It appears that Decca rebuffed Herrmann's appeals to record his concert music but saw the potential of a movie collection. Smith cites a letter from a John Goldsmith as source. The label was notoriously conservative. Around the same time, Decca executives rejected the idea of licensing Karajan's Zarathustra as a movie tie-in for 2001. They declined to stoop to such a vulgar level. It cost them big time: DGG made a fortune by issuing Karl Böhm's version on a popular pseudo-soundtrack album.
Decca also notoriously rejected the Beatles after hearing their demo tape.
The same thing happened with Polydor in Germany: Bert Kaempfert disappointedly released them from their contract. A few years later Decca retracted his recording of "Spanish Eyes" with Austrian singer Freddy Quinn - just to clear the stage for Al Martino and Capitol.
Since the Citizen Kane section of "Great Film Classics" is neither a full presentation of "Welles Raises Kane", nor a selection of purely Citizen Kane tracks as listed, I chose to rearrange/re-label my playlist very slightly to take into account the Kane listing of the "Magnificent Ambersons" piece
JANE EYRE (1943) 01 SELECTIONS
THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO (1952) 02 INTERLUDE 03 THE MEMORY WALTZ
CITIZEN KANE (1941) 04 OVERTURE 05 RAGTIME 06 FINALE
THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (1942) 07 VARIATIONS*
THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER (1941) 08 SLEIGH RIDE 09 SWING YOUR PARTNERS
*Based on a waltz melody by Émile Waldteufel (1837-1915)
Wow.I’m such a big Herrmann fan but this little trivia about Émile Waldteufel being referenced has certainly piqued my interest. Perhaps you can refer to me this particular waltz melody by name?.I shall be grateful.
Since the Citizen Kane section of "Great Film Classics" is neither a full presentation of "Welles Raises Kane", nor a selection of purely Citizen Kane tracks as listed, I chose to rearrange/re-label my playlist very slightly to take into account the Kane listing of the "Magnificent Ambersons" piece
JANE EYRE (1943) 01 SELECTIONS
THE SNOWS OF KILIMANJARO (1952) 02 INTERLUDE 03 THE MEMORY WALTZ
CITIZEN KANE (1941) 04 OVERTURE 05 RAGTIME 06 FINALE
THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS (1942) 07 VARIATIONS*
THE DEVIL AND DANIEL WEBSTER (1941) 08 SLEIGH RIDE 09 SWING YOUR PARTNERS
*Based on a waltz melody by Émile Waldteufel (1837-1915)
Wow.I’m such a big Herrmann fan but this little trivia about Émile Waldteufel being referenced has certainly piqued my interest. Perhaps you can refer to me this particular waltz melody by name?.I shall be grateful.
It appears that Decca rebuffed Herrmann's appeals to record his concert music but saw the potential of a movie collection. Smith cites a letter from a John Goldsmith as source. The label was notoriously conservative. Around the same time, Decca executives rejected the idea of licensing Karajan's Zarathustra as a movie tie-in for 2001. They declined to stoop to such a vulgar level. It cost them big time: DGG made a fortune by issuing Karl Böhm's version on a popular pseudo-soundtrack album.
Decca also notoriously rejected the Beatles after hearing their demo tape.
Wasn’t Herrmann responsible to recommend THE BEATLES to the labels. If my memory serves me correct he made a particular point of it in the Audio interview he had done in the 1970s. It’s on the Cd that was issued by the Film Music Society.
In a further change to my playlist mentioned earlier, I've also chosen to change the three Citizen Kane track titles from the "Welles Raises Kane" titles (which aren't appropriate unless the whole Welles Raises Kane suite is present) to the appropriate actual film score titles, which are:
– CHRONICLE SCHERZO – KANE'S NEW OFFICE – GALOP / KANE MARRIES
*Based on a waltz melody by Émile Waldteufel (1837-1915)
Wow.I’m such a big Herrmann fan but this little trivia about Émile Waldteufel being referenced has certainly piqued my interest.
Herrmann references Waldteufel in his notes on the back cover for this disc, though the text of the mini LP sleeve is so tiny the only way I could read a word of it was by scanning it and blowing it up on-screen.
Not everyone knows the story behind the JULIUS CAESAR track on the Shakespeare album. Herrmann was supposed to score that film. Both Houseman and Mankiewicz had worked with Benny, and their approach to the subject was meant to be spare and low-key. The last thing they wanted was the splashy Technicolor splendor of QUO VADIS -- although they were stuck with some leftover sets, like the floor of Caesar's house. But Metro had Rozsa on salary and wouldn't budge to pay for an outside composer. Herrmann always blamed Johnny Green for the refusal.
Cut to the 1970s. Herrmann wanted to record some of Rozsa's music as a token of esteem. I think it was the only time he recorded the work of a Hollywood colleague. Rozsa offered him either the reconstructed concert overture (never heard by the public) or a short suite. Herrmann chose the latter. "Benny invited me to his house in London and said, 'I have to play it for you.' . . . [He] watched me all the time. When I told him I thought it was great, he was the happiest man on earth." [Quoted in Steven Smith's Herrmann biography.]
Talk about the jackets reminds me of an early review of "Great Movie Thrillers" in High Fidelity, then the leading U.S. record magazine. It was by Royal S. Brown, who later moved over to Fanfare and became the foremost commentator on film music in the general music press. This was around 1969, at the very nadir of film music on records, and most of the music magazines either ignored film score recordings or patronized them. Brown was lavish with his praises, but he did object to the cover as something like an eight-year-old's impression of the films.
I believe that this was the first of the London/Herrmann LPs that I purchased. The UK Decca version had the same basic cover, with a different background color. The cover certainly caught my eye on the store shelves,
I received my copy of this set today (from Australia), and I am glad that I changed my mind and purchased the box. It is great to have all of these recordings in one collection. I can do some housekeeping and discard/gift a few duplicates. This made the OOP Varese set of concert suites obsolete now -- although I liked the way they organized the music and will, of course, keep that set for my library, too.
My shipping date has been pushed back to sometime around 9/15... ah well, the delays will all be forgotten once the set arrives and I'm enjoying the music!
