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Love this - best big buy soundtrack of the year.
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My review from 3/17 was based on a comparison with the new recording of "Quo Vadis" from City of Prague Philharmonic as well as many other high quality recordings in my collection. The newly restored "Ben Hur" soundtrack sounds every bit as good as this except for "Parade of the Charioteers" which does suffer from some compression problems. The only difference I can discern is that it has the sound and character of a "movie soundtrack" recording as opposed to a modern studio or concert hall recording. I have the Rotel RSX 1560 AV receiver, Denon Universal CD Player and Phase Tech Premier front speakers. I realize that everyone's listening experience can vary but sometimes it takes good equipment to bring out the best in a recording.
Reading the notes works wonders. Frank's notes are very good. Reading them is the thing.
The brass parades were recorded in Rome before any of the main leitmotif score was laid down. The recording conditions were different. The parades were played by the Brass Band of the Carabinieri cops and the wind section of the National Academy of St. Cecilia in Rome. Rozsa went out there early to record these pieces for what he considered an on-scene outdoor ambience apart from that of the main score. Whether he recorded outdoors I can't recall but they weren't done at Culver City.
The difference in sound quality is referred to in the notes. Cinecitta didn't record with the same finesse then, as any Nascimbene release will tell.
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Posted: |
Mar 20, 2013 - 8:00 PM
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By: |
pp312
(Member)
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Just thought I'd throw this quote in as a point of interest:
"It's not particularly well-written. The music is heavy-handed and grates on the ears. The story is far-fetched and lacks proper editing."
Anyone guess what film this refers to? Well, since this is a B-H thread, no, you don't get a toffee apple for getting it right. But yes, folks, a genuine, bona fide reviewer (Christopher Null--filmreviewer.com) actually typed those carefully-considered musings onto a computer screen for our edification, and I didn't want you to miss them.
Of course there are any number of crap reviewers out there writing...well, crap. What got me about this one was that he trashes what for me are the two strongest points of this film without providing a single example. I know some people do hear Rozsa's music as heavy-handed, and there are one or two instances where I would agree--but B-H is certainly not one of them. Rozsa's music needed a strong structure to support it, preferably a slightly melodramatic structure (in the best sense of the word), and B-H provided it in spades. Nowadays it's hard to think of a more perfect marriage than B-H and its music--to the extent that one gets a shock to realize there are those who hear it differently and would actually contemplate divorce. I know there's room in the world for divergent opinion, but sometimes the divergence just seems straight out perverse.
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So it's now official - FSM's 5 disc set of 'Ben-Hur' truly is definitive from a sonic perspective.
Oh, so now it's official? Good to know.
Just messin' 
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Not to derail the thread but what's wrong with Intrada's mastering in your view?
Yavar
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Posted: |
Mar 23, 2013 - 9:39 AM
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By: |
Bob Bryden
(Member)
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Not to derail the thread but what's wrong with Intrada's mastering in your view?
Yavar
I set up both discs and a/b'd them in synch, by comparison the Intrada was weak, thin-sounding, compared to the UK release. I expect decent re-masters to have a more expansive sound field. The only way I could make a personally satisfying edition was to combine all the tracks from the UK release with the unreleased tracks from the Intrada and when those tracks appear in sequence they are rather lacklustre.
And to further demonstrate how unpredictable and inconsistent these so-called re-masters can be, Intrada's own expanded 'Explorers' is wonderful when a/b'd with the original Varese CD.
Perhaps I'm a re-mastering engineer's worst nightmare because I will compare editions of great scores with as many older releases as possible. It seems to me they don't do this themselves. As someone who has spent much of his life inside recording studios, I wouldn't even begin or undertake such a project without all previous editions at my fingertips and if I couldn't improve upon it - I'd leave it alone - let alone weaken it. (The best engineers I've worked with are constanlty a/b'ing their mixes where necessary and also switching back and forth between various sets of speakers to check consistency from one set to another). The only justification I can find is re-releasing for those who missed out on the previous limited editions. Nothing justifies taking the wind out of the sails of a great recording though. ('Sand Pebbles' and 'Blue Max' are other examples - the Varese and old Sony versions blow the newer releases away respectively). Just my opinion, of course, and what my ears tell me when comparing directly.
They are, for the most part, The Emperor's New Re-Masters to me.
p.s. It's not really derailing the thread because the subject really is definitive editions of great original recordings like 'Ben-Hur'.
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