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Thanks Bob. I'll have to order this sometime very soon.
How is the documentation? Same liner notes? Same folded "road-map" as Ryko?
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I love this movie and this score so much I will be buying it for a third time on cd based on your evaluation. Back in the seventies I wrote a letter to the editor of Films in Review concerning lost footage from the reissues of GSET.( BTW, the Hollywood Reporter listed the running time on 2/15/65(its initial release) as 224 minutes so I think the 260 m. running time we hear about probably never existed) The music critic for FIR - Page Cook - wrote me a nice letter expressing his thoughts on the film and the butchered versions that were popping up. He also asked if I had the original score as Newman intended it and he graciously offered to make me a tape copy if I was interested. Of course, I was and he sent it to me on reel to reel tapes - that was a thrill. I never dreamed that one day a commercial release would allow many more to hear this masterpiece as Alfred Newman intended and in better and better sound. Page Cook would be overjoyed today at the current state of classic soundtrack releases - what a shame he's not here to enjoy it.
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I am VERY happy to hear this.
Do I remember correctly, Ray, that you expressed some unhappiness with how the final Ryko CD was mastered? (Hence your comment here.) Or is my memory playing tricks on me?
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Couple of things here - I saw the film in
April, 1965 in Cinerama - and I swear to
God (ahem) that it changed my life. You
really CANNOT judge this film unless you'd
seen it in Cinerama. It was chilling - the
surround sound was astonishing. I remember
the clink of Judas' coins going right round
the room and when Von Sydow shouted 'Lazarus
Come Forth' - I jumped out of my seat. I know
all the criticisms about the parade of guest
stars, etc. - but honestly that didn't phase
my 14 year old mind a bit.
I remember even at 14 that I seemed to have
'caught' Stevens vision - I just sat in
'awe' ('More awe Duke') and let the feast of
images quietly, gently wash over my being.
I also wrote a letter to the manager of the
Odeon Carlton Cinerama theate in Toronto -
just raving about the film and voicing my
disappointment at the film's reception. I still
have his response to me framed in an album.
And Hey Ray - Ian Gilchrist is a great friend
of mine - we're meeting for lunch next week.
I'm a musician in the Toronto area and he
currently works for Rounder Records in Canada.
I've already let him know how utterly displeased I am that the Varese release didn't
even mention his (or probably your) work on
this momentous excavation!!!
p.s. I'd also like to add that I've spent
most of my life 'dealing' with record companies
and that Ian Gilchrist is a true artist among
record company executives and as you say -
a true gentleman in every respect. He seems
to always put people and the art first.
(But not a push-over either.)
I'm also enough of a fan-boy (as you guys say)
to be thrilled to have a RYKO Greatest Stort
CD autographed by the producer!! I also saw this in April 1965 in roadshow in Cinerama in Chicago and I agree wholeheartly with your comments. I have tried to recall the missing scenes over the years and the counting of Judas' 30 pieces of silver always struck me as a key loss. At 15, I was bowled over by the film's visual splendor, powerful score and poetic vision. Yes I know many scoff at it - then and now - I was lucky enough to tell Mr. Stevens in person in 1970 at the Chicago Film Festival how much I loved his film when I asked him to sign my GSET souvenir program . I think he was pleased.
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We merely had a disagreement over NR. After I assembled the original soundtrack recordings (Discs 2 and 3) I did a more-severe-than-usual NR because I felt that the extraneous hiss (picked up by multi-copy generations and NOT part of the original recording) hurt the serene effectiveness of the score. RYKO opted for less audio alteration, however. Had I done the score today I would have approached the audio slightly differently and would probably have wound up with a better end product, satisfactory to all. I'm glad for the score's sake that the issue has been revisited. Although obviously Varese worked from the finished product and not from my master recording.
So the Varese Release is mastered from the actual RYKO release with added NR?
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Bob, I have both Colosseum's and Varese's CDs of Miklos Rozsa's 80th birthday concert program (called "Miklos Rozsa - Hollywood Legend" on the Varese disc). While Colosseum's European CD (and LP) appeared on the market long before the Varese CD, Varese's release had great clarity and depth.
The Ryko TGSET disc mastering of CDs 2 and 3 did not do a precise job of cueing up the beginning of each track. Advancing (or repeating) a track on one's player often resulted in the chopping of the first note of a track.
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To buy or not to buy?
THE GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD is a wonderful score and I was thrilled when I got the Ryko 3-CD set. I am naturally not all that nuts about shelling out more bucks for what is essentially the very same recording with the very same tracks, especially in light of the fact that the Ryko release apparently has even the better booklet, too. However, if the Varese sound is truly considerably better than the Ryko, it may be worth it to pick up this score again. I wish I could listen to it on my home stereo first.
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I can only speak for discs 2 and 3, the original soundtrack recordings.
That's what I listen to more often anyway. I find the inclusion of the Handel choral piece on the CD intruding (I find it intruding in the movie, too). Newman's own choral piece for the Lazarus scene is (obviously) a much more organic part of the score.
I have to assume that they used Ryko's finished master - it is unlikely they would have dug up the production master I sent them, which was subsequently slightly NR'd by Ryko.
Thanks for the info, Ray.
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I just blinked. Was the Rozsa 80th birthday program recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall in London, sometime in 1987? I was there when John Scott, Elmer Bernstein and Jerry Goldsmith all guest conducted from a varied canvas of Rozas's works. Rozsa himself could not be there due to ill health. I remember that Jerry handled the third and last section of the programme so he got to conduct the prelude to Ben Hur as the encore. Yup, those were the days...
Was that not at the Barbican? With Princess Anne in attendance?
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I've seen pretty much every one of those big screen epics, on the screen for which they were intended. Without question, TGSET is the most visually stunning.
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