Music Webmaster Len Mullenger

Recommended original film score recordings

(This list of recommended recordings compiled by Ian Lace features the work of the pioneer composers working in the Golden Age of Hollywood plus that of major composers working in the medium in the UK and continental Europe. It does not cover those at work on film scores today.)

The RCA Victor Classic Film Score Series - all featuring the National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Gerhardt, are a basic recommendation

Erich Wolfgang KORNGOLD

The Sea Hawk/Of Human Bondage/Between Two Worlds/The Sea Wolf
The Constant Nymph/Kings Row/Anthony Adverse/Deception/Devotion
Escape Me Never

RCA Victor GD87890 Æ

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex/The Prince and the Pauper/Anthony Adverse
The Sea Wolf/Deception (Cello Concerto)/Another Dawn/Of Human Bondage

RCA Victor GD80185

Max STEINER

Now Voyager/King Kong/Saratoga Trunk/The Charge of the Light Brigade/Four Wives
The Big Sleep/Johnny Belinda/Since You Went Away/The Informer/The Fountainhead

RCA Victor GD80136

Gone With the Wind

RCA Victor GD80452

Franz WAXMAN

Prince Valiant/A Place in the Sun/The Bride of Frankenstein/Sunset Boulevard/Rebecca
Old Acquaintance/The Philadelphia Story/Taras Bulba

RCA Victor GD80708

Dimitri TIOMKIN

Lost Horizon/The Guns of Navarone/The Big Sky/The Fourposter/Friendly Persuasion
Search for Paradise

RCA Victor GD81669 Æ

Alfred NEWMAN

Captain from Castile/Wuthering Heights/Down to the Sea in Ships/Anastasia/Airport
The Best of Everything/The Robe/The Song of Bernadette/The Bravados

RCA Victor GD80184 Æ

Miklós RÓZSA

Spellbound/The Red House/The Thief of Bagdad/The lost Weekend/The Four Feathers
Knights of the Round Table/The Jungle Book/Ivanhoe/Double Indemnity

RCA Victor GD80911

Bernard HERRMANN

Citizen Kane/Hangover Square/White Witch Doctor/Beneath the 12-Mile Reef
On Dangerous Ground

RCA Victor GD80707

David RAKSIN

Laura/Forever Amber/The Bad and the Beautiful

RCA Victor GD81490 Æ

John WILLIAMS

Star Wars/Close Encounters of the Third Kind

RCA Victor RCD13650 Æ

COMPILATIONS:

Three additional albums in the RCA series devoted to scores written for films starring three actors: Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart and Bette Davis These compilations included extra music for the films already mentioned in the specific composer albums listed above

Captain Blood - Scores for Errol Flynn

The Adventures of Don Juan/They Died with Their Boots On/Dodge City (Steiner)
The Sea Hawk/Captain Blood/The Adventures of Robin Hood (Korngold)
Objective Burma (Waxman) The Sun Also Rises (Friedhofer)

RCA Victor GD80912

Casablanca - Scores for Humphrey Bogart

Casablanca/Passage to Marseilles/The Treasure of the Sierra Madre/Key Largo
Virginia City/The Caine Mutiny/The Big Sleep (Steiner)
To Have and to Have Not/The Two Mrs Carolls (Waxman)
Sabrina (Frederick Hollander) Sahara (Rózsa)
The Left Hand of God (Victor Young)

RCA Victor GD80422

Classic film scores for BETTE DAVIS

Now Voyager/Dark Victory/A Stolen Life/In This Our Life/Jezebel
The Letter/ All This and Heaven Too (Steiner) Mr Skeffington (Waxman)
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex/Juarez (Korngold)
All About Eve (Newman)

RCA Victor GD80183

ÆThese albums, alas, have been deleted but diligent searching could find copies

Plus -

Aaron COPLAND

The Red Pony/Quiet City (with Born on the Fourth of July/The Reivers - John Williams)
Williams/Boston Pops Orchestra

Sony SK 64147

The Red Pony/Our Town/The Heiress/Music for Movies/Prairie Journal
Slatkin/Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra B

MG/ RCA 09026 61699 2

Virgil THOMSON

The Plow that Broke the Plains/Louisiana Story
New London Orch/Corp

Hyperion CDA66756

The River/The Plow that Broke the Plains
Kapp/Phil.Viruosi

Schwann 311166

Erich Wolfgang KORNGOLD

Kings Row
Charles Gerhardt/National Philharmonic Orchestra

Andante ACD 85707

Anthony Adverse

John Scott/Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra

Varése-Sarabande VSD-5285

Another Dawn/Escape Me Never
William T. Stromberg/Moscow Symphony Orchestra

Marco Polo 8.223871

The Adventures of Robin Hood
Rosenburg/Brandenburg PO

Capricio 10 469

Between Two Worlds (with symphonic works)
John Mauceri/Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester

Decca 444 170-2

Franz WAXMAN

Rebecca
Adriano/Czeco-Slovak Radio SO

Marco Polo 8.223399

The Spirit of St Louis
Warner Bros Studio Orch/Waxman

Varése Sarabande VSD-5212

Untamed/On Borrowed Time/My Geisha/The Devil Doll
My Cousin Rachel/The Story of Ruth/Dark City/A Christmas Carol
Richard Mills/Queensland SO

Varése Sarabande VSD-5713

Dimitri TIOMKIN

Fall of the Roman Empire/The Guns of Navarone/Wild is the Wind
Rhapsody of Steel/A President's Country
David Willcocks/Royal College of Music Orch

Unicorn-Kanchana DKP9047

Western Film Music of Dimitri Tiomkin:
Giant/Red River/Duel in the Sun/High Noon
Night Passage/Rio Bravo
Laurie Johnson/London Studio Symphony Orch

Unicorn Kanchana UKCD2011

Hugo FRIEDHOFER

The Best Years of Our Lives
Collura/London Philharmonic Orchestra

Preamble PRCD 1779

Alfred NEWMAN

Wuthering Heights/Prince of Foxes/David and Bathsheba/Dragonwyck
The Prisoner of Zenda/Brigham Young March

Koch International 3-7376-2H1

Victor YOUNG

For Whom the Bell Tolls/Shane/The Quiet man/Around the World in Eighty Days
Samson and Delilah

Koch International 3-7365-2H1

Miklós RÓZSA

The Lost Weekend/Double Indemnity/The Killers

Koch International 3-7375-2-H1

Ben-Hur/Quo Vadis/King of Kings/El Cid
Rózsa/Nuremburg SO

Cloud Nine Records

(Note Polygram brought out a series of LPs with Rózsa conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in a number of his film scores notably: Lust for Life; Knight Without Armour, Lady Hamilton Lydia and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Decca also released two LPs devoted to music from Quo Vadis and Ben-Hur respectively both conducted by Rózsa respectively. All these are worth seeking out.)

Bernard HERRMANN

The Man Who Knew Too Much/Psycho/Marnie/North by Northwest
Vertigo/Torn Curtain/Fahrenheit 451/Taxi Driver
Salonen/Los Angeles Philharmonic

Sony SK 62700

Citizen Kane/The Devil and Daniel Webster/Psycho/Vertigo/The Wrong Man
The Man Who Knew Too Much (The Storm Clouds Cantata - Arthur Benjamin)
The Bride Wore Black/Taxi Driver/North by Northwest
(also contains 5 min. recorded talk by Herrmann on film music)
Elmer Bernstein/The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Milan/BMG 14081-2

Jason and the Argonauts/The Snows of Kilimanjaro/Jane Eyre
The Devil and Daniel Webster/Mysterious Island
Herrmann/London Philharmonic Orchestra

Decca Phase4 448 948-2

Psycho/Marnie/North by Northwest/Vertigo
The Trouble with Harry (Portrait of 'Hitch')
Herrmann/London Philharmonic Orchestra

Decca Phase4 443 895-2

Journey to the Centre of the Earth/Fahrenheit 451
The Day the Earth Stood Still/7th Voyage of Sinbad
Herrmann/London Philharmonic Orchestra

Decca Phase4 443 899-2

Vertigo
Joel McNeely/Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Varése Sarabande VSD-5600

Vertigo
Sinfonia of London/Muir Matheson

Mercury 422 106-2

Alex NORTH

A Street car Named Desire

Varése-Sarabande VSD-5500

Leonard ROSENMAN

East of Eden/Rebel Without a Cause
John Adams conds London Sinfonietta

Nonesuch 79402

Elmer BERNSTEIN conducts Bernstein (Royal Philharmonic Orch)

The Magnificent Seven/To Kill a Mockingbird/The Man with the Golden Arm
The Ten Commandments/Walk on the Wild Side/Hawaii/The Great Escape
Hollywood and the Stars/Ghostbusters/My Left Foot/Rambling Rose/Heavy Metal
The Grifters

Denon Co-75288

Jerry GOLDSMITH
Jerry Goldsmith has been working in films since the 1960s on such films as The Blue Max,Chinatown Alien, Legend, The Omen, The Russia House, Total Recall and Basic Instinct.
A first class compendium of his work is well overdue

COMPILATIONS

Captain Blood
The King's Thief (Miklós Rózsa)/Scaramouche (Victor Young)
Captain Blood (Korngold)/The Three Musketeers (Max Steiner)
Kaufman/Brandenburg Philharmonic

Marco Polo 8.223607

Historical Romances
Juarez Overture/Devotion (Korngold)/Gunga Din (Alfred Newman)
The Charge of the Light Brigade (Max Steiner)

Marco Polo 8.223608

BRITISH FILM MUSIC

Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
49th Parallel/Story of a Flemish Farm/Coastal Command
Three Portraits from the England of Elizabeth
Andrew Penny/RTE Concert Orchestra

Marco Polo 8.223665

Scott of the Antarctic (Symphony No 7)
(various see general classical recordings catalogue)

William WALTON

The Chandos Film Music of William Walton Series

Vol 1: Hamlet/As You Like It
Marriner/Academy of St Martins in the Fields

Chandos CHAN 8842

Vol 2: Battle of Britain Suite/Spitfire Prelude and Fugue (The First of the Few)
Suite: Escape Me Never/Suite: The Three Sisters/A Wartime Sketchbook
Marriner/Academy of St Martins in the Fields

Chandos CHAN 8870

Vol 3. Henry V
Marriner/Academy of St Martins in the Fields

Chandos CHAN 8892

Vol 4 Richard III/Macbeth/Major Barbara
Gielgud/Marriner/Academy of St. Martins in the Fields

Chandos CHAN 8841

Arnold BAX

Malta GC/Oliver Twist
Kenneth Alwyn/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Cloud Nine Records ACN7012

Benjamin BRITTEN

Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
(See general classical music catalogue)

Arthur BLISS

Things To Come/Baraza* (Men of Two Worlds)
Bliss/*Mathieson and Eileen Joyce/London Symphony Orch./*National SO

Dutton CDLXT2501

Things to Come
Hollywood Bowl Orch/Mauceri

Philips 446 403-2

Christopher Columbus/Seven Waves Away/Men of Two Worlds (including Baraza
for Piano, Orchestra and Men's Chorus)
Adriano/Czecho-Slovak Radio Orchestra

Marco Polo 8.223315

Malcolm ARNOLD

The Bridge on the River Kwai/Whistle Down the Wind
Hobson's Choice/The Sound Barrier/The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
Hickox/London Symphony Orchestra

Chandos CHAN 9100

William ALWYN

Odd Man Out/Fallen Idol/The History of Mr Polly
The Rakes Progress (Calypso)
Hickox/London Symphony Orchestra

Chandos CHAN 9243

Richard ADDINSELL

Warsaw Concerto/Sea Devils/The Day Will Dawn/Blithe Spirit/
Highly Dangerous/Greengage Summer/The Lion Has Wings
The Passionate Friends/Under Capricorn/Out of Clouds.
Kenneth Alwyn/Royal Ballet Sinfonia

ASV CD WHL 2108

Goodbye Mr Chips/The Prince & the Showgirl/Tom Brown's Schooldays
Fire Over England/A Tale of Two Cities plus concert music
Kenneth Alwyn/BBC Concert Orchestra

Marco Polo 8.223732

British Film Music Compilations:

The Ladykillers (Ealing Studios films)
The Cruel Sea/The Captive Heart/Sarabande for Dead Lovers (Rawsthorne)
The Lavender Hill Mob/The Titfield Thunderbolt/Passport to Pimlico (Auric)
Whisky Galore (Irving)The Overlanders (John Ireland)/The Man in the Sky (Schurman)
The Ladykillers (Tristram Cary)/ The Man in the White Suit (Frankel)
Kenneth Alwyn/Royal Ballet Sinfonia

Silva Screen FILMCD 177

The Red Shoes - Classic British Film Music

Coastal Command (Vaughan Williams) The Red Shoes (Brian Easdale)
Attack and Celebration (Schurman) Conquest of the Air (Bliss)
Kenneth Alwyn/Philharmonia

Silva Screen FILMCD 713

Bernard Herrmann conducts Great British Film Music

Richard III/Escape Me Never (Walton) Anna Karenina (Constant Lambert)
49th Parallel - The Invaders (Vaughan Williams) Oliver Twist (Bax)
An Ideal Husband (Benjamin) Things to Come (Bliss)

Decca Phase4 448 954-2

EUROPEAN FILM MUSIC COMPOSERS:

PROKOFIEV

Alexander Nevsky/Scythian Suite
Kitajenko/Danish National Radio SO & Choir

Chandos CHAN 9001

Ivan the Terrible
Finnie/Jãrvi/ Philharmonia

Chandos CHAN 8977

Lieutenant Kijé
Jãrvi/SNO

Chandos CHAN8806

SHOSTAKOVICH

The Gadfly
Chailly/Philadelphia Orchestra

Decca 452 597 2DH

Hamlet
(with Richard III - Walton and Julius Caesar - Rózsa)
Herrmann/ National Philharmonic Orchestra

Decca Phase4 455 156-2

Aram KHACHATURIAN

The Battle of Stalingrad/Othello
Adriano/Slovak RSO

Marco Polo 8.223314

Georges AURIC

La Belle et la Bête
Adriano/Moscow SO

Marco Polo 8.223765

Arthur HONEGGER

Lés Misérables
Adriano/Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra

Marco Polo 8.223181

Lés Misérables/Napoléon/La Roue/Mermoz
Adriano/CSR Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava)

Marco Polo 8.22314

Crime et Châtiment/L'Idee/Farinet
Adriano/Slovak RSO

Marco Polo 8.223466

Jacques IBERT

Macbeth/Golgotha/Don Quichotte
Adriano/Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra

Marco Polo 8.223287

Maurice Jarre

Lawrence of Arabia
Bremner/Philharmonia

Silva Screen FILMCD 036

Lawrence of Arabia/Doctor Zhivago/Ryans Daughter
A Passage to India
Jarré/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Milan 74321 10131-2

Behold A Pale Horse/Dead Poets Society/Fatal Attraction
Gorillas in the Mist/Jacob's Ladder/Moon Over Parador
Prancer/Witness
Jarré/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Milan 262 321

Nino ROTA

War and Peace/The Leopard/La Strada/Waterloo
Gelmetti/Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo

EMI CDC 7 54528 2

La Dolce Vita/Boccaccio 70/Amarcord/The Clowns/The Godfather
Mancini/Mancini Pops Orchestra

RCA Victor RD 60706

8½/The Leopard/Rocco& his Brothers/La Strada/The Godfather/La Dolce Vita
Ricardo Muti/Filarmonica Della Scala (Milan)

Sony SK 63359

Ennio MORRICONE

The Untouchables/Cinema Paradiso/Once upon A Time in the West
Once Upon A Time in America/The Mission
Mancini/Mancini Pops Orchestra

RCA Victor RD 60706

A Fistful of Dollars/For A Few Dollars More/The Good the Bad & the Ugly
In the Line of Fire/Two Mules for Sister Sara
Wadsworth/Prague PO

Silva Screen FILMCD138

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