I'm very pleased to see that Hurwitz put up there the Hindemith score which is as good as he says. I have the BMG/RCA as well as the Koch recordings. But it seems to me that most people who are into film music just ignore this particular work. Oh, it's not a Hollywood film score. They really don't know what they are missing here.
Love The Lion In Winter! One of those scores where the craftsmanship of the writing, the musicians’ performance (with exception of a couple of moments), and the recording are perfect.
I distinctly remember lowering the stylus on the Columbia LP as a teenager, purchasing it because it was by the James Bond composer and not having seen the film yet. “Holy crap!” So, so good!
Lotsa fun! Works by Korngold, Raksin, Stothart/Arlen, Loewe, Steiner, Mandel, Waxman and Newman--several popular favorites, and some nice (and one not-so-nice) discoveries.
The Wizzard of Oz: The truth has to be told. Awful score. Thanks, David!
I have always hated The Wizard of Oz (the score... I do like a couple of the songs) from the moment I first saw the film. For that matter I always hated the film itself, overall, having grown up with the wonderful books being read aloud to me by my grandmother. I cannot fathom the popularity of that 1939 adaptation, to be honest, and the Wicked Witch motif gives me a freakin' headache. UGH.
As soon as I noticed names of film composers I marked down Herbert Stothart as a name to avoid... and well, with a single exception (Dragon Seed, released by FSM... I wonder who ghostwrote that!) I wish I'd avoided his music a LOT more.
Sorry to be a grump but I totally agree with Hurwitz on this!
I have always hated The Wizard of Oz (the score... I do like a couple of the songs) from the moment I first saw the film. For that matter I always hated the film itself, overall, having grown up with the wonderful books being read aloud to me by my grandmother. I cannot fathom the popularity of that 1939 adaptation, to be honest, and the Wicked Witch motif gives me a freakin' headache. UGH.
As soon as I noticed names of film composers I marked down Herbert Stothart as a name to avoid... and well, with a single exception (Dragon Seed, released by FSM... I wonder who ghostwrote that!) I wish I'd avoided his music a LOT more.
Sorry to be a grump but I totally agree with Hurwitz on this!
Yavar
I have to say that I do like the score for Oz, though it does lose a few points in my book on account of the classical quotations (particularly Night on Bald Mountain during the climax).
That said, I can’t think of any other Stothart score I actually like (have yet to hear Dragon Seed). A few months ago, I revisited the 1936 Romeo and Juliet (which he scored), and was disappointed that he practically resorted to just quoting Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy-Overture for the love scenes, which really lowered my opinion of the score.
I think the main problem, if you want to call it a problem, with Herbert Stothart's film scoring technique is that his music so often contains quotes from other sources than from Stothart's own creative inspiration. In a way, he was the link between the silent film music production which was largely based on the classical repertoire instead of original material and the 'newly' invented fashion by Max Steiner who composed original music in much larger portions for the films. Stothart just remained in between. I don't think he was a bad composer per se but Herbert just wasn't really that original.
Steven J. Lasher (Southern Cross Records, Preamble etc.) hated Stothart, too. He said once he would never ever rerecord any music by Herbert.
André Previn orchestrated for Stothart, the story is recounted in his memoire "No minor chords". André over-orchestrated one piece by Stothart to the extreme that Stothart wondered during the recording if he really composed this music. I've also wanted to find out which film score it was but I never could, and Previn doesn't tell it either.
About 25 years ago I've watched "Marie Antoinette" (1938) scored by Stothart. At the time, I found the score exceptionally well suited to the drama depicted in that film. A great score. But I have never taken the time to revisit the film afterwards. Maybe I would assess it differently today. Maybe, that score is littered with quotations and references to classical music, too?
The film and score was discussed on this board 11 years ago. It's an interesting read:
Telarc: "Classic Film Music" (5CD box set) - The Big Picture/Vintage Cinema/Star Tracks/Rozsa: Three Choral Suites/The Great Fantasy Adventure Album RCA: Charles Gerhardt's "Classic Film Scores" series (12CD) King Records Japan: The Artistry of Akira Ifukube: Orchestral Works (20 CD)
He just proclaimed (on the paid channel) his "Ten Best Heifetz recordings," which included the Korngold and Rozsa concerti. Commented, accurately, that nobody else touched the wonderful Korngold for decades but now everybody does it. But he wished the same would happen to the also wonderful Rozsa, "which nobody plays." [Actually there are six recordings now, and Simon Rattle has been leading several performances in Europe.]
There's only a "preview" on the public YouTube channel. It's one of those come-ons to garner subscriptions to the Insider reviews. Here are his choices:
1. The Final Recordings and Popular Encores 2. Beethoven: Violin Concerto (Munch) 3. Brahms: Violin Concerto (Reiner) 4. Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto (Munch) 5. Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto (Reiner) 6. Korngold: Violin Concerto (Hendl) 7. Walton: Violin Concerto (Goosens) 8. Rosza: Violin Concerto (Hendl) 9. Bruch: Scottish Fantasy (Sargent) 10. Sibelius: Violin Concerto (Beecham [HMV] or Hendl)