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Posted: |
Jun 4, 2014 - 10:24 AM
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By: |
bobbengan
(Member)
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I'll be the first to admit I do NOT see Jerry Goldsmith as a "can do no wrong" composer. At his best, he is brilliant, and I love a large number of his scores. However I am also baffled by the popularity of other scores of his, esp. those with an overt electronic proponent, a sound of his I think antiquity has been very unkind to (and not having been born yet in the 80's, I can't choke that sound up to 'nostalgia').
Now that said, I just discovered his AGONY AND THE ECSTASY prologue music recently, and that 12 minute suite has truly blown me away. The classical richness of the writing is incredible. It truly is a concert piece unto itself!
I haven't heard the original film version yet, but that LSO re-recording is dynamite!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vliz5sl9GtA
I'm amazed this isn't more commonly cited as one of his finest pieces. It just oozes classical richness and sophistication and understated awe and grandeur.
In the gushing string statements of the latter half of that suite, I can hear overtly where Horner's early, "reverential" string writing heard is KRULL and BRAINSTORM were drawn from (no, that's not a blow to Horner, those two scores are favorites of mine but the influence is undeniable).
This suite is one Ottorino Respighi would have been proud to call his own. It certainly echoes his music a great deal in its lush, baroque-ornamented richness.
I don't post here as often as I ought to but figured I would today. Just lovely and inspiring music!
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I quite agree. This is possibly my favorite work by Goldsmith, and it really should be regularly performed in concert halls around the world as a concert piece.
The LSO performance is magnificent and more polished than the original, superbly recorded. The original is also essential as it has a unique delicacy and intimacy. You can tell Goldsmith also made some subtle changes in the composition between the two (ie. how the horns play).
Yavar
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Always wanted to hear this with the visuals on a big screen.
Is THE ARTIST WHO DID NOT WANT TO PAINT on the blu-ray version?
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Always wanted to hear this with the visuals on a big screen.
Is THE ARTIST WHO DID NOT WANT TO PAINT on the blu-ray version?
Yes.
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I like the North score, but I agree it totally pales in comparison to what Jerry wrote, still probably my favorite single work of his.
It's a totally different tone, but if you want to hear some Goldsmith *writing* that is surprisingly similar in terms of the string parts, I'd point you towards parts of Seconds, actually.
In any case, congrats on your mysterious success! (I hope it's something that leads ultimately to a new John Scott composition, eh?) 
Yavar
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Posted: |
Jul 6, 2018 - 2:57 PM
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By: |
panphoto
(Member)
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I'm probably lining myself up here to invite upon my head a vast dump of ordure from the 'Goldsmith couldn't write a second-rate score if he tried' brigade, but, I think this prologue is so spectacularly good it is a pity he didn't turn down more film commissions to concentrate instead on music for the concert hall, or at least develop some of his scores into suites. God knows, he was sufficiently profligate with his musical ideas to have given us many mini symphonic poems.
Regarding North's actual score, I recall a poll some time ago, maybe on FSM's main site; predictably Spartacus accrued the majority votes. I voted for Cleopatra and would do the same again, however, I would have listed 'Agony' 3rd given the chance. I can't think of another properly great film composer who was able to conjure a period so evocatively, and for me 'Agony' delivers that frisson of entering another world and another time, in a way that only North could. Like Friedhofer, North's fleet-footed melodies are indispensably married to astonishing orchestration skills that were on a level with Rimsky, Ravel and Respighi.
I'll admit that North's music usually makes more demands upon the listener than Goldsmith's but I wouldn't be without either - and for the record, I think 'Agony' is a great score with a poor recording.
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I mean, I ADORE so many Goldsmith scores for bad flicks like High Velocity and I wouldn't want to give them up, but I share your desire for Jerry to have done more concert works. One in particular he apparently began writing was a cello concerto...boy would I have loved to hear THAT! (And I would still love to hear whatever fragment of it Jerry DID write, if someone feels like funding such a recording...)
https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=65129&forumID=1&archive=0
Yavar
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