Leopold Stokowski - Walt Disney's Fantasia: Remastered Original Soundtrack Edition
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.54 You Save: $2.41 (34%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.42 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Walt Disney's Fantasia: Remastered Original Soundtrack Edition
Free Music Review: Has this been remastered since the 1990 release?
Hit: 4 Stars
One thing that does not appear in either the description or any of the reviews: Is this edition is a more recent remaster or is it just a repackaged edition of the 1990 remaster (which I already have)? In other words, has it actually been remastered since the 1990 edition? Also, are there any plans for a 70th Anniversary edition?Free Music Review: Fantasia
Hit: 4 Stars
I am satisfied that the CD is of the original production of Fantasia, which I feel is superior to the current DVD. I hope that a DVD version of the original version will be made available at some time. The sound quality leaves a little to be desired, however.Free Music Review: Optical soundtrack recording limitations
Hit: 3 Stars
The soundtrack recordings for "Fantasia" were provided
to the theaters of 1940 as optical tracks on the side
of the film being shown. Such recordings cannot be
compared to the magnetic tape recordings made after WWII
(using captured or "liberated" German machines at first),
to say nothing of the current digital technology.
An analog optical soundtrack on motion picture film was
bad enough, but the film itself was nitrate, notorious
for disintegrating over a relatively short period of time,
as well as for its flammability. The prints in
circulation wore out until "the sound had gotten so bad,
theaters were refusing to book the film" according to a
Disney spokesman quoted in the New York Times of March
11, 1982.
Stokowski knew what a difference stereo recording made,
compared to mono, because almost a decade earlier, he and
the Philadelphia Orchestra participated (without the
players' knowledge) in a series of experimental high
fidelity and stereo disc recordings made by Bell
Telephone Labs. At the time, Bell Labs and Western
Electric tried to interest several manufacturers of
phonographs in the new technology, but the Great
Depression was underway, and the idea of marketing
phonographs with two stylii and two loudspeakers was
deemed unfeasible. (The Bell system had 33-1/3 rpm
discs with two parallel grooves, requiring two stylii
for playback.)
The Fantasound process, as I understand it, required a
theater to install a single loudspeaker behind the screen
and three loudspeakers along each of the two side walls,
resembling somewhat today's "surround sound." But the
idea was not to produce true stereo sound, but rather
the "ping-pong" stereo concept, with the sounds from the
loudspeakers following the cartoon characters as they
moved back and forth across the screen.
I sometimes wonder if the original recordings were made
with discs, not on soundtrack film -- in which case they
might still exist somewhere in the Disney archives. The
many thousands of original cartoon animation cels used to
create the film images were not treated as archival
material, such as the original Technicolor negatives
of "Gone With The Wind" which were stored in underground
Kansas caves, where the temperature remained steady for
decade after decade. Instead, the cels were either
destroyed or individually distributed to interested
parties. All told, it's remarkable that the film and
soundtrack have survived almost seventy years in the
shape they're in.
Stokowski was not thrilled with the end product
of "Fantasia" because, reportedly, Disney engineers
played with his recording, snipping off beats to match
the animation and enhancing crescendos. Stravinsky --
the only composer represented who was still living at
the time -- also was appalled at Stokowski's rearrangement
of his work (which Stravinsky sold to Disney for $5,000
because he needed the money at the time), to say nothing
of the dinosaurs prancing about to his ballet. The 1940
audiences were either outraged (the purists), puzzled or
bored (the general public), or snickering that Disney
had "lost it" (the film industry). But some of us loved it.
Yet "Fantasia," like "The Rite of Spring," proved far
more durable than its critics could imagine. At the
time, I was familiar with the music of Beethoven's Sixth
Symphony, Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker", Bach's "Ave Maria,"
and even Ponchielli's "Dance of the Hours," but "The Rite
of Spring," and "The Sorceror's Apprentice," and "Night on
Bald Mountain" as well as Bach's "Toccata and Fugue" were
revelations for me. I didn't know then that Stokowski
tinkered with those scores, but now I have a large number
of various performances of all of them in my recording
collection. My "Fantasia" recordings were issued on LPs
in the 1970s and are treasured as historic artifacts.
In effect, that is what this two-CD album is. It's a
mistake to listen to it as performances comparable to
modern digital recordings. Enjoy them for what they are
- historical efforts to popularize classical music.
Richard Q. Hofacker, Jr., Basking Ridge, NJ
Free Music Review: 5 stars for the performances, 3 for the sound
Hit: 3 Stars
I agree with the numerous reviewers who bemoan the questionable sound quality on these CDs. FANTASIA was revolutionary for its time, featuring multitrack "Fantasound" audio 13 years before the first "stereo" films were released. In the opinions of many, FANTASIA was one of Disney's greatest moments, and it remains a visual masterpiece 66 years after its initial release. The music in the film was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Leopold Stokowski, who was one of the (if not THE) most prominent conductors in the country at the time. The Fantasound recordings must have indeed been impressive to say the least, if one was fortunate enough to see the film in one of the few theatres where it was presented as such. However, since the audio equipment necessary for Fantasound was very expensive for theatres to install, the audio tracks were mixed to conventional monaural for general theatrical release. The mono soundtrack has remained through subsequent rereleases; sadly, the multitrack Fantasound masters and release prints are lost or no longer exist, period. When the film was rereleased in 1982, it was presented with an all new digital soundtrack recorded by Irwin Kostal with an uncredited orchestra. While the original Stokowski performances are the preferred versions PERFORMANCE-WISE, the new recording nevertheless allowed the music to be once again experienced in multi-channel stereo the way it was intended.
For the film's 50th anniversary theatrical (and subsequent home video) release in 1990, Disney utilized the monaural Stokowski tracks along with other surviving sources and production records to try to recreate the Fantasound effect as closely as possible. It is with these new audio mixes that the film is presented today, and from which this CD was made.
The result is mixed, however interesting. I admire Disney's desire to try to recreate the Fantasound experience from existing mono sources (the multitrack masters no longer exist) and we must commend them for doing the best they could with the materials at their disposal; it was an ambitious project, I'm sure. But let's be realistic...you can only "enhance" 65 year old monaural audio tracks so much before the result becomes undesirable. I have nothing against mono recordings--some of the finest material ever put on records, as well as some of the finest films, were recorded and released monaurally--and I would have been completely satisfied if Disney had just properly restored the existing tracks and released them in pure mono. The result would have been simply glorious.
I also have the 1982 Irwin Kostal recordings on CD (another reviewer has uploaded pictures of these so you'll know which CDs I'm talking about). Although the performances are somewhat less inspired than the Stokoswki originals, the digital stereo sound is far easier to take than the original soundtrack, so my preference would be for those CDs - which, unfortunately, are out of print and hard to find.
When the film is rereleased on DVD in the next few years, I would love to see the Stokowski tracks presented in true mono (at least as an option), or even an all new recording, maybe by Mauceri and the H'wood Bowl Orchestra? And ultimately, we can still hold out hope that the multi-channel Fantasound sources may turn up somewhere.
Free Music Review: Sillhouette of Stokowski
Hit: 3 Stars
In the beginning of some of the performances, in the movie itself, one views Leopold Stokowski in a kind of sillhouette, almost mysteriously and mistically beginning each new composition. Unfortunately this DVD has the same effect. It is more a sillhouette than an actual true representation of what was recorded. Some of the mixing problem may stem from stereo "effects" that coincided with image movement, and that got lost in the monaural sound version. But the general sound quality is pretty awful. During the Toccata and Fugue, the sound seems to drop almost off the bottom of the audible chart - something that doesn't bother us as much when viewing the movie, but which is awful as sound. The same over-filtered sensation comes through time and time again - note the opening of the Sugar Plum Fairy. I was looking forward to hearing the Sorcerer's Apprentice, but it is a pale reminder of the magic LS could perform with the orchestral sound. Only in the ending, the transition to Ave Maria and the Ave Maria itself do we get a hint of what the sound really was. If I was at Disney I would scour the multiple recordings of these works, find the one that matches Stoki's version the best, and include that instead. For the Toccata and Mussorgaky/Schubert, use the Kostal or re-record. But please, get rid of this travesty of sound. (I'd even like to see the spoken excerpts in the movie removed, since they date the movie almost more than the sound.)
In Fantasia 2000 you have the opposite problem - decent sound but drab performances.