcollector.com/images/cd/large/Antony_and_Cleopatra_JSCD_128.jpg" TARGET="_BLANK">http://soundtrackcollector.com/images/cd/large/Antony_and_Cleopatra_JSCD_128.jpg</A>)
