This disc is of considerable interest since it contains the full score provided
by Sir William Walton for The Battle of Britain together with the
soundtrack actually used in the film which was composed by Ron Goodwin. As
film buffs and Walton fans will know the only piece of Walton's score MGM
used in its entirety in the 1969 production was the famous Battle in the
Air sequence, though, on a recent broadcast, snatches of Walton's Battle
of Britain March appeared briefly at the very end of the film.
What of the music itself? The disc allows us to appreciate the two composers'
different approaches to the task of providing a score and it must be said
that Goodwin is by no means outclassed. True, the Battle of Britain
March by Walton is stirring and quintessentially British though it adheres
very closely to the chord sequences which make up the Orb and Sceptre
March, the March for A History of the English Speaking Peoples
and the Granada Prelude of 1968. Nonetheless, it is a splendid theme
and a tried and tested formula! Ron Goodwin's Battle of Britain Theme
is less regal and noble but conveys a greater sense of urgency and action
- the same idea of a vigorous-sounding motif over an insistent and interesting
rhythm which made Goodwin's main theme for 633 Squadron such a success.
When it comes to the music depicting the Luftwaffe, Goodwin wins hands down
with a splendidly idiomatic Teutonic march Aces High replete with
oompah brass and glockenspiel. Walton's use of the Siegfried horn
call from Wagner's Ring is clever but overused and strangely enough
not terribly Germanic, the effect being unaccountably Italianate (the influence
of Ischia perhaps): the number Gay Berlin might as well have been
called "Racy Rome"!
The informative sleeve notes suggest the brevity of Walton's score must have
been a determining factor in its rejection by MGM. There may be some truth
in this for the majority of the 55-minute running time of the CD is taken
up by the Goodwin score (which provides 19 out if the 28 tracks). As with
most soundtrack albums there is a lot of varied repetition of the same material
but in this instance the themes are worth hearing again: the transformation
by Goodwin of the Trio section of the Aces High March into a nostalgic
string threnody in the numbers Work and Play and Threat is
a fine example of evocative instrumentation. Walton's score occasionally
struck me as an autumnal revisit to the world of Façade, the
witty use of existing material (in this case Wagner's horn call) and the
bright scoring strangely recalling the composer's early success. From time
to time there is a forcible reminder that Malcolm Arnold is the conductor
here (the sleeve notes hint that Arnold may have actually contributed to
the score): listen to the very opening of the March Introduction and
the close of the Battle in the Air track with its unmistakably Arnoldian
chromatically rising passages. Perhaps Walton was nervous about contributing
his first film score since Richard III in 1956 and sought advice from
the prolific Arnold which rubbed off in the orchestration.
In sum, this CD contains fine examples of important film repertoire. The
performances are also authentic (always a bonus in my view). Walton fans
need not hesitate, though to be brutally honest I feel the Battle in the
Air and March stand head and shoulders above the other pieces in the
score. Just as Malcolm Arnold's film music sums up the very essence of Britain
in the 1950s, so Ron Goodwin's atmospheric score captures the world of British
cinema in the 1960s in a very special way. The sound is remarkably vivid
considering the disc is made up from three reels which, until 1990, were
stored in recording engineer Eric Tomlinson's damp garage! The artwork is
excellent too with many stills taken from the film in the accompanying booklet
and a Spitfire's red circle reproduced on the CD itself! Not just for nostalgia
buffs, this release should bring pleasure to admirers of the work of Goodwin
and Walton and quality British film music in general.
Reviewer
Paul Conway
original MGM soundtracks. Goodwin conducted
by Goodwin, Walton conducted by Malcolm Arnold
