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| CD Review: The Chairman |
| Posted By: Jeff Bond on September 25, 2005 - 10:00 PM |
CD Review: The Chairman
By Jeff Bond
The Chairman **** 1/2
JERRY GOLDSMITH
Prometheus PCD 158
12 tracks - 31:39
The Chairman is part of a
great cycle of "Oriental" scores in the Jerry Goldsmith pantheon that
includes The Sand Pebbles, Tora!
Tora! Tora!, The Challenge, Inchon, Rambo: First Blood Part 2
and Mulan. Although it was
revived for Mulan, during the
heyday of modernism in the '60s, Goldsmith's collision of avant garde
effects, serial stylings and the exotic, mysterioso sounds of the Far
East were a dynamic mix that produced some of the composer's finest
works. The Chairman certainly
earns that distinction, from its title cue that grows from a single,
archaic flute utterance into a titanic statement for full orchestra, to
its deliciously icy love theme, staccato passages of intrigue and some
of the most frenzied and virtuoso action writing of the composer's
career.
On CD the score has had a checkered history, from its first appearance
coupled with the obscure Goldsmith score Ransom on the Silva Screen label
in 1991 in abysmal sound, to its frustrating inclusion in the
Varèse Goldsmith at Fox boxed set, which ironically boasts a
peek in its 13-minute mono suite at an expanded release that might have
been. The Prometheus release redresses some of the sound issues of the
Silva album, although it's still a step or two removed from the
apparently irretrievably lost album masters; there's hiss aplenty on
the piano love theme cue, but the overall sound is improved from the
submerged sound of the Silva CD, with additional detail present.
The new album does put the score in film order; the original LP placed
"Escape" as the climax of the album when it was clearly a suspenseful
prelude to the real action in the spectacular "Firefight" and "The
Fence." What's frustrating is that there's clearly more of the score to
be had as the minute-long intro to the Varèse suite indicates,
and in the actual film "The Fence" is topped by another action cue
that's the score's true climax and acts as a kind of Far East North by Northwest in Goldsmith's
inimitable '60s style. As the Prometheus release is currently the only
in print version of the full Chairman
LP, Goldsmith fans must have it as this represents a high-water mark in
the composer's career. But let's hope that this is not the final word
on this score; a complete version of The
Chairman, even in mono, would be a treasure.
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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Today in Film Score History:
April 19 |
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| Alan Price born (1942) |
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| Alfred Newman begins recording his score for David and Bathsheba (1951) |
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| Dag Wiren died (1986) |
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| David Fanshawe born (1942) |
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| Dudley Moore born (1935) |
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| Harry Sukman begins recording his score for A Thunder of Drums (1961) |
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| Henry Mancini begins recording his score for The Great Race (1965) |
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| Joe Greene born (1915) |
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| John Addison begins recording his score for Swashbuckler (1976) |
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| John Williams begins recording his score for Fitzwilly (1967) |
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| Jonathan Tunick born (1938) |
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| Lord Berners died (1950) |
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| Michael Small begins recording his score to Klute (1971) |
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| Paul Baillargeon records his score for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “When It Rains…” (1999) |
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| Ragnar Bjerkreim born (1958) |
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| Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "We'll Always Have Paris" (1988) |
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| Sol Kaplan born (1919) |
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| Thomas Wander born (1973) |
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| William Axt born (1888) |
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