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BTW: Since my interest has primarily been peplum scores, I realize Lavagnino wrote a lot more scores than just for that "arena," as t'were. Can anyone here recommend other Lavagnino scores for other films?
For you as a Golden Age fan I would highly recommend the two very lush and romantic scores VENERE IMPERIALE and THE NAKED MAJA if you do not yet know them at all. I am quite sure that you will like them.
Also our Alhambra CD with the Spanish-flavored SOLEDAD score may be something for you as the high strings there are often very reminiscent of Alfred Newman's typical style.
Of course, it is diffiicult for me to pick out one title from the 7 (or now almost 8) Lavagnino CDs we have in the meantime released on Alhambra. But I would say that above all L'IMPERO DEL SOLE and LA GRANDE OLIMPIADE are particular favourites of mine which I can't remommend highly enough to everyone.
Just give them a listen:
http://www1.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/10787/LIMPERO-DEL-SOLE-EMPIRE-OF-THE-SUN-1000-EDITION/
http://www1.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/30034/LA-GRANDE-OLIMPIADE-500-EDITION/
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This was cetainly also the reason why Lavagnino in 1966 needed only half an hour during a pause of the recording sessions to compose and arrange the theme for SNOW DEVILS. Here his statement about SNOW DEVILS from the 1984 interview which appeared in the CinemaScore magazine:
"I did not work so much to write the theme – in half an hour I arranged it in the studio during a break! It came out that way but it could be better. The other music in the film was only functional."
This is an aspect about Italian film music scoring which I have come to love.
Can one imagine Rozsa or Herrmann recycling a theme of theirs in a pop-music arrangement?
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BTW: Since my interest has primarily been peplum scores, I realize Lavagnino wrote a lot more scores than just for that "arena," as t'were. Can anyone here recommend other Lavagnino scores for other films?
For you as a Golden Age fan I would highly recommend the two very lush and romantic scores VENERE IMPERIALE and THE NAKED MAJA if you do not yet know them at all. I am quite sure that you will like them.
Also our Alhambra CD with the Spanish-flavored SOLEDAD score may be something for you as the high strings there are often very reminiscent of Alfred Newman's typical style.
Of course, it is diffiicult for me to pick out one title from the 7 (or now almost 8) Lavagnino CDs we have in the meantime released on Alhambra. But I would say that above all L'IMPERO DEL SOLE and LA GRANDE OLIMPIADE are particular favourites of mine which I can't remommend highly enough to everyone.
Just give them a listen:
http://www1.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/10787/LIMPERO-DEL-SOLE-EMPIRE-OF-THE-SUN-1000-EDITION/
http://www1.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/30034/LA-GRANDE-OLIMPIADE-500-EDITION/
Thanks for the recommendations. I have all of those. Looks like I must be doing something right...
LOL
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Thanks for the recommendations. I have all of those. Looks like I must be doing something right...
LOL
I thought that you only had the peplum scores by Lavagnino on CD, but it seems you have much more.
So the question probably rather is which are the ones you don't have?
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This is an aspect about Italian film music scoring which I have come to love.
Can one imagine Rozsa or Herrmann recycling a theme of theirs in a pop-music arrangement?
I don't think that the comparison with Rozsa or Herrmann is really appropriate here. Both Rozsa and Herrmann had a completely different artistic self-confidence. They saw themselves as classical composers who also wrote film music, but during the mid 60s when the film industry radically changed and film commissions became much rarer for them, they still got sufficient money from other revenues and were therefore not dependent on earning money just from scoring films. Lavagnino, on the other hand, was indeed dependent on that film scoring job at that time - at least until he had reached the age to retire. Also he didn't see himself as a great artist, but was much more modest, saw himself as a craftsman (who could sometimes create something like "art" when the conditions were advantageous enough) and at least tried to adapt himself as well as possible to what was "en vogue" during the mid 60s even though it was not always his favored musical style anymore. So he had to survive as well as possible during that time, even though his problem was that he did get almost no interesting assignments for large-scale productions anymore as it had been the case maybe 10 years ago.
And he also used arrangers and assistants if a score called for some pop or jazz pieces which he was not always too keen on to do himself. He quite openly said this in that interview from 1984 where he also explained that if the film was beautiful for him, he had always wanted to do everything himself and that no one then should interfere with him, but if the film was only a routine product or uninteresting, he sometimes let others do some tracks or arrangements when he was busy anyway with scoring too many films under time pressure.
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and at least tried to adapt himself as well as possible to what was "en vogue" during the mid 60s even though it was not always his favored musical style anymore.
Sure, I realize it's like apples vs. oranges, Stefan.
My thoughts are on the differences (not similarities) between the different film industries.
I can't imagine Rozsa writing for the type of "B" movie scored by somebody like Ronald Stein, yet some Italian composers fluctuated between 'art' and 'trash' cinema (such as Piccioni, Fusco, etc.).
Also, wasn't Herrmann 'let go' by Universal's Wasserman & Hitchcock during Torn Curtain precisely because Herrmann wasn't capable of delivering a main theme with pop music rhythms & arrangements? Yet, I can imagine Trovajoli or Ortolani delivering the musical 'goods' for Torn Curtain.
Carlo Savina proved he could emulate Rozsa with L'Ira di Achille, yet Rozsa could never offer us music of the type heard in Ombre Roventi.
This is the basis of my earlier comment. Rozsa would not conceive of a bossa nova for Ben-Hur just as Herrmann would never give us a Vertigo shake. I think, though, that if Hollywood composers worked in the Italian film industry, then they'd be obliged to provide exactly the sort of lounge styles I mention.
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How has Maciste/Vampiro been selling thus far, Stefan? (if I may ask)
As was to be expected, due to the popular peplum/horror genre it sold somewhat better than our previous Lavagnino titles, but if your main reason for staying in this soundtrack business were to make any profit at all from releasing such CDs then better forget about it completely.
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How has Maciste/Vampiro been selling thus far, Stefan? (if I may ask)
As was to be expected, due to the popular peplum/horror genre it sold somewhat better than our previous Lavagnino titles, but if your main reason for staying in this soundtrack business were to make any profit at all from releasing such CDs then better forget about it completely.
Hello Stefan,
I must commend you for bringing out any of these titles, let alone as many as you have.
It's such a gift for me to hear the music from so many of these pictures! Too often, the soundtrack of the actual films sounded as if they were recorded in a goldfish bowl....
OK, they're not great movies, and I doubt there will ever be any retrospective film festivals of them, but they did have a place in world culture at one point, and should be preserved. It's next to impossible to see any of them in anything like a clear, widescreen print. But these films have a cultural naivte', an innocence about their ethics, despite all the voluptuous dancing girls with their big hair and heavy makeup. These films are about heroes who at great odds finally overcome men who want to do evil to others. These films are, in effect, the original comic book movies.
Thanks so much for releasing these scores. I hope there are many more in future.
P.S.: MACISTE CONTRO IL VAMPIRO is wonderful, with all the requisite peplum elements discussed above, as well as a memorable love theme. Thanks again!
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Hello John,
many thanks for all your nice words
Don't worry, of course we will continue with the Lavagnino series at Alhambra and it is a real pleasure to release those scores for the first time ever. We are doing this certainly not for the money, but because we are film music fans ourselves. So at least for me this is a labour of love.
The next Lavagnino score on Alhambra will probably be released in about three months and it will also be a score from 1961. Not really a peplum, but also not very far off from that genre.
And it will be in stereo.
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There are still three peplum scores in the CAM/Sugar catalogue which could maybe be done by Digitmovies in the future: ULISSE CONTRO ERCOLE, I BACCANALI DI TIBERIO and URSUS E LA RAGAZZA TARTARA.
URSUS will be out on Kronos.
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Several years ago somebody gave me the 45 rpm EP disc of "Ferdinando I Re di Napoli"
It only contained 5 cues of very joyous music. I was wondering if there ever was a release
of the complete score ?
No, the complete score has never been released till now. It seems that the original tapes still exist at Sugar, but I am not totally sure about it as this is a score from 1959 and there were a few other Lavagnino scores from the same time like MESSALINA or IL PADRONE DELLE FERRRIERE which they still had in their list, but of which tapes couldn´t be found anymore. So everything is possible.
I thought that we could maybe release FERDINANDO on Saimel in future, but at the moment it is rather doubtful whether Sugar is willing to cooperate with Saimel anymore at all. And I don´t think that any other label will release this score.
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I thought that we could maybe release FERDINANDO on Saimel in future, but at the moment it is rather doubtful whether Sugar is willing to cooperate with Saimel anymore at all.
Stefan, I'm curious to know details why they aren't willing to cooperate, if possible. Thanks!
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I thought that we could maybe release FERDINANDO on Saimel in future, but at the moment it is rather doubtful whether Sugar is willing to cooperate with Saimel anymore at all.
Stefan, I'm curious to know details why they aren't willing to cooperate, if possible. Thanks!
I don´t know all the details. It is just that for several months now Juan Angel unfortunately gets no reply to his e-mails and inquiries from them anymore. The reason could be too poor CD sales so that such a cooperation is simply not financially rewarding for them anymore.
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