Film Score Monthly
FSM HOME MESSAGE BOARD FSM CDs FSM ONLINE RESOURCES FUN STUFF ABOUT US  SEARCH FSM   
Search Terms: 
Search Within:   search tips 
You must log in or register to post.
  Go to page:    
 Posted:   Oct 16, 2022 - 11:34 AM   
 By:   mgh   (Member)



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.


You are right on the money.

 
 Posted:   Oct 19, 2022 - 8:36 PM   
 By:   EdG   (Member)

Barry's THE LION IN WINTER

 
 
 Posted:   Oct 19, 2022 - 9:21 PM   
 By:   Chris Malone   (Member)

Barry's THE LION IN WINTER

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!

Whenever anyone talks about it, I listen!

Chris

 
 Posted:   Oct 29, 2022 - 2:26 PM   
 By:   Sehnsuchtshafen   (Member)

Dave's Faves No. 328 (Corigliano's Three Hallucinations)



Corigliano: Phantasmagoria, To Music, Fantasia on an Ostinato, Three Hallucinations. Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Eri Klas (cond.) Ondine

Dave discusses "Three Hallucinations" from "Altered States". Great!

 
 Posted:   Oct 29, 2022 - 2:29 PM   
 By:   Sehnsuchtshafen   (Member)

And another one:

John Wilson's Hollywood Soundstage



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!

 
 Posted:   Oct 29, 2022 - 11:51 PM   
 By:   Yavar Moradi   (Member)

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

 
 
 Posted:   Oct 30, 2022 - 3:43 AM   
 By:   TacktheCobbler   (Member)

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.

 
 Posted:   Oct 30, 2022 - 4:00 AM   
 By:   Sehnsuchtshafen   (Member)

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:

https://filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?threadID=81375


You can read more about Stothart here (incl. Oz):

Journal of Film Music, Vol. 4 (2012/12/07) No. 1
(access by payment/subscription only)

https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JFM/issue/view/2084

There are four articles to read, one by Stothart himself (you may find this one even somewhere else):

- Nostalgia, the Silent Cinema, and the Art of Quotation in Herbert Stothart’s Score for The Wizard of Oz (1939)
by Nathan Platte

- "A Brilliant New Symphonic Effect" - The "New" Early Music in Stothart's Score for Romeo and Juliet (1936)
by Linda K. Schubert

- The Problem of Music in a Historical Film
by Herbert Stothart

- The Operatic Stothart
Leitmotifs and Tonal Organization in Two Versions of Rose Marie
by Ronald Rodman

 
 
 Posted:   Oct 31, 2022 - 9:43 AM   
 By:   Rozsaphile   (Member)

There is much about Stothart in Nathan Platte's essential Making Music in Selznick's Hollywood.

 
 Posted:   Dec 12, 2022 - 8:27 AM   
 By:   Sehnsuchtshafen   (Member)

Dave's Faves No. 368 (Bernard Herrmann)



Bernard Herrmann: The Complete Phase 4 Recordings (Decca--7CDs)


He reviewed the set before as you all know.
Now he does it again, and saying this:

"Bernard Herrmann was the Bach of film music."

Quite a statement.

 
 Posted:   Jan 6, 2023 - 8:07 AM   
 By:   EdG   (Member)

Random Reviews #30

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)

 
 Posted:   Jan 31, 2023 - 7:41 AM   
 By:   EdG   (Member)

THE THIEF OF BAGDAD . . . no, the OTHER one:

 
 
 Posted:   Feb 13, 2023 - 7:26 AM   
 By:   Rozsaphile   (Member)

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.]

Misspelled and mispronounced Rozsa. (Sigh!)

 
 Posted:   Feb 13, 2023 - 7:34 AM   
 By:   Nicolai P. Zwar   (Member)


Misspelled and mispronounced Rozsa. (Sigh!)


It's Rózsa. ;-)

(Though I didn't see it spelled on the page.)

 
 
 Posted:   Feb 13, 2023 - 8:29 AM   
 By:   Rozsaphile   (Member)


Misspelled and mispronounced Rozsa. (Sigh!)


It's Rózsa. ;-)

(Though I didn't see it spelled on the page.)


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)

Some of the commentary is interesting.

 
 Posted:   Feb 21, 2023 - 5:26 PM   
 By:   EdG   (Member)

If I could pick only one work by Bernard Herrmann... PSYCHO.

 
 Posted:   Mar 18, 2023 - 1:59 PM   
 By:   EdG   (Member)

 
 Posted:   Mar 18, 2023 - 2:00 PM   
 By:   EdG   (Member)

 
 Posted:   Mar 30, 2023 - 7:11 AM   
 By:   EdG   (Member)

A great re-recording of one of the all-time greats:

 
 Posted:   Apr 15, 2023 - 5:24 AM   
 By:   EdG   (Member)

McNeely's recording of NORTH BY NORTHWEST plus a Concord Records rant!

 
You must log in or register to post.
  Go to page:    
© 2024 Film Score Monthly. All Rights Reserved.
Website maintained and powered by Veraprise and Matrimont.