This is another escapee
from Marco Polo [8.225149] newly revivified
by Naxos in their Film Music Classics
series. There’s an hour’s worth of music
here with short cues run together for
reasons of continuity in the proper
sequence. Steiner’s music is consistently
enjoyable and exciting. It glistens
with personal touches and little orchestral
feats that captivate and evoke in the
shortest possible time.
The Train Attack scene
sets the pulse racing – all one hundred
seconds of it – and Steiner cleverly
uses percussion voicings to summon up
thoughts of finding gold. There are
opportunities for nostalgia and reflection
as well – Steiner uses Believe Me
If All Those Endearing Young Charms
as such a device in the sixth track
here, Campfire, and it reappears later.
The cave-in scene is excitingly but
tersely done – for all Steiner’s symphonic
depth and range he maintained a "go
for the jugular" precision when
necessary.
These are qualities
strongly in evidence in the banditry
and violence of the score as when, for
instance, the remorseless gaining of
the bandits is so trenchantly evoked
by the slash of the strings and the
throb of the rhythm. Steiner builds
up tension with inexorable but concise
precision. And there are of course plenty
of moments for the unleashing of his
lyric affiliations; the romantic string
curve of the tenth track, Cody’s Letter,
leads on to a reprise of Texas Memories
and its evocation of the sentiment of
Believe Me.
The more horrifying
elements of the score are also targeted
with his accustomed finesse and compact
perception. The cue The Ruins for instance
has an abundance of high string and
harp writing that has a satisfyingly
high spine-tingle quotient. The Chorus
is used very sparingly, here to sing
the Funeral Chant [track twelve] and
it’s done in the usual accomplished
way.
Talking of accomplishment
the orchestral and vocal forces of the
Moscow Symphony sound notably well drilled
and on the ball in this performance.
John Morgan’s restorations are part
of the backbone of the whole series
and his written notes are always worth
reading. Production values are high,
as always.
Jonathan Woolf
Moscow Symphony Orchestra and Chorus/William
Stromberg 
