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Actually, the John Scott recording is rather "bumpy".
Get the two albums by the late Varujan Kojian with The Utah Symphony on Varèse, "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and "The Sea Hawk". They are the best of their kind, playing and sound are superb. Unfortunately, they're direct transfers of early-80s recordings, so the running time of both CDs is very short indeed.
The Stromberg versions of both scores on Naxos aren't nearly as good, though they're still nice to have for the extra material.
Also, Rumon Gamba's "The Sea Hawk" and "The Sea Wolf" on Chandos are pretty spectacular. If you don't want more than one version of "The Sea Hawk", I'd go with the Kojian.
Avoid the André Previn album (The Sea Hawk, Captain Blood, Elizabeth and Essex) on DGG with the London Symphony. Considering Previn's credentials as a conductor AND former film composer it was a big disappointment.
There's also a wonderful Decca album with a suite from "Between Two Worlds", which also includes the charming "Symphonic Serenade", underr John Mauceri.
You say you got "the Gerhardt LP". Which one? If it's the one with the Sea Hawk suite, consider getting the wonderful "Kings Row" from the same series of recordings, too.
 
 
If you're going to tap into Korngold's concert music as well (which is in the same style, only more evolved), here are some recommendations:
Symphony in F-Sharp - Previn/LSO on DGG are very good, but the cheaply available Welser-Möst with The Philadelphia Orchestra on EMI is just as nice. Downes on Chandos is also good, but a wee bit too slow.
Violin Concerto - which includes some of his film themes. Tons of good recordings available, but I recommend Gil Shaham with André Previn and the LSO on DGG, which is superb and also includes a reference version of Samuel Barber's equally lovely Violin Concerto.
Die tote Stadt - Korngold's masterpiece, an opulent and dramatic two-hour opera. Go with Erich Leinsdorf's version on RCA. It's cheap, and it's still the best.
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The Stromberg sea Hawk is much better than the old Varese.
No, please, no. The ensemble playing on the Stromberg leaves a lot to be desired, and the sound is rather cavernous. The Kojian is brilliantly engineered and the playing (almost) immaculate. It was supervised by George Korngold, like the Gerhardt albums. The Naxos recordings were supervised by the lack of funds available. But, as I said, I bought them, too, anyway because of the extra material, which makes them worthwhile.
One should note that because people here are aware that John Morgan and William Stromberg have been visitors to this board, there is, well, an ever so slight tendency by users to gloss over possible flaws in their recordings, which of course is perfectly understandable. No doubt these two gentlemen have been doing a great job recording neglected film scores, and in the past few years (as evident in the "Tribute" releases), the quality has much improved.
Why aren't we getting more of the actual warner trackis?
What? 
@michaelware: You can listen to excerpts from the two Gamba/Korngold discs here:
http://www.theclassicalshop.net/Details.aspx?CatalogueNumber=CHAN%2010438
http://www.theclassicalshop.net/Details.aspx?CatalogueNumber=CHAN%2010336
And now, let's compare to the Stromberg (The Sea Hawk)
http://www.amazon.com/Korngold-Sea-Hawk-The-Deception/dp/B000UKOXZI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372084994&sr=8-1&keywords=sea+hawk+stromberg
Personally, I find the differences in quality VERY obvious. Not to mention the hilarious wobble of the Russian singer in "Maria's Song" which later became part of Korngold's song-cycle Five Lieder, op.38 (a recording of this one is available by Anne Sofie von Otter on DGG, in German!).
But, again, there are no really poor recordings here.
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and one advantage of the Previn recording is the lack of choral work ... this just does not work for me on the otherwise excellent Gerhardt recordings.
Sorry, but how could leaving out the choir (= the original version) and replace it with anonymous brass be considered an ADVANTAGE?
For the violin concerto, previously mentioned, I have a recording by Nicola Benedetti (Kirill Karabits and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra) which I can highly recommend. There are two other pieces from Korngold's opera Die tote Stadt (The Dead City) which are equally lovely ... The Silver Violin a 2012 album by Nicola Benedetti ... highly recommended!
I've got that album, too, (it's called "The Silver Violin") and Benedetti's version is very fine (as I said, there are tons of very good versions), and I've had the opportunity of listening to this young lady's "live" playing twice. BUT, again, replacing a voice, with lyrics, with an instrument in an operatic/vocal setting is a trivialization of the original. It can never be the preferred version.
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Posted: |
Jun 24, 2013 - 10:43 AM
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By: |
MusicMad
(Member)
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and one advantage of the Previn recording is the lack of choral work ... this just does not work for me on the otherwise excellent Gerhardt recordings.
Sorry, but how could leaving out the choir (= the original version) and replace it with anonymous brass be considered an ADVANTAGE?
For the violin concerto, previously mentioned, I have a recording by Nicola Benedetti (Kirill Karabits and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra) which I can highly recommend. There are two other pieces from Korngold's opera Die tote Stadt (The Dead City) which are equally lovely ... The Silver Violin a 2012 album by Nicola Benedetti ... highly recommended!
I've got that album, too, (it's called "The Silver Violin") and Benedetti's version is very fine (as I said, there are tons of very good versions), and I've had the opportunity of listening to this young lady's "live" playing twice. BUT, again, replacing a voice, with lyrics, with an instrument in an operatic/vocal setting is a trivialization of the original. It can never be the preferred version.
Thank you ... I'm so grateful. I'd never have known that I prefer the vocal version to the non-vocal version without your comment. I take it, therefore, that when a composer adapts his/her work for another use it can never create a better listening experience?
Not having heard the original opera, to which I referred, I can make no comment as to whether I prefer Ms. Benedetti's performance of these works (but, clearly, I won't) ... I simply stated that each piece is lovely. But then, it appears you did not read my post before responding (you will see that my text mentioned the name of Ms. Benedetti's album ...)
Mitch.
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Some disagree, but Carl Davis' re-recording of 'The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex' available from Bay Cities and then Varese Sarabande with the Munich SO is quite good.
The Varese Kojian albums already mentioned above are excellent. Before we attack Tribute's 'Sea Hawk' though, it's worth remembering that Korngold was from the concert world, and whatever we may think of the 'appropriateness' of the the Russian chorus and soloist from a cinematic/dramatic point of view, it's acceptable for choirs of all nationalities to routunely take on classical/oratorio material in their own particular ambience, so from the bigger perspective of the concert world, it's not so bad, and it's a great album overall. John Morgan admitted here somewhere himself that he personally spliced the Kojian stuff for Maria's song when he listens alone. There's so much great material missing from the Varese, which is the only drawback.
Just as an aside, the Gerhardt, Kojian, Stromberg and Gamba recordings are all sufficiently acoustically compatible that splicings, crossfades, slow overlaps etc., are easy for all the Robin Hood, Sea Hawk releases etc..
In terms of concert stuff, Deutsche Grammofon have some great albums.
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The worst performances of Korngold I've heard on CD are the lamentable Scott-conducted Varese "Anthony Adverse", with the bland Naxos "Another Dawn" with its weak brass playing almost as disappointing. A pity that Stromberg/Morgan can't re-record everything they did on Naxos with the magnificent quality they consistently achieve on their own Tribute label. The Naxos efforts are amongst my least played CDs. The superb Tribute's are all up there with the most played.
I take it you haven't heard the Carl Davis recording of Elizabeth and Essex? It makes the Anthony Adverse recording sound brilliant.
As for Stromberg/Morgan on Marco Polo or Naxos, I think the difficulty there is that the orchestra didn't start producing really good recordings until towards the end of the collaboration. Objective, Burma! (released in 2000) felt like the turning point. By the time the Stromberg/Morgan collaboration with Naxos ended and they started their own label, the orchestra was quite competent in performing film music and the recording engineers were laying down better tracks as well. Perhaps Tribute also afforded larger budgets for more rehearsal time which raised quality?
Another Dawn comes from a time when the Moscow Symphony Orchestra wasn't yet on the cusp of "getting it." The recording has some crazily wild parts given some of the tempos that Bill Stromberg fearlessly decided to blast ahead with. I find it an entertaining listen in the sense that they do sound like they're giving it their all even if the result is terribly unpolished. Still, it beats a sleepy recording from the London Symphony Orchestra any day of the week. (Looking at you, Previn Korngold album.)
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But Korngold's orchestral textures are so far beyond the capacities of 1940s recording technology that I wonder if an archival recording the the best way to appreciate his music.
Exactly.
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