I know there are some fans of Nigel Westlake's sparkling orchestral score to the classic Australian film Babe out there.
Well good news folks - a dialogue-free, full orchestral re-recording with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will be released on CD in Australia this Friday!
So are the original sessions lost, or is this really the FIRST recording? It doesn't make much sense, Babe's Round Up was all score on the original soundtrack. Why are they releasing a re-recording?
Oh wow! This is terrific news. As I live in Australia I'll be grabbing this asap! I love this score. I pretty much love everything Nigel Westlake has done!
The MSO recently performed the score live in Melbourne with the film playing in the background, so its resurgence may have something to do with that.
I am unsure whether the original masters have been lost, but given this is conducted by Westlake and performed by the same orchestra, I'd say fans of the score are still in for a treat, especially given the disappointment that the original soundtrack releases were riddled with dialogue
There appears to be no mention of Camille Saint-Saëns.
There's also at least one classical piece not by Saint-Saens in the score -- a little ditty often called "Pizzicati" by Leo Delibes from the ballet Sylvia.
I'm listening to it now. The liner notes say it's a studio recording of the revised orchestrations that accompany the "live in concert" version beautifully performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. It runs for 57 minutes. It sounds terrific! And yes, Saint-Saëns is not omitted. Very much a great release!
This is a pretty terrific album. just got done giving it a spin and the lack of dialogue just makes it a whole other listening experience. Its sound is probably a little big compared to what is in the movie, though maybe not, but as an album it's everything I would want to sharpen this up. A pretty great presentation, if not a little strange that it exists. Still, glad to have it.
I couldn't, as I tried using PAYPAL and received a message telling me there was an error with my shipping address and the shipping method....very strange.
This is a wonderful score in-film. If the complete original recording couldn't be released for some reason it's great that it's received a new recording. I will definitely pick this up at some point, and I echo the other poster saying, and now it's time for the Goldsmith unused (written but apparently not recorded) score to get it first recording!
