Track Listing
1. House of Henry Jekyll, The - (opening credits, with London Symphony Orchestra)
2. Birth of Hyde, The - (with London Symphony Orchestra)
3. Announcement, The - (with London Symphony Orchestra)
4. Story of the Scars, The - (with London Symphony Orchestra)
5. Mary's Errand - (with London Symphony Orchestra)
6. Mrs. Farraday's - (with London Symphony Orchestra)
7. It Comes in Like the Tide - (with London Symphony Orchestra)
8. Mary Meets Hyde - (with London Symphony Orchestra)
9. Shopping Trip, The - (with London Symphony Orchestra)
10. Butler's Night Off - (with London Symphony Orchestra)
11. Haffinger's - (with London Symphony Orchestra)
12. Transformation, The - (with London Symphony Orchestra)
13. Mary Reilly - (end credits, with London Symphony Orchestra)

The London Symphony Orchestra includes: George Fenton (conductor); Lucia Lin, Janice Graham (leader, solo violin).

Recorded at CTS Studios and Abbey Road Studios, London, England.

Personnel: Lucia Lin, Janice Graham (violin).

Recording information: CTS Studios, London, England; EMI Abbey Road Studios, London, England.

George Fenton's score for the artsy horror film Mary Reilly is appropriately gothic and haunting, capturing the essence of the movie. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Chandos continues its most enjoyable film music series with a disc devoted to Sir Arthur Bliss, whose score for Things To Come (1934-5) was the first important contribution to cinema by an established composer. It remains one of the medium’s finest scores. Bliss’s screen work also embraced both more functional cinematic fare such as the weekly Pathe Pictorial newsreel (featured here a Welcome March marking the return of the Queen from a Commonwealth tour in 1954) and television documentary – represented on this disc by War in the Air and 1966’s The Royal Palaces Suite. In all this music, played with fervour and flair by the well-proven Rumon Gamba- BBC Philharmonic partnership, the vigour and vitality of the composer’s musical invention shines through.

If occasionally Bliss’s melodic line isn’t as overtly tuneful as that of his near contemporary Walton, his dazzling orchestration, dramatic and highly coloured sense of drama, and pungent rhythmic flair are uniquely his own. In these slighter pieces listen out for the unbuttoned start to Welcome the Queen and, at the other end of the scale, the piquantly scored wind interlude in the brief War in the Air. The picturesque tuneful waltz, ‘The Ballroom in Buckingham Palace’ from The Royal Palaces Suite, reminds us of the composer’s earlier credits for the ballet and Bliss, the conjurer of magical orchestral effects, runs through the spooky dark alleyways of Holyrood House, where Rizzio the confidante of Mary Queen of Scots was murdered, to evocative effect.

Things to Come, with its compelling warning for mankind’s future, has lost none of its power to enthrall. In an opening maestoso modal theme interrupted by call signs indicating an outside presence, Bliss powerfully captures the potent compound of HG Wells’s hopes and fears. ‘The Ballet for Children’, a gem of fleet-footed scoring and counterpoint with a trumpet tune foreshadowing to uncanny effect the one in Copland’s Billy The Kid, is followed by a series of bleak landscapes rent asunder by war-like noises. The optimistic note sounded in ‘Building of the New World’ is affirmed by the surging tune in the ‘Epilogue’. Congratulations are due to Philip Lane who arranged and reconstructed this concert music from the film, a story told in detail by Giles Easterbrook in his booklet-notes.

Given its first recording here, Caesar and Cleopatra was an unhappy experience for Bliss. He walked out on the project after meeting the Hungarian producer Gabriel Pascal, who by most accounts was as mad as a hatter, a fact recorded by Alan Jay Lerner during his acquisition of the musical rights to Pygmalion. At the time Bliss had completed over 80 pages of fully scored music including some enchanting, luminously conceived dance episodes. Studio 7 in New Broadcasting House, Manchester makes an ideal recording venue for this kind of music with a dry acoustic that is able to absorb the large battery of percussion evident in Things to Come, as well as offering an appropriately wide view of the sound stage.

GRAMOPHONE

Film Music - Duhamel, A. / Delerue, G. / Desplat, A. / Morri

The Truth about Love

Classical Music

This soundtrack was composed by Academy Award winning composer Rachel Portman.

Well-known to musical theater fans in London's West End, Maria Friedman made her Broadway debut in Andrew Lloyd Webber's short-lived THE WOMAN IN WHITE. Deftly turning lemons into lemonade, Friedman then ensconced herself at New York's Cafe Carlyle with a well-received cabaret act devoted to the music of Stephen Sondheim, a composer whose work she has had some experience with both on stage (PASSION, SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE) and in the recording studio (A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC).

Now, Sony Classical has decided the time is right for Maria Friedman to become better-known stateside. NOW AND THEN, the singer's American solo debut, is largely made up of tracks recorded in 1995 for her first solo album in the U.K. Though only two of the tracks are newly recorded (including one with piano accompaniment by Sondheim himself), the whole CD invites the listener to give this talented Brit a long-overdue welcome.

"Friedman . . . knows how to sing, she knows how to act, and she knows how to interpret songs. 'I Happen to Like New York' is jubilant. . . . Friedman's take on Arlen and Gershwin’s 'The Man that Got Away' packs an emotional wallop. . . . [With 'Finishing the Hat,'] Friedman gives us a riveting portrait of the inner artist." - PLAYBILL

Track Listing
1. Dreamer, film score: Theme from Dreamer
2. Dreamer, film score: The Stand Off - 1st Ride
3. Dreamer, film score: First Race
4. Dreamer, film score: Ben Asks Pop For Help
5. Dreamer, film score: Soñador in Harness
6. Dreamer, film score: Popsicles
7. Dreamer, film score: Manny's Story
8. Dreamer, film score: Testing Soñador's Leg
9. Dreamer, film score: 2nd Ride - Thunderpants
10. Dreamer, film score: Runaway Horse
11. Dreamer, film score: Exercising Soñador
12. Dreamer, film score: The Noble King
13. Dreamer, film score: New Owner Montage
14. Dreamer, film score: Training Montage
15. Dreamer, film score: Smart and Beautiful
16. Dreamer, film score: Soñador Chosen
17. Dreamer, film score: Cale Won't Sell Soñador
18. Dreamer, film score: Leaving Sadir's
19. Dreamer, film score: She's Ready to Run
20. Dreamer, film score: She Wants to Race
21. Dreamer, film score: Last Race
22. Dreamer, film score: End Credit Medley
23. Dreamer, song (for the film Dreamer) - (Film Mix)
24. Dreamer, film score: Main Title (Film Version)
25. Dreamer, song (for the film Dreamer)

Composer: John Debney.

Personnel: John Debney (acoustic guitar); Weldon Dean Parks (guitar); George Doering (acoustic guitar, dulcimer); Dean Parks (acoustic guitar, mandola); Gayle Levant (harp); Eun Mee Ahn, Assa Drori, Al Hershberger, Ron Folsom, Irina Voloshina, Anatoly Rosinsky, Katia Popov, Tamara L. Hatwan, Robin Olson, Mark Sazer, Ana Landauer, Barbara Porter, Ken Yerke, Phillip Levy, Rene Mandel, Sungil Lee, Eric J. Hosler, Jay Rosen, Kevin Connolly, Lisa Sutton, Mark Robertson , Sid Page, Joshua Bell, Jacqueline Brand, Roberto Cani, Bruce Dukov, Julie Gigante, Peter Kent, Natalie Leggett, Sara Parkins, Roger Wilkie, Armen Garabedian, Darius Campo, Michael Markman, Liane Mautner, Dimitrie Leivici, Berj Garabedian, Endre Granat, Haim Shtrum (violin); Shawn Mann, Andrew Picken, Karie Prescott, Steven Gordon, Carrie Holzman-Little, Rick Gerding, Michael Nowak, Brian Dembow, Keith Greene, Jennie Hansen, Roland Kato, Janet Lakatos, Simon Oswell, Dave Walther, Piotr Jandula, Victoria Miskolszy, Darrin McCann, Denyse Buffum, Andrew Duckles, Shanti Randall (viola); Christina Soule, Trevor Handy, Timothy Landauer, George Kim Scholes, Dennis Karmazyn, Antony Cooke , Larry Corbett, Stephen Erdody, Armen Ksadjikian, Dane Little, David Low , Andrew Shulman, David Speltz, Sebastian Toettcher, Cecilia Tsan, Todd Hemmenway (cello); Steve Kujala, Geri Rotella, David Shostac (flute); Steve L. Roberts, Gary Bovyer (clarinet); Chris Bleth, Phil Ayling (oboe); Michael O'Donovan (bassoon); Jon Lewis , Warren Luening, Malcolm McNab (trumpet); Alvin Veeh, Alan Kaplan, Stephen Holtman (trombone); Jim Self (tuba); John A. Reynolds, David Duke, Phil Yao, Steve Becknell, Rick Todd, Brian O'Connor (horns); Richard Ruttenberg, Michael Lang , Mike Lang (piano); Alan Estes, Terrence Schonig, Tom Raney, Peter Limonick, Donald Williams (percussion).

Recording information: Todd AO Scoring Stage, Culver City, CA.

Composer John Debney (Sin City, Passion of the Christ) may seem an odd choice to score a film about a horse trainer, his precocious daughter, and their quest for the Breeder's Cup, but he rises to the occasion with a rousing piece of recycled Americana that's sure to bring a lump in the throat to even the grumpiest moviegoer. Like Mark Isham's similarly predictable score for the 2004 hockey drama Miracle, Debney represents the best of the genre, utilizing a not-so-subtle blend of soft pianos, warm strings (courtesy of Indiana-born violin wunderkind Joshua Bell), and patriotic brass motifs to paint a rural backdrop reminiscent of both Aaron Copeland's "Appalachian Spring" and The Natural-era Randy Newman. ~ James Christopher Monger

Tracklist:
1. In My Life
2. Rose, The
3. On Golden Pond (Main Title)
4. New Hampshire Hornpipe - (from "On Golden Pond")
5. Three By Mancini / Loss Of Love (from "Sunflower") / Whistling Away The Dark (from "Darling Lili") / Moon River (from "Breakfast At Tiiffany's")
6. Somewhere Out There - (from "An American Tail")
7. Way We Were, The
8. Never On A Sunday / Theme From Zorba The Greek
9. I Will Wait For You - (from "Umbrellas Of Cherbourg, The")
10. Beauty And The Beast
11. Over The Rainbow / We're Off To See The Wizard
12. Gabriel's Oboe - (from "Mission, The")
13. The Godfather Suite / Speak Softly Love (love theme from "The Godfather") / Godfather Tarantella
14. Somewhere In My Memory - (from "Home Alone 2")
15. Love Story
16. More (Theme From "Mondo Cane")
17. Cavatina - (from "Deer Hunter, The")

Zefir Records presents Pianosequenza, a new solo album by Italian composer and pianist Francesco di Fiore. The Italian term "Piano-Sequenza" (sequence shot) is a well-known filming technique that consists of a whole sequence filmed in a single shot. Borrowing the term from the cinema and playing on words, PianoSequenza consists of a program entirely dedicated to original soundtracks for solo piano. Music on the album comes from The Truman Show, The Hours, Am�lie, The Piano, At Precisely Six O'clock, When Medicine Got It Wrong. Francesco di Fiore (b. 1966, Palermo) started his concert career in 1986, performing hundreds of concerts worldwide. He appears regularly at international festivals presenting his compositions and also music by other contemporary composers.

KORCIA, Laurent: Danses

Recorded in: Studio 7, New Broadcasting House, Manchester 16 & 17 May 2002 Producer(s) Brian Pidgeon Mike George Sound Engineer(s) Stephen Rinker

Also featuring the BBC National Chorus of Wales is several selections.

Brian Easdale was a prolific composer whose extensive output covered most genres, from orchestral pieces, concertos, and choral works, including a mass for the new Coventry Cathedral, to chamber compositions. However Easdale is today most well-known for his film scores, particularly The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus

Part of Chandos’ film music series with Rumon Gamba, the works on this release showcase Easdale’s career in film with music from, among others, The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, and The Battle of the River Plate.

In his youth, Easdale attended the Royal College of Music, where he studied composition with such prominent figures as Cecil Armstrong Gibbs and Gordon Jacob, conducting with Malcolm Sargent, and organ with Arnold Goldsborough. As a jobbing musician he undertook arranging projects, working most notably on such scores by Benjamin Britten as the Soirées musicales and the Piano Concerto. He also orchestrated Britten’s On the Frontier for a production at the Arts Theatre in Cambridge in 1939, before spending much of the war in Ceylon and India working on documentaries for their governments’ film units. Returning to Britain in 1946, he was invited by the masterful film making team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, also known as The Archers, to write an exotic dance for Jean Simmons to perform in their forthcoming film, Black Narcissus, and ended up composing the whole score. The film is a veritable masterpiece of melodrama with highly dramatic music to match.

The involvement of Easdale in Black Narcissus effectively launched his career in film music and led him to other projects, most notably The Red Shoes (1948) for which he won an Academy Award for Best Original Music Score. This is one of the most iconoclastic films in the Pantheon of British Cinema. Given a highly atmospheric score, the film concerns a traveling ballet company and tells the story of a young hopeful ballerina, catapulted into stardom and wrestling with her love for a composer and the pull of her career. In the end it becomes too much of a fight and while on tour with the company in Monte Carlo, she leaps to her death.

The Battle of the River Plate (1956) is also worth a separate mention. A semi-documentary account of the trapping of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee in Montevideo harbour, and her subsequent scuttling, the film was commercially very successful. The two movements recorded here are the Prelude (heard over the main titles and opening scene with narration) and a March, the concert version of which was created by Easdale after the film’s release.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Let me come right out and say it: this is the most important film-music recording of the year, and perhaps for many years. The stunning Main Title sequence, with its powerful, sweeping orchestral chords depicting the motion of the sea, followed by the angular, dissonant descending six-note theme for Wolf Larsen’s ship, the Ghost , explores new territory for anyone who identifies Korngold by his scores for swashbucklers ( The Sea Hawk , Captain Blood , The Adventures of Robin Hood ) or costume spectacles ( The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex ). The Sea Wolf (and Between Two Worlds ) is stylistically closer to his two most famous operas, Die Tote Stadt and Das Wunder der Heliane .


Based on the Jack London novel, The Sea Wolf is the story of a sophisticated but sadistic and psychotic captain who psychologically tortures three passengers he has taken aboard his ship. The score is a series of variations on the brutal theme for the “Ghost.” The music is dark and sinister throughout the film, until some light seeps in at the end after Larsen’s death. There is also a haunting and atmospheric contrasting melody for solo harmonica that Korngold later used effectively in his Third String Quartet. The huge orchestra, including piano, celesta, vibraphone, and nova chord, makes you realize how Korngold would have relished utilizing synthesizers in his orchestra. This is the premiere recording of the complete score for The Sea Wolf . In addition to emphasizing the lost art of the composer presenting his principal musical statement in a concise Main Title, the CD also includes nearly five minutes of music composed for the film’s trailer. One thinks of a trailer like that for The Nun’s Story , which is virtually choreographed to Franz Waxman’s symphonically developed music. This is something you unfortunately no longer see in the present age of temp-tracked trailers.


The substantial filler is a 16-minute concert suite that Korngold arranged from his score for The Adventures of Robin Hood . Many feel that Robin Hood is Korngold’s greatest and most original score. While I freely acknowledge its seminal importance and influence in the history of film music, I prefer to listen to any number of his scores, including Kings Row , Anthony Adverse , Between Two Worlds , Devotion , and The Sea Wolf . The technically dazzling and flamboyantly orchestrated swashbuckling and swordfight music wears a little thin after awhile. In arranging his concert suite, Korngold seems to have recognized this. The gorgeous love scene is the centerpiece, and there is more emphasis on lyrical music than the action underscores. What is missing is the dazzling “Coronation Procession,” which is the orchestral highlight of the score.


Rumon Gamba’s interpretation of The Sea Wolf is excellent in every conceivable way. He doesn’t stint on the angry edginess of the music, and its unique atmosphere comes through perfectly. I can pay Gamba no higher compliment than to say that he matches Charles Gerhardt’s short Suite from the RCA “Classic Film Score” series in every way except the sound. Robin Hood does not work quite as well. Some of this is due to sound that lacks the transient speed and fine inner detail necessary to project the complex but transparent orchestration. Gamba is also a little laid back in the love music, and he doesn’t have the feel for those gorgeous climactic final cadences that Gerhardt has. To get back to the sound, the CD is recorded at a very low level, but if you turn the volume sufficiently high, the music explodes with a front and center aural perspective that complements the dynamic impact of The Sea Wolf . The distant harmonica is beautifully phrased and flawlessly integrated with the orchestra. It effectively emphasizes the loneliness of the sailor’s life, especially on this ship from hell. In sum, great music, dynamic conducting, brilliant orchestral execution, and sound that works well for The Sea Wolf , but somewhat less so for the Robin Hood Suite. The album contains excellent program notes written by the composer’s biographer, Brendan G. Carroll. This is essential for Korngold aficionados, film music fans, and music-lovers everywhere. One hopes that Chandos will follow this valuable recording with the many other Korngold scores that have never had adequate complete recordings.


FANFARE: Arthur Lintgen


The Sea Wolf is one of Erich Korngold's darkest and most evocative scores. This recording includes the entire work, plus the original trailer for the film--more than an hour of music in all. Despite the claim that Korngold's scores link up perfectly when played continuously, there's still a good bit of atmospheric noodling and some clear stops and starts. This is movie music, after all, but the vast majority of the piece really does hang together on its own, and as always Korngold's handling of texture and sonority is simply amazing. The suite from Robin Hood is quite popular and no stranger to disc, but the performances here are uniformly fine and very well recorded. Indeed, the BBC Philharmonic sounds like a good Hollywood pick-up band, perhaps lacking only that last ounce of schmaltz to the string tone. I can't imagine film music buffs or Korngold fans being disappointed.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Whether as a solo instrument or as part of the orchestra, today the saxophone seldom appears in concert halls and opera houses. Nonetheless, before it found its true home, it was heard in classical music. Here, Schulte-Burnert skillfully presents three particularly brilliant and virtuosic concertos by John Williams, Michael Nyman and Andrei Eshpai.

The three-time Delos recording artist Piet Koornhof, one of South Africa's most acclaimed violinists, heard in partnership with distinguished pianist Truida van der Walt, has assembled a program of mostly 20th c. works that focus more on his instrument's lyrical, "singing" qualities than it's virtuosic possibilities. Remembrances, derived from John Williams' suite from his Schindler's List film score, conveys deep sentiment and searing nostalgia. The remaining short selections testify to his instrument's supreme ability to express haunting musical beauty and profound emotion.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music