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It's a great re-recording of this majestic and beautiful score - highly recommended. Once those inimitable and gorgeous Korngold themes hook you, you won't be able to stop listening.
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It's a great recording ... I know there were several releases ... mine's on Bay Cities. Davis really understands the feel of what Korngold was attempting.
If you like the 'Adventures of Robin Hood' score, or 'The Sea Hawk' then you'll love the Irish battle suite (Suite 4) on the album, and the much longer (than in the Gerhardt Overture, which was originally written for a pit orchestra at the premiere, and isn't part of the score) March for Essex. The whole score is there.
This score eschews any 'historical pastiche' of the Rozsa type, yet still works because it's GOOD. Some might hear it as over-sentimental, but Anderson's original play is, like all decent plays about more than the surface matter ... it's about the psychological links between narcissistic spoilt men (Essex) and the 'mother/older woman/Kali goddess' who they self-destructively always sacrifice themselves to, one way or another, either as a real woman, or as fate. That's why you found Bette 'scary'. Korngold deliberately wanted a MODERN stage musical style (though it's hard to hear it now as anything other than pure Hollywood) for a story that's modern when you strip off the Tudor facade. Snippets of the 'Deception' concerto turn up.
It's good... better than the movie!
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Listening to this one today. Love it. I know some don't like the "Suite" format, but it doesn't bother me that much.
Anyways, I have the long out of print Bay Cities release from 1992. I was curious if the long out of print Varese Sarabande release from 1998 was remastered in any way? Not that this CD sounds bad. Just wondering....
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I can't vouch for the recording (don't have it yet), but the above-mentioned "March for Essex" is one of Korngold's most infectious creations, and perhaps one of the most perfect musical representations of the Errol Flynn personality I've heard.
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I can't say I'm as excited by this disc as others here. I don't listen to it often, but I went back and listened to it this afternoon. I guess the performance is satisfactory, but the engineering makes it a less than engaging recording. The mike placement sounds too distant. It's especially a problem for the trumpets, which seem oddly soft throughout even when they're blasting.
The score is great, but I just can't "get into" this recording of it.
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Listening to this one today. Love it. I know some don't like the "Suite" format, but it doesn't bother me that much.
Anyways, I have the long out of print Bay Cities release from 1992. I was curious if the long out of print Varese Sarabande release from 1998 was remastered in any way? Not that this CD sounds bad. Just wondering....
These things are subjective, but I feel there's a richer bass to the re-issue. It's certainly considerably remastered.
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The Varese issue was not significantly remastered - they simply used the Bay Cities disc - I know, I was there, and I licensed them the title.
So, the Bay Cities CD and the Varese CD should be nearly identical, unless pressing plants help the sound of a CD, but even then, both were pressed at JVC.
What I can tell you is that we were all very green back in those early Bay Cities days. Nick R. and I were talking about this CD the other day and we were amazed at how we all thought it was so great back then, but that we both feel its sound is lacking now. It's certainly not the way I record now (nor were we there for the sessions), and as most of you know I favor close-miking and have since I began recording my own productions back in 1993, whether show music or film music.
All that said, Mr. Davis is a marvelous conductor (and composer) and he so got the music and so I'm still fond of the CD for its performance. I wish the sound were more "me" but it's not terrible by any means, and it's certainly as good as many other distant miked recordings of a similar ilk.
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Posted: |
Jun 27, 2007 - 9:46 PM
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By: |
SchiffyM
(Member)
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I was hoping you'd chime in on this, Haines. What your brief history points out is that, as in all creative endeavors, there are things that please us and things we wish were better. This is the most we can really hope for. Within this, it's just percentages -- more or less that we think we nailed. It's nice when that percentage is high.
I point this out only because a lot of the vitriol we see on this board and others seems to come from a perspective assuming that the producers of these albums, or composers of the scores, or directors of the films, etc. are sitting back cockily congratulating each other on a job well done. But life is about compromises. Okay, the "Elizabeth and Essex" disc (which I bought on the Bay Cities label the day it came out) isn't perfect. I agree, the sound isn't great. But I wish all of my imperfect work were as pleasurable as that recording.
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Out of the 150 CDs I've personally produced (mostly theatre music and cast albums), there's always something I know I could do better, whether it's an arrangement or a mix or the track order - I think there are only a handful where I can say, "Gee, we got that perfect, didn't we."
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This thread caused me to go hunt down the CD and give it a listen - and you know what - it's not half-bad. Yes, a bit "digital" and harsh on the brass at times, but that's mostly in the first four minutes of the CD. The miking isn't as distant as I recalled from listening three or four years ago, and Mr. Davis's conducting is amazing. The biggest problem is that they were under the usual time constraints, and one wishes they could have gone back and redone the first four or five minutes of the first suite, where the playing by the Bavarians is a bit sketchy. After that, though, the Korngold glories pretty much shine forth - and oh that string writing just makes me kvell (Jewis for kvell).
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Thanks for the informative insight. Fun to read about the origin of recordings.
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