It’s Safan. I’m sure we’ll get an interview on release confirming what he did, but I suspect he remotely recorded the instruments one at a time and then put it all together himself.
Why would it say "composed and conducted by" then, instead of "composed and performed by"?
And clearly, for the premiere live performance with live audience, there was an orchestra (Del Rey Symphony).
Which is distributed by Naxos of America in the USA and Canada (and worldwide for streaming/digital). Probably that's why JRP mistook this as a Naxos release.
Probably, but Naxos distributes over 100 labels in the USA and Canada, including a lot of famous ones like Chandos!
It’s Safan. I’m sure we’ll get an interview on release confirming what he did, but I suspect he remotely recorded the instruments one at a time and then put it all together himself.
Why would it say "composed and conducted by" then, instead of "composed and performed by"?
And clearly, for the premiere live performance with live audience, there was an orchestra (Del Rey Symphony).!
Yavar
I didn't spell it out well enough perhaps. I'll try again just for you Yavar.
There is no group of musicians know as the Miles End Symphony Orchestra who all recorded this for Safan.
Instead, Safan likely recorded the parts one by one remotely 'conducting' over Zoom. Using musicians known to him. Then put all the parts together on his laptop.
He's worked like this a lot recently, if not on a symphonic scale. Could he do it all the way up to a full symphonic score? I don't see why not. And if memory serves, he's floated the idea before.
Why he doesn't just capture it during the one-off live performance is a mystery. Unless its that old 're-use fee' chestnut.
His score to the other silent he did live, The Kid - for both performance and recording clarity - is first rate and easily good enough for CD. But it includes audience laughter throughout.
There's a second Safan version on youtube as well, posted in 2022
I'm not sure how it's different from the one shared above (which was posted to youtube in 2019)
The CD samples sound like what you posted, which is a new performance with a different orchestra/recording. The version you posted starts a bit faster and in a higher frequency range than the one I posted. I would need to listen to both of them entirely back to back to compare.
According to Intrada:
"Safan first performed the score with the Del Rey Symphony live to picture in Chace Park for a 2019 premiere... This new recording on Intrada features the Miles End Symphony"
So it looks like what I posted was the "Del Rey Symphony" performance and this CD is the "Miles End Symphony". Oddly, some of the elements in this release sound like they might be synthesized orchestra, it's hard to tell.
My first choice... the superb Roy Budd score. Second choice... the fine Carl Davis version. Don't see much need for another, especially after hearing some of the clips.
So is this basically akin to LLL’s release of Zamecnik’s 1927 score to Wings?
Yavar
I'm not sure because I'm only speculating, but I could see that being the case.
This shouldn't dissuade people from purchasing the CD and I do want to support Intrada with these kinds of endeavours for silent films and may buy it myself.
I also do want to continue this discussion because it's fun to research things and figure out what's working behind the scenes.
Skimming through, the soloist Sonia Kazarova I think is at least doing the vocals in this particular cue, which is interesting to compare:
Listening to it right now for the first time. Safan is an excellent composer, and the score works, it's an interesting ride. The opening channels Philip Glass with a dash of Bernard Herrmann, some colorful instrumentation and ideas. I certainly don't regret having this. However, it's also a recording that shows the apparent current limitations of samples and processed music. This doesn't sound remotely like an organic orchestra, the sound is artificial. So professional symphony orchestras need not worry, all the current sampling technology is still no match for the organic richness of a top notch orchestra in a good room.
The artwork is beautiful and as I said, it’s a cool project and it sure was a lot of work to put this album together.
Listening to it right now for the first time. Safan is an excellent composer, and the score works, it's an interesting ride. The opening channels Philip Glass with a dash of Bernard Herrmann, some colorful instrumentation and ideas. I certainly don't regret having this. However, it's also a recording that shows the apparent current limitations of samples and processed music. This doesn't sound remotely like an organic orchestra, the sound is artificial. So professional symphony orchestras need not worry, all the current sampling technology is still no match for the organic richness of a top notch orchestra in a good room.
Synthetic orchestras can sound pretty close to real orchestras, but there is no beating the live interplay between musicians and the depth of expressiveness a real performer lends. You can spend a ton of time trying to mimic performance expressiveness and synthesizing the space itself, but it's not happening in real-time so it's always going to have that missing element of musical instinct and fluidity.
And isn't it crazy that an orchestral performance exists and yet the CD is....what it is.
You know what’s crazy, all of the passive aggressive complaints about this project. I’m the first to complain about labels but this was a really cool endeavor. I guess unless your Goldsmith or Williams, forget it. What’s joke.
