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| July 2000 Film Music CD Reviews | Film Music Editor: Ian
Lace Music Webmaster Len Mullenger |
|
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Richard GIBBS
28 DAYS
OST
Crotchet Amazon UK Amazon USAAs Richard Gibbs' original work itself is unlikely to inspire too many repeat plays, the emphasis would appear to be more on the songs included here, particularly the currently in vogue Tom Jones' rendition of 'Lean on me'. Unfortunately though I found it all fairly dull with Tom's rather self-indulgent vocal not exactly helping things. But then for fans of the Welsh warbler it will no doubt be a treat!
Gibbs' tracks like 'A Way to Die' reminded me of sub par Tangerine Dream, not exactly poor but hardly compelling, while others were vaguely reminiscent of Thomas Newman's work. Sadly though this composer doesn't quite have the same inventiveness or substance, so perhaps this might best be described as 'Newman lite'.
His more up tempo cues such as 'Ode De Toilet', 'A Dingo Stole my Baby' and 'Fragile Package' are also on the bland side, despite occasional flashes of interest, but his most engaging piece 'Can't Breathe' with its simply constructed dramatic melody and ticking clock effect does provide some brighter moments. This clock device is also heard in several other cues, counting down the 28 days of the title and is a notable feature of the score (and is actually quite effective)
The other major contributor to the CD is singer/songwriter London Wainwright III, who provides several relatively brief folksy ditties like 'The Drinking Song' and 'White Winos' which are pleasant enough in an undemanding way, without making much of an impact.
To supplement the Tom Jones number, 'Joy to the World' performed by Three Dog Night and 'Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)' by Otis Redding are the obligatory standards that seem to always feature in these kind of soundtracks. Hardly a reason to buy the CD though.
Certainly not the worst of its kind, but nothing to get excited about.
Reviewer
Mark Hockley
Elia CMIRAL
Battlefield Earth
Another summer, another dumb would-be sci-fi blockbuster. It's rumoured that no one ever aspires to make a bad film, but why then start with one of the worst books ever written? Battlefield Earth has proved perhaps the most derided big budget film since Inchon (1982), a war epic vanity project financed by the Moonies. Battlefield Earth is Scientologist John Travolta's long cherished war epic of Scientology founder Ron L. Hubbard's SF novel. It wants to be this year's Independence Day (1996). It is this year's Plan 9 From Outer Space (1958). Unsurprisingly the usual suspects for scoring such a project proved otherwise engaged when their agents received the call, so the task of providing a musical accompaniment fell to the up-and-coming Elia Cmiral.
Cmiral is a Czech composer who has been scoring films for a decade, and writing for the theatre since he was 18, debuting with stage production of Cyrano de Bergerac. Most film music fans probably didn't notice his existence until John Frankenheimer's Ronin (1998). One could hardly fail to notice, as much of the film, which astonishingly survived, proved an earthy battlefield between the director's set-pieces and Cmiral's drum-and-bass 'inspired' score. A contemporary space-opera should have offered the opportunities for something big, bold and thrilling, and the music here that has any sense of melody draws a line somewhere between the portentous choirs of Alan Silvestri's The Abyss and the military might of David Arnold's Independence Day. However, if you have those, you don't need this for they do the job far better.
Meanwhile the vast bulk of this very fragmented - 28 tracks in 48 minutes - everything and the kitchen sink score consists of relentless percussive assaults, atmospheric synthesiser patches and the occasional 'ethnic' voice. It's consistently hyperactive, as if a normal action movie score had been injected with speed then entered into the action movie 100 yard dash. Suffice to say it goes 'bang, crash, thud' a lot and conclusively proves that more is less. The whole thing rapidly becomes incredibly tiresome, with only an attempt at alien pop music 'Psychlo's Top 40' to show how much worse things could get. Or perhaps, as a cure for not having a headache.
With Independence Day and his James Bond scores David Arnold has shown how orchestra, intense percussion and electronics can combine in a modern way and yet remain melodically engaging. Battlefield Earth shows how the formula can go drastically awry. It may be functional in the film, but on disc it offers nothing you haven't heard many times before, and usually in ways which are far better executed.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
+
Steve WOOD
Dolphins
The huge IMAX screen, especially its great height/depth, is ideal for portraying and better understanding the undersea world. Considering the warm playful nature of these delightful creatures, Steve Wood's light-hearted and joyful score is entirely appropriate. The music is easy-going yet strongly rhythmic and it blends the smooth friendly-sounding percussion of the Caribbean Islands with the passionate lively tones of Argentina. In one memorable number Wood and partner Daniel May transform the song, 'Every Breathe You Take' into a dusky dolphin tango for one of the film's mating sequences.
It is nice to hear Sting's intelligent and responsible songs incorporated in the score -- it will be remembered that he has long used his celebrity to help protect the earth's resources.
The lavish booklet includes notes on the production of the film, notes on Wood's music and that of Sting and a plea to us all to help save the Dolphins and the environment.
As a souvenir of the film or as a pleasant easy listening experience, this album succeeds
Reviewer
Zara.
Ennio MORRICONE
Quando Le Donne Avevano La Coda (When Women Had Tails)
Bruno NICOLAI
Quando Le Donne Persero La Coda (When Women Lost Their Tails)
The rating for this double soundtrack suggests these are average scores. Please remember that the powers of suggestion are often false.
Ennio Morricone's comedic "Quando Le Donne Avevano La Coda" makes absolutely no sense and is positively dazzling about it. One hears the trademark audacity of the composer in an insane surplus. The music seems to have no idea of exactly where it wishes to be, but sounds very determined to exhibit wherever it is. I therefore challenge anyone to explain to me the musico-dramatico significance of combining primitive vocals merged with 1970s technique, a jocund main theme that pops up anywhere (anytime, anything), all sorts of oddball orchestrations, a playful violin, a cancan, and something that sounds strangely like a variation on 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.' That's for starters.
But Morricone severely overextends his musical slapstick, further draining his score of understanding, and defying listeners' senses. The novelty and the lunatic genius behind it must be heard to be believed, hopefully even admired, but once the novelty wears thin all we are left with is the shadow of a composer who wrote better scores before and has since. Despite the amusing permutations, that essential, sought-after timelessness of filmusic is far removed.
Bruno Nicolai's sequel score, "Quando Le Donne Persero La Coda," is slightly more coherent, and brings some closure to the earlier score's residual dementia. This also means it is considerably less interesting. Morricone has had problems following in his own footsteps, so no surprise when Nicolai fails to recapture the innovation of the original, much less match Morricone's métier. What it has is period weirdness.
There is a saying that goes, "If it is in the music, it is in the man." Were this album a pure example of its creators, a set of designer straitjackets would be in order. Perhaps something mauve.
Reviewer
Jeffrey Wheeler
Ian Lace adds:-
Here is evidence of another facet of Morricone's versatility. Here he writes with tongue firmly in cheek. Considering the farcical story line, he comes up with an appropriately whimsical score with the sort of material you would expect; music suggestive of the primitive and clumsy gait of the stone age man complete with grunts and groans and softer more sighing tones of the females bent on ensnaring their unwary mates and propagating the species. Morricone uses the form of the bossa nova that was fashionable when the movie was made back in 1970 -- with a mix of waltzes. His orchestrations are witty and imaginative including the use of didgeridoo, wooden blocks and tubas as well as low woodwinds to suggest the cavortings of the ape men. Music suggestive of the slapstick silent film comedies is also used to good effect and innocent romance is conveyed by a mix of harpsichord, pipes and triangle. A charming if rather repetitive score. The short suite of Nicolai music is really an extension of the Morricone score with very little added.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Luis BACALOV
Il Cielo Cade
This novel adaptation deals with a family's existence within and without the encroachment of WWII on their lives within sunny Tuscany. Through the whole album, there is only 1 minute long suggestion of the war machine - a minor rumbling in "La villa invasa". Otherwise this disc is as gentle as a puppy.
Bacalov's piano leaves its mark with plenty of solo attention - certainly in the classics slotted into the background (Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin). The other major make-up comes from violin solo passages (e.g. the gorgeous "Da lontano variante I"), children's choir ("Divertimenti infantilli"), and a keyboard almost emulating harpsichord ("Mesti pensieri").
Even though a little mournful at times, the overall sense is of familial strength and
survival.
Reviewer
Paul Tonks
Giovanni VENOSTA
Pane E Tulipani
This sweet story of friendship takes place in Italy, with an important excursion to Venice where the central character rediscovers her love of accordion playing. That might well have been the earliest 1 line pitch Venosta was given, and should quickly paint a picture for you as to what he came up with.
The intimacy and geography would almost be sold out without: acoustic guitar, viola, mandolin, and naturally the accordion. Even the sourced tracks accord to the feel-good formula. There's a little Rossini and an "Eclisse Twist" from G. Fusco for instance.
If only for the slinky brushed drums of the opening "Bread & Tulips Shuffle" this is an album worth opening a bottle of red wine to.
Reviewer
Paul Tonks
Collection : REEL LIFE:
The Private Music of Film Composers, Vol. 1
David RAKSIN; Bruce BROUGHTON; Michael KAMEN; Rachel PORTMAN, Howard SHORE, Bob JAMES.
This album perhaps more appropriately should be reviewed on the classical music side of this Web site, but the six composers featured here are of particular interest to fans of film music. Though their efforts are not limited to composing for films, that is where Raksin, Kamen, Shore, Portman and Broughton are best known. (I would not say quite the same for James, whose work is the first heard on this recording, but the point is made.) As such, this is something of a "concept" album -- but what a concept! Many of us are familiar with the concert works of such film notables as Bernard Herrmann, Miklos Rozsa or Franz Waxman, but the vast repertoire of non-film works by otherwise well-known film composers remains largely unrecorded and thus unknown to their many admirers.
And this immediate note to those fans: The compositions featured on this disc are not large orchestral works such as film scores usually offer. Reel Life features eight compositions written for chamber orchestra, each enjoying its premiere recording by the eight-member Music Amici. While far from avant garde, none of the works offers the motific immediacy -- much less the dramatic bombast -- that make film music so readily enjoyable.
Nevertheless, there are gems herein, made all the more interesting because they display a side of these composers we might otherwise not see. Still, like a film score, several of the pieces are at least slightly programmatic, such as Kamen's 'Cut Sleeves,' which depicts an ancient Chinese legend of an emperor who slit his bed dress so as not to disturb his young lover when forced to leave their bed to attend to state matters. Kamen uses the oboe to introduce his theme, adroitly joining it with flute, cello and harp to weave this musical tale -- which, by the way, was Kamen's first professional composition as a non-rock musician. At more than 11 minutes, it's the longest single piece on Reel Life, apart from a five-movement work by Broughton. The piece is marked by a sharply lyric fluidity, particularly in its first half.
My favorite piece -- and perhaps the most immediately accessible on this disc -- is the first of two by Portman: her 6-minute 'Rhapsody' which she wrote for a friend's wedding in 1994. Softly pastoral in its tone, 'Rhapsody' opens with piano voicing a sense of yearning which is then picked up by violin and clarinet in succession, each building on the same sense of yearning which evolves, as the trio join, into one of fulfillment. (What a wonderful wedding gift -- and how sad that we had to wait this long to hear it!)
Portman's second work, 'For Julian,' is a memorial in solo piano for her young friend, Julian Wastall, a composer whose work for film and TV may be better known to British readers of this Web site than to me. Portman's contemplative piano effortlessly combines a feeling of both questioning and acceptance, leaving the listener with a sense of loss at its ending.
Raksin's contribution to Reel Life, 'A Song After Sundown' (the title is a takeoff on a work by Delius) actually was used in a film - the 1962 Too Late Blues, albeit as a vocal in a larger jazz arrangement. Heard here in chamber form by Music Amici, its bluesy nature remains unmistakable. By itself, this may be worth the price of the CD.
Like Portman, Shore s represented by two pieces -- 'Hughie' and 'Piano Four' -- each is among the more abstract works on this recording. The former is a musical portrait of the title character of a Eugene O'Neil play, the latter described by the composer as "a brief statement for the end of the Millennium."
Easily the most ambitious work is provided by Broughton, with his 21-minute, 5-section 'A Primer for Malachi.' Written for the impending birth of the composer's grandson, the piece moves without interruption through various stages of life under the following headings: Flowing, Faster, Rhapsodically, Very Quick, Very Calm. The first opens with flute, cello and clarinet encircling each other in a vain search for unity, The pace picks up in part two, led by a piano as each instrument begins to speak with more self-confidence, if not the still sought-after coherence of maturity. Broughton tosses thematic ideas out seemingly at random here, experimenting, rejecting, and again revisiting various concepts. Throughout this and the next section, Broughton continues his search for musical cohesion and order, not unlike a young man struggling to find his way in life. This begins to assert itself in part four, followed by a more tranquil maturity, finally, in the aptly titled final section.
Reel Life opens with 'Odyssey,' a piano-flute duet by jazz keyboardist James, whose primary Hollywood connection is the catchy title theme to the U.S. TV series Taxi. The piece opens explosively with both instruments boldly declaring themselves and then just as quickly turning tentative, as if suddenly self-conscious in each other's presence. The piano eventually steps forward, followed by flute as the two begin a spirited dance, each taking turns at leading.
I can't praise too highly the overall effort by Music Amici and its director, violinist Marti Sweet. Reel Life is a product of the efforts of Michael Whalen, Marvin Reiss, Jonathan Schultz and Charles Yassky, the latter also performing on the violin. The sound is crisp and intimate, as a chamber work necessarily must be. Bravos all around. I hope volume II isn't far behind.
Reviewer
John Heuther.
Richard HOROWITZ
Any Given Sunday
How to get copies of promotional discs
In close succession we are offered Hans Zimmer's electronics for Gladiator, and Richard Horowitz electronics for American football movie Any Given Sunday, intended by the director Oliver Stone to 'reflect the ancient soul of the film', 'the mythological souls of his modern gladiators.'
Oliver Stone is one of those rare directors who pushes the form of commercial cinema to the limit, and his use of music has ranged from era-defining pop, to outstanding scores from John Williams for Born on the Fourth of July, JFK and Nixon. Stone decided to try something very different with Any Given Sunday. The 'score' if such it can be called, is a vast patchwork of rap - two albums, one with swearing, one without, have already been issued - and work by a wide range of other composers, Richard Horowitz just being one of nine. There are copious notes by Horowitz included with this disc, which necessarily concentrate almost exclusively on his part in scoring the film, though an excellent article by Jeff Bond in Film Score Monthly (Vol 5, No. 2) puts the whole complex process in context. Horowitz notes are exuberant, deeply personal, arguably pretentious, and include a letter to Stone which it is simply astonishing.
A huge amount of work and intellectual effort has been put into conceptualising this score. This is meant to be considered art, shame then that a director who understands so well how music can work to enhance the emotional power of film, that Stone should be satisfied with this end result. Clearly this is the same Richard Horowitz whose music worked well as extra material in The Sheltering Sky and 1492: Conquest of Paradise, though here while still often derived from ethnic rhythmic devices, the scoring is largely synthesised. The sad fact is that it all boils down to 'dance music'. Only the opening 'Final TD' - presumably from near the end of the film, has any sense of mythological destiny - and that in a very modern, digitised idiom.
For 40 tracks, loop follows loop. There are atmospheric patches. And loop follows loop - a relentlessly turgid machine with no clear end in view - as the composer's notes essentially point out. He improvised/wrote hours of this stuff, and Stone mixed and matched as his team of editors edited and edited and re-edited his million and a half feet of film, attempting to find a film out of the chaos of what appears to have been a project close to being out of control. The resultant CD is the sort of thing anyone familiar with MIDI can assemble with a decent synthesiser, some 'world music' samples, a digital reverb unit and a sequencer. There are no worthwhile themes, only loops, riffs and beats. At normal volume it is all but unlistenable. A aggressive cacophony that may well be appropriate to the undeclared war that is American football. Even so, it is without a doubt the worst film related release I've heard so far this year.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
Combined Book and CD Review
The Book: - Saving Grace by Tom McGregor
(based on the screenplay by Craig Ferguson and Mark Crowdy);
Amazon UK (£4.79)
The Soundtrack CD: -
Mark RUSSELL and source music
Saving Grace
with dialogue from the film
Crotchet Amazon UK Amazon USA
After years of peace cultivating orchids in the greenhouse of her large country house, middle-aged widow, Grace, learns that her husband has thrown himself out of an aeroplane leaving her without money or house, but with vast debts through ill-advised business ventures. Grace desperate to save the house she loves resorts to illicit use of her 'green fingers' growing cannabis on a vast scale aided by her somewhat dim young gardener Matthew whose expectant girlfriend Nicky is understandably miffed at the idea of her provider ending up in the nick. This farcical situation with half the characters high on cannabis half the time is slow moving until Grace tries to off-load her crop in London where with the help of her husband's former mistress she meets some shady underworld characters who pursue her back to Cornwall. The screwball comedy that ensues is more frenetic than funny and the book's swift throwaway conclusion is something of a dopey (if you will excuse the dreadful pun) copout.
The CD is a curious mix of pop styles with three or four excerpts from the dialogue - for instance when the news breaks of Grace's husband's death from a great height, somebody comments, "Maybe he was looking for the bathroom and picked the wrong door!?!". There is one attractive piece of instrumental music at the beginning of the disc, featuring a solo violin in Vaughan Williams Lark Ascending mode with a muted string background that suggests the serenity of the life that grace was used to before calamity overtook her.
Book and CD
Ian Lace
Curio Corner
************************************************************** EDITOR’s RECOMMENDATION July 2000 **************************************************************
Miklós RÓZSA
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra.
Theme and Varaiations for Violin, Cello and Orcherstra
Yoel Levi conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
Crotchet Amazon UK Amazon USAEven when he wrote chamber or instrumental music Miklós Rózsa did not write small, and the two concertos and 'theme and variations' on this disc offer big, thoroughly idiomatic, Rózsaian music. Known, if at all, to the general public as the man who wrote the music for Ben-Hur, El Cid, Quo Vadis, unlike many 'film composers' Rózsa never abandoned the concert hall, hence the title of his autobiography, A Double Life. And like the best composers, he wrote appropriately to the medium in his own instantly recognisable style. So, if you love the music of Miklós Rózsa you will be thoroughly at home here. I shall nail my colours to the mast so you may begin taking pot-shots: Rózsa was the finest film composer in history, and his concert works deserve to see him established as one of the major 20th century 'serious' composers. All three works here are marvellous advocates for his acceptance.
The Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op 24 dates from 1956. Despite the composer's claim in his autobiography that he always had been concerned to prevent the two parallel lines of his career meeting, elements from the concerto may be familiar from the savaged remains of a possible Billy Wilder film masterpiece, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1969) (the corpse remaining after studio butchery is currently in rotation in it's 'scope ratio on Film Four). We can assume that Rózsa reworked some of this violin music for the great violin-playing detective, not because he held his own work in such low regard that he felt no shame in recycling it into 'mere movie music', but because he took cinema seriously. After all, this is no isolated incidence. Parts of the Viola concerto, Op 37 and the score for Time After Time (1979) are close to identical.
The violin concerto was written for Heifetz, and premiered by him in Dallas on January 15, 1956. It is wonderfully rich and boldly romantic music, clearly influenced by the folksong of Rózsa's native Hungary, and full of vigour and thrillingly explosive writing. Just try the finale to the opening Allegro non troppo ma passionato. Robert McDuffie plays as if his life depended upon it, and the result is exhilarating.
The Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 32 was written 12 years later for János Starker. There is a really ferocious energy to this score, a work full of dynamic fury and impassioned romanticism. Epic in every sense, Rózsa's orchestrations demand riveted attention while the endlessly questing, probing, interrogative solo line refuses to let go. Lynn Harrell offers deeply lyrical, yet where necessarily utterly commanding playing. A hero of legend leading his forces into battle. The closing Allegro vivio is indomitable.
The Theme and Variations for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, Op. 29a (1958) unites the soloists in a single movement lasting 12 minutes. Due to complex circumstances, the piece is actually a re-orchestrated version of the central movement from the Sinfonia concertante, Op29. Again, this is folk-like, rapturously melodic music, the variations moving through various moods from the argumentative to sweeping romance to a final calm.
Throughout, the playing and sound are first-rate, both appropriately full of summer fire. If you don't know the music of Miklós Rózsa this album is a great place to start. Imagine a composer comparable to Bax, Bartók, Rachmaninov, and start to explore. If you are familiar with Rózsa you need no recommendation from me. Just enjoy one of the most thrilling releases of the year so far.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
Collection: Leonard BERNSTEIN
Bernstein Tribute
music by, plus Anthony Dilorenzo & Charles Pillow
Fancy Free suite, West Side Story suite, Mass (six selections), Divertimento for Orchestra, Wrong Note Rag (Bernstein,) Mostly Influential (Dilorenzo) Suite from West Side Story (Pillow)
Crotchet Amazon UK Amazon USACollection: Leonard BERNSTEIN, George GERSHWIN, Duke ELLINGTON
On the Town
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Bernstein Suites: On the Town & West Side Story, Gershwin: Porgy and Bess. Ellington: 'Caravan', Chelsea Bridge (melody by Billy Strayhorn), 'Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me'.How composed can music be and still be considered jazz? While you consider than philosophical conundrum let me introduce the first guests tonight. Step up the Proteus 7, an ensemble comprising two trumpeters, two trombonists, tuba, woodwinds and percussion. Their tribute to Bernstein, that's Leonard, not Elmer, comprises seven works, five by the man himself, and two homages by members of the band. The arrangements are mostly by F. Reza Zweifel, Proteus 7's percussionist, and the selections are particularly dance orientated.
What is immediately striking is that while the playing is tight, the music has a loose feel, perhaps not being quite as punchy as one might like. Nevertheless, the opener, three dances from Fancy Free has an appropriately carnival atmosphere and the reduced orchestration allows the writing to shine. Of course Fancy Free inspired the musical On the Town, which by accident or design is the title of a new release on Chandos which I shall come to presently.
A suite from West Side Story features 'Prologue/Jet Song', 'Somewhere', 'Tonight', 'Maria' and 'Mambo' and with repeated plays it has grown on me. Once you get over missing the vocals the music works well, and seems, particularly in the precise percussion and rhythmic interplay of the prologue to have a greater focus than the Fancy Free suite. Complementing this is Suite from West Side Story by woodwind player Charles Pillow. Bravely he mixes Bernstein with his own material and comes away after 6 minutes without egg on his face.
Bernstein's Mass (1971) caused controversy the first time round for the inclusion of electric guitar, so why not arrange it again for jazz brass ensemble? If at first it seems less successful than the theatrically derived material it may be that the changes wrought are more fundamental, that the material has travelled further. Still, taken on it's own terms there is still much to enjoy, though one should probably look at the six selections as a new work and take them on their own terms. At this level the folk-like 'Simple Song' as particularly successful. There is no striving for effect. Just a good tune, very well played.
Mostly Influential is by trumpeter Anthony DiLorenzo and offers three short fantasies, sketches of an imaginary late-night poker game between Bernstein, Prokofiev and Einstein. 'Ante Up' is Prokofiev, '3am Blues' strives for classic early morning New York melancholy, and hits the spot with some mournfully interwoven trumpet lines before perking up into something rather more optimistic and energetic. 'Ace's High' is Bernstein, all bright and freshly polished with All-American spirit.
It's a nice, undemanding album and would make a fine addition to the library of the Bernstein collector who has everything, or that of simply anyone who appreciates the composer at his jazziest. The 24bit recording has great clarity and dynamic range.
I saved Anthony DiLorenezo's piece till last when discussing the Proteus 7 album, because he is back again as one of two trumpeters, opening the second album under consideration with his own arrangement of a suite from On the Town. This is a programme by the Center City Brass Quintet, which like Proteus 7 appears to be based in Cleveland, Ohio. Again it is a 24bit recording, and perhaps because it was recorded in a church acoustic has a rather softer, more glowing ambience which, against what one might imagine, suits the music well. Here the arrangements have a definitely more composed feel, resulting in an album that all-round will have greater appeal to UK classical listeners who happen to like some jazz-flavourings on the side.
There are fewer works given more extensive readings. DiLorenzo's On the Town suite is a premiere in this version, while Jack Gale's elegant suites from West Side Story and Gershwin's Porgy and Bess have rarely been recorded. 'Summertime' in particular is given a 'big' voice which belies the fact that there are only five players: twin trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba. The arrangements are exquisitely polished and the playing blends so tightly, 'sings' so persuasively in the voices of the different instruments, that the music comes alive in an entirely fresh way. The three tunes by 'Duke' Ellingon end the album, idiosyncratic and quixotic as ever, whatever genre one chooses to assign them, they simply make cracking music.
Inevitably the two albums have much in common, though the lack of percussion and woodwind on the Center City Brass Quintet set somehow forges a greater cohesion. The sound may be more limited, but the playing embraces the listener more than Proteus 7. Both discs are worth acquiring, but if it has to be just one I would without a moment's hesitation opt for a night On the Town.
Bernstein Tribute
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
************************************************************** EDITOR’s RECOMMENDATION July 2000 **************************************************************
Collection: The Very Worst of Spike Jones (1911-1965)
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When I was a young boy, in the late 1940s, with two teenage female cousins perpetually swooning over Dick Haymes and Bing Crosby, I used to relish spiting them by playing Spike Jones's anarchic Cocktails for Two and You Always Hurt the One You Love at full blast.
Spike with his gang of lyrical and light classics terrorists were let loose around that time, and were often heard as an antidote to all the saccharine on BBC record requests programmes like Forces Favourites. This, 'The Very Worst of Spike Jones' is a collection of 20 of his marvellous missiles recorded between 1945 and 1949.
Spike used a battery of seemingly innocuous percussion devices such as temple blocks, cow bells, washboards, bell trees, swanee whistles, bird calls, gongs, cymbals and even hard stuff like anvils, hammers, pistols, car horns, police sirens phone bells, cash registers and such satanic electronic devices as "the polarised vibrating gong" to explode, even implode innocent tunes. On this album he damns The Blue Danube, shreds Liebestraum and devastates the William Tell Overture --before turning it into a horse race.
Innocent lyrics are tortured. Immediately, in Love in Bloom the question "Can it be the trees?" provokes a cry of "Timber!"; while the line "Is it all a dream?" is answered by loud snoring. Poor Chloe's name is tortured ("Hi Chloe! - what d'ya knowee?") and the words, "...nightshade's falling..." heralds unimaginable cacophony. Cocktails for Two's early lyric "in some secluded rendezvous" is answered by a gross dissonance of car horns, whistles and general thuds; and, later, you are not spared the raucous chorus of drunken hiccups. And you really don't want to know what they do to the melody and words of That Old Black Magic and You Always Hurt the One You Love.
It seems, at last, that one song will have some due respect. David Raksin's Laura (yes, that of the film) is played by Spike Jones's other orchestra - but no! - peace just cannot last and its only a matter of time before the boys wreak their usual havoc - in spades. Peter Lore, or the aptly named impressionist Peter Gory, adds a ghoulish touch to My Old Flame. He contributes such endearing lyrics as - "I can't even think of her name - I'll have to look through my collection of human heads...my new loves aren't the same; many of them won't even let me strangle them!"
Coming close to legitimacy, though, is Spike's affectionate recalling of The Charleston but even here horselaughs and gunshots invade.
Spike appeared in a number of films including Thank Your Lucky Stars and Variety Girls and had his own TV show. If you have a taste for irreverence, every one of these cues will have you cheering. Come back Spike, your slingshots are sorely needed today.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
************************************************************** EDITOR’s RECOMMENDATION July 2000 **************************************************************
Collection: Swing Legends:
Glenn Miller
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Robert Parker, the Australian sound engineer responsible for refurbishing the music for the albums in this Nimbus series, has excelled himself here. Working from pristine Australian 78rpm pressings, he has created spectacular stereo sound that makes these Glenn Miller favourites sound as if they were recorded only yesterday. Listen to the fidelity of the instrumental harmonics in A String of Pearls for instance. Now we really do have the chance to fully savour the genius that was Glen Miller.
As the liner notes relate, "Glenn Miller's Orchestra in the 1940s was one of the finest big bands of the Swing Era. The popularity and reverence with which it is still regarded is unmatched - even in comparison with such outstanding contemporary bands as those of Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Fletcher Henderson and Count Basie.
"Apart from Miller's superb musicianship, his was a high multi-media profile: raised by appearances in Hollywood films, radio broadcasts and on gramophone records. His untimely death on 15th December 1944 during military service, at the age of 40, undoubtedly fuelled the legend; culminating in the glossy but factually inaccurate bio-pic of 1953 starring James Stewart as an idealised Glenn Miller."
This album of 20 numbers includes many of the great hits including: Star Dust; Moonlight Serenade; Pennsylvannia 6-5000; A String of Pearls and Tuxedo Junction (but why omit Little Brown Jug?) The liner notes include a picture of the band with many of the artists inset. And the fully credited numbers include a number of distinguished names including: Billy May, and Tex Beneke who makes his tenor sax all but talk.
An album not to miss.
Reviewer
Ian Lace
Collection: Salon Orchestral Favourites Vol.1
Crotchet Amazon UK Amazon USAPicture an inn in the Austrian Tyrol, a prince incognito as a commoner, gazes into the eyes of a beautiful maiden while they are serenaded by a gypsy orchestra and served by girls in fetching national costume. Imagine a late Victorian/Edwardian drama played out in a hotel lounge with a palm court orchestra playing in the background. Visualise a Spanish café with diners seated around a small dance floor on which the hero and heroine are dancing the tango. These are typical scenes we've seen in countless movies.
Ten to one, one of the melodies on this album will have been played by those on-screen bands. This is one of those albums where you recognise practically all the tunes but can't put a name to them. You will probably recognise one or two pieces by name and composer -- Rubinstein's Melody in F and Waldteufel's Skater's Waltz, especially. The composer's names are often familiar: Leoncavallo, composer of the popular opera, Pagliacci; operetta composer, Robert Stolz; Isaac Albéniz; Heinrich Strecker, and Paul Lincke whose tunes that make up the most substantial Suite, Potpourri are instantly recognisable.
The melodies are played elegantly and unselfconsciously in the true spirit of the original salon music by the ten-piece Salonorchester Schwann. This is an undemanding and very pleasant hour of undemanding music; an unashamed romantic and nostalgic wallow. This is a very good start to a new series and I look forward to succeeding issues. The contents of the album is given below
Reviewer
Ian Lace
The Skater's Waltz op.183 (Waldteufel). Brise de mer Mattinata (Leoncavallo). Tango (Albeniz). Poeme (Fibrich). Melodie in F major (Rubinstein). Serenade No.1 (Drdla). Il bacio (Arditi). Drunt' in der Lobau (Strecker). Die Millionen des Harlekin - Serenade (Drigo). El relicario (Padilla). Spiel auf deiner Geige das Lied von Lied und Lust (Stolz). Wien du Stadt meiner Traume (Sieczynski). Serenata (Toselli). Sie horen Paul Lincke - Potpourri (Lincke)
DVD Concert Review "American Night"
George GERSHWIN (1898-1937)
Highlights from Porgy and Bess
Rhapsody in Blue with Wayne Marshall (piano)
Songs: Someone to Watch Over Me and I Got Rhythm - Marietta Simpson and Cynthia Clarey with Wayne Marshall.
Leonard BERNSTEIN (1918-1990)
Candide Overture; Prelude, Fugue and Riffs.
You can obtain this from BlackStar
Enter American Night in the search box and then select Berlin Philharmonic - American Night (DVD) (1995)This is another DVD recording of an open-air concert, in 1995, in a Berlin Park, attended by a huge audience for an evening of light classics performed by the Berlin Philharmonic. As in the Daniel Barenboim "Latin American Night" concert which I reviewed on this site last month, the DVD digital 5.1 sound is excellent, full bodied and well defined with first class pictures.
Rattle's Glyndebourne performances and recording of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess are justly celebrated and he brings his superlative cast to this concert. Willard White's oaken tones lend strength and dignity to the role of Porgy. He is carefree and optimistic in 'I got plenty o'nuttin'; tender in his duet with 'Bess, you is my woman now'; pained and vulnerable in 'Oh, Bess, oh, where is my Bess?'; and fatally optimistic in the rousing final aria of the opera 'Oh Lawd, I'm on my way.'
Cynthia Hayman is a honey voiced Bess warm and loving yet insecure and vulnerable. Her lovely velvety soprano voice blends perfectly with Willard White's in their duet and she is sweetly soothing in her lullaby, 'Summertime'
But it is Damon Evans as Sporting life who runs away with the show with his powerful, individual larger-than-life renderings of 'It ain't necessarily so' and 'There's a boat that's leavin' soon for New York' - what personality, what projection, what magnetism!
Wayne Marshall gives a finely nuanced, articulate and thoughtful reading of the Gershwin Rhapsody. But this is rather an uneven performance with the Berlin players - especially the brass - often playing as though they were in a Munich beer garden rather than in Greenwich Village; and the big tune is spoilt by some untidy, fuzzy ensemble playing. The clarinet soloist, however, is excellent. I would have preferred to have heard the Berlin players having much more fun with this music. The same remarks must apply for Bernstein's Candide Overture which receives a rather brisk performance and the lovely central lyrical episode would have benefited from a more relaxed pace and a warmer treatment. Bernstein's astringent Prelude, Fugue and Riffs fares much better with its biting jazzy trumpet and trombone choruses echoed by massed saxophones and a small instrumental grouping of bass, piano (Marshall again) and clarinet.
Another highlight comes in the closing stages of the concert with two Gershwin songs sung superbly by Cynthia Clarey and Marietta Simpson accompanied by Wayne Marshall. Marietta Simpson especially shines in her rendering of 'Someone to Watch Over Me' - this lady has a wonderful way of putting a song over with a smile that just radiates warmth and sincerity and a voice, particularly in its smoky lower register, to make your toes curl.
Overall
Ian Lace
Video Review
Arabian Nights with music by Richard HARVEY
TV HALLMARK ENTERTAINMENT/WARNER VISION INTERNATIONAL 8573-82283-3 (2.18)
RATED: PGYou can obtain this from BlackStar Enter Arabian Nights in the search box and from the resulting list select Arabian Nights (2000)
This slightly campy television production features several stories taken from the classic 'The Thousand and One Nights' for a two hour plus epic of magic and adventure.
The framing device centres around a mad Sultan who plans to have his new wife killed the morning after the wedding (apparently he wasn't that crazy, as he decided to wait until the morning after!). So in an attempt to delay her impending execution she spins a number of fantastic yarns to keep him entertained, always promising to continue the next evening and so buying herself another day.
Among the stories told there are probably the most well-known of all the Arabian Nights tales in 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves' and 'Aladdin'. However, the tone of the pieces is pitched at an almost juvenile level and there are even moments of Pythonesque humour thrown in, which seem at odds with the setting and the style of the original tales. In fact the account of BacBac the Sultan's favourite jester whose sudden death causes all manner of complications, is played as traditional English farce, although admittedly there are one or two amusing moments provided by the Oriental with the 'lethal hands'!
The main problem is that this light approach with modern sensibilities (no doubt believing it would make it more accessible) actually undermines the stories, as they have no sense of either dramatic or emotional tension. It's all rather like a pantomime on a grand scale, although presumably that was the intention.
There are few opportunities for the actor's to shine, with Dougray Scott (the villain of the upcoming 'Mission Impossible 2') not really meeting the challenge of the difficult role of the deranged Sultan. Mili Avital, as the storyteller Scheherazade, does far better though, while the charismatic Jason Scott Lee (exceptional as the titular character in 'Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story) brings energy to the role of Ali Baba. John Leguizamo in dual roles as opposing genies looks impressive enough, although at times his dialogue is a little trite. Incidentally Leguizamo's portrayal of the weaker of the two genies is very reminiscent of his turn as the evil Clown in 'Spawn'.
The final story of the brothers who are sent on a quest to find the 'greatest wonder in the world' is probably the best with its marginally more serious tone, but this leads into a finale that is weak at best, as various strands taken from all the different tales are used to win victory for the now fully restored Sultan.
The effects works by Jim Henson's Creature Shop is accomplished enough without really deserving any particular praise, although there are some nice scene transitions that work very well.
As far as the score is concerned, Richard Harvey's music is really exactly what you might expect, with its authentic Arabian flavour and the use of several traditional instruments and styles. But it is a score that while entirely serviceable is also wholly forgettable. It's one of those functional pieces of work that just plays along in the background as nothing more than just another sound effect. You would be hard pressed indeed to come away remembering a single theme or melody.
Taken as a whole, this made-for-TV spectacular is light-weight entertainment and when compared with Hallmark's other adaptations of classic works of literature such as 'Merlin' and in particular the outstanding 'Gulliver's Travels', does not stand up very well at all.
Harmless, undemanding viewing with a strong vein of simple-minded humour.
Reviewer
Mark Hockley
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