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Posted: |
Apr 12, 2021 - 3:31 AM
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By: |
Amer Zahid
(Member)
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Quartet Records and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer present the remastered reissue of the wonderful, memorable music composed by Miklós Rózsa for Billy Wilder´s classic THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, this time in a 2-CD set with extra material.
Wilder’s unique take on the world’s greatest consulting detective was meant to explore previously dark corners of Homes’ life—including his addiction to cocaine and his troubled relationships with women. Last-minute studio jitters forced Wilder to make massive cuts, shortening the running time from 210 to 125 minutes. The resulting film, in spite of great performances by Robert Stephens, Colin Blakely, Geneviève Page and Christopher Lee, failed to catch fire at the box office, although it has acquired an admiring cult audience over the ensuing years.
For the music, Wilder turned to his friend and past collaborator (FIVE GRAVES TO CAIRO, THE LOST WEEKEND, DOUBLE INDEMNITY) Miklós Rózsa, asking him to adapt his Violin Concerto, Op. 24, for the film. Rózsa obliged, augmenting the concert work with a number of evocative new themes for the picture. The music for Holmes anticipates the elegant but autumnal mood of such later scores as PROVIDENCE, TIME AFTER TIME, FEDORA and LAST EMBRACE, while simultaneously combining the compassion and wisdom of experience with the wit, charm and joie de vivre of youth.
In 2013, Quartet Records released the first official edition of Rózsa’s original recording, sourced from music stems located at MGM (the original studio masters, alas, are lost); it quickly sold out. That CD, in spite of its less-than-ideal sound, preserved the composer’s own irreplaceable interpretation, bringing this marvelous music back to life more than 40 years after it was written.
Although no new elements have magically appeared since then, audio engineer Chris Malone has applied new technology to the existing material, and the result is this new edition with greatly improved sound quality. (We are now able to include the original version of “Gabrielle”—which was so damaged some of it had to be left off the earlier release—complete for the first time.) We are happy to present this as a belated celebration of the film’s 50th anniversary in 2020 (due to the current world situation, final approvals did not arrive in time to release this last year as originally planned).
On the second disc we have included the premiere CD edition of the famous “Fantasy” that Rózsa recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for his album “Rózsa Conducts Rózsa,” released on Polydor in 1977. Also included is a new remastering of the premiere recording of the violin concerto on which so much of the score is based, performed by the inimitable Jascha Heifetz. Finally, all the source music recorded and supervised by Rózsa himself is also included on the second CD.
This revised edition of the original tracks of THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, extraordinarily performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the composer’s baton, was a labor of love for everyone involved. The immortal music of Rózsa deserves nothing less. The lavishly designed package includes a 24-page booklet with revised liner notes by Frank K. DeWald.
DISC 1
1. Main Titles / 221B Baker Street (4:29)
2. The Smoke Machine / Violin Concerto / Cocaine (1:48)
3. Watson’s Rage / Being Presumptuous (2:04)
4. Von Tirpitz Appears (1:11)
5. Gabrielle (3:39)
6. Nº 32 Ashdown St. / Canaries (4:02)
7. The Diogenes Club (1:34)
8. To Glenhurich (Loch Lomond) / The Parasol (2:09)
9. Inverness / Valladon (5:32)
10. The Sighting (1:08)
11. Castles in Scotland / Urquhart Castle (5:01)
12. After the Monster / The Monster Strikes (4:42)
13. The Last Act (2:04)
14. Ilse Von Hoffmanstal / A Certain Royal / Gabrielle’s Awakening (3:39)
15. Holmes’ Morse Code / Eternal Silence (3:12)
16. Farewell / Auf Wiedersehen (3:09)
17. The End / End Titles (1:45)
DISC 2
1. Fantasy (From “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes”) (8:39)
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – Miklós Rózsa, Conductor – Erich Gruenberg, Violin soloist
VIOLIN CONCERTO Op.24
2. Allegro non troppo ma passionato (11:28)
3. Lento cantabile (7:35)
4. Allegro vivace (7:51)
Dallas Symphony Orchestra – Walter Hendl, Conductor – Jascha Heifetz, Violin soloist
SOURCE MUSIC
Adapted and Conducted by Miklós Rózsa
5. Excerpts from Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky) (3:41)
6. Balalaika (Tchaikovsky) (2:20)
7. Balalaika – Waltz (Tchaikovsky) (1:49)
8. Balalaika – Hungarian Dance (Tchaikovsky) (2:07)
9. Balalaika – Mazurka (Tchaikovsky) (2:06)
10. Balalaika – Russian Party Music Nº 3 (Tchaikovsky) (4:33)
11. Variations from La Follia (Corelli) (1:51)
BONUS TRACKS
12. Gabrielle (Concert Version) (4:45)
13. Eternal Silence (tracked) (Alternate) (0:41)
14. Main Titles / 221B Baker Street (Extended Version) (5:29)
LIMITED EDITION OF 1000 UNITS
https://quartetrecords.com/product/the-private-life-of-sherlock-holmes-2-cd/
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I'm unclear on a few points here... In the original Quartet release there were 27 tracks (excluding the bonus material). I haven't checked thoroughly, but does the new release combine tracks in order to make it flow better as a whole?
And, crucially, in the previous release, "Gabrielle" ran at over five minutes but it if course dropped in the Heifetz performance. Is the version on the new release shorter simply because it doesn't rely on the Heifetz performance at all?
Yes, the version of "Gabrielle" on the first disc no longer incorporates part of the Heifetz recording to replace (and extend) part of the original cue because Chris Malone was able to restore the badly damaged parts of the original to something that could be listened to without wincing. For those that prefer the version on the earlier release, we have included it among the bonus tracks on CD 2 (where we dubbed it "concert version").
I invite people to listen to the samples and hear the significant improvement in the sound quality.
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I thoroughly enjoy the Tadlow recording, but this edition is extremely tempting for the music as played under Rózsa’s baton, with the Polydor “Fantasy” being the major draw for me. I hope it’s inclusion here is a sign that we might finally get the other Polydor albums sooner rather than later.
Edit: Quick question, aside from the extra bars at the beginning (which are surprisingly not on the Tadlow), how is the main title expanded on the last track? Is it similar to the original version of the cue found at the end of the Tadlow recording or is this just an extended version of the piece as heard in the film.
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The RPO/Rozsa suite from Polydor is a very welcomed addition! But this begs the question--what is the source? And if the source are the tapes from that recording session, could we see a release of the three wonderful Rozsa/RPO/Polydor recordings?
And the original recording of the violin concerto is also a nice surprise.
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Over at the Rozsa Forum, Frank indicated that the Polydor suite was licensed from UMG Spain, but didn't indicate what materials were used.
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If UMG Spain had original album tapes to supply Quartet with *and* was able/willing to license this track, maybe there's some hope that Quartet might be able to license the three fantastic Rozsa/Polydor albums from UMG Spain, for their own standalone 2CD (or 3CD if they want to maintain the original album programs) release of all that great material...
I for one have to buy this for the correct version of "Gabrielle" alone. It always annoyed me to no end that they simply spliced in the 50s Heifetz recording of the violin concerto, as if it was somehow interchangeable with the 70s film version, which was substantially different compositionally as well! It was a big blemish in Quartet's otherwise-excellent original album, and the fact that they didn't acknowledge what they did in the packaging/notes made me even more annoyed (they only eventually acknowledged it in a thread on this forum when someone else pointed it out). That said, it feels like they are making things right now, so aside from being out $20 for the original album (a paltry sum considering), I am absolutely ecstatic that they have revisited and redressed this issue, and had Chris Malone tackle the whole thing with modern tech, to boot!
Yavar
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Posted: |
Apr 12, 2021 - 10:49 AM
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By: |
ROBERT Z
(Member)
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A very good one, don't think we can call it a parody.
Critical reception
Upon its U.S. release, Vincent Canby called it a "comparatively mild Billy Wilder and rather daring Sherlock Holmes, not a perfect mix, perhaps, but a fond and entertaining one".[12] Kim Newman, reviewing it in Empire magazine, described it as the "best Sherlock Holmes movie ever made" and "sorely underrated in the Wilder canon".[13] Roger Ebert was more critical, giving the film two-and-a-half stars out of four. He wrote that it is "disappointingly lacking in bite and sophistication", that it "begins promisingly enough" but that "before the movie is 20 minutes old, Wilder has settled for simply telling a Sherlock Holmes adventure".[14] Gene Siskel gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four and called it "a conventional and not very well written mystery" that seemed as though "Wilder had enough of an idea for a television variety show skit but unfortunately saw fit to expand it into a movie".[15] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "the whole effect of the picture is a kind of affable blandness which, given the expectations you have of Billy Wilder, constitutes a disappointment".[16]
Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian, reviewing the film in 2002, wrote: "Billy Wilder's distinctive, irreverent slant on the world's greatest 'consulting detective' holds up reasonably well 32 years on; you wouldn't expect anything directed by Wilder and scripted by his long-time associate I. A. L. Diamond to be anything less than funny and watchable, and this is both".[17]
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Not a parody, and not even a full-on comedy like the also-delightful Without a Clue (where Ben Kingsley's Dr. Watson is portrayed as being the real brains behind "Sherlock Holmes"). It's more a sort of, "here are some stories which Dr. Watson for one reason or another decided to discreetly omit from his official chronicles". The woman in the poster is not recognizable as the lead female in the film, so I think it's just attractive poster art. 
Yavar
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Not a parody, and not even a full-on comedy like the also-delightful Without a Clue (where Ben Kingsley's Dr. Watson is portrayed as being the real brains behind "Sherlock Holmes"). It's more a sort of, "here are some stories which Dr. Watson for one reason or another decided to discreetly omit from his official chronicles". The woman in the poster is not recognizable as the lead female in the film, so I think it's just attractive poster art.
Yavar
Agreed on the poster art. A few years ago, my college did a Sherlock Holmes play and their advertising actually incorporated parts of the poster art (namely the silhouette of Holmes and the London background and open coffin), though apparently the students in charge of the play didn’t know it was from a movie.
As for the film itself, as Yavar mentioned, it’s more a selection of “unreleased” Holmes stories by Watson, though some of these unfortunately ended up on the cutting room floor. While there are brief moments of humor (as only Billy Wilder could write, though some of it got cut), for the most part it’s a rather serious look at the character. It’s a very good film as mentioned, though I can’t help but wonder how much better it could have been if Wilder had been allowed to release the film in its intended form.
Edit: Here’s the advert for the play using bits of Private Life’s poster art for those who are curious:
www.sandyyork.com/uploads/5/9/6/9/59695719/sherlock-holmes-and-the-case-of-the-jersey-lily-postcard_1.jpeg?462
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YES! Missed out on the previous edition.
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