William Stromberg - Korngold: Adventures Of Robin Hood
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Music CD Cover
Artist: William StrombergComposer: Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Conductor: William T. Stromberg
Orchestra: Moscow Symphony Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2009-08-03
Music Label: Marco-Polo
Soundtracks:
- Main Title - Muted Fanfare
- Sir Guy And Robin Hood
- The Meeting
- The Banquet
- Robin Hood Outside - Robin Hood's Entrance - The Fight - The Chase Of Robin Hood..
- Robin Hood Meets Little John - Robin Hood Fights With Little John - Jolly Friendship
- The Oath And The Black Arrow
- The Fish - Robbin Hood's Fight With Friar Tuck
- A New Companion (Friar Tuck)
- Robin Hood Attacks Sir Guy's Party - The Attack
- Flirt - Feast - Poor People's Feast - Gold
- The Poor People
- The Tournament - Robin Hood's Appearnace At The Archery Field...
- Arrest Of Robin Hood
- Tribunal - The Jail
- The Gallows - The Flight Of Robin Hood
- Love Scene
- Arrest Of Lady Marian
- Much: The Knife Fight
- Richard Meets Robin Hood - Richard The Lion-Heart
- The Procession
- Prince John
- The Battle - The Duel - The Victory
- Epilogue
- End Cast
Free Music Notes for Korngold: Adventures Of Robin Hood
Free Music Review: The First Korngold Reference Recording Of The 21st Century!
Hit: 5 Stars
1. Make that six stars out of five! A quick comparison of this CD with analog-reference recordings BMG RCA Victor 60863-2-RG, 1972 and BMG RCA Victor 0912-2-RG, 1975 (both CDs conducted by Charles Gerhardt, performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra, and available from Amazon.com), and DCC Compact Classics GZS-1094, 1996 (originally recorded in 1961, conducted by Lionel Newman and Kurt Graunke, performed by an uncredited Munich orchestra, and available from Amazon.com) tells all: we have had a regime change!2. This CD is one of a quartet of releases on CD and DVD marking the 65th anniversary of the film (see reviews of the film's music on DVD-Video release Warner Home Video 65131 and DVD-Audio release Marco Polo 5.220501).
3. The score for The Adventures of Robin Hood (TAORH) won Erich Wolfgang Korngold (EWK) an Academy Award for what was his "first" swashbuckler score. He had declined to take on-screen-compositional credit for the score of CAPTAIN BLOOD, 1936, even though he wrote all but the 2-3 minutes he lifted from Liszt. A 12-minute suite Korngold distilled from his full score may have been the first film music ever performed in a concert hall (which was conducted by the composer also in 1938). Proceeding beyond the original sound track (OST), this CD contains the first recording ever made of the complete score for TAORH. It includes music that was edited out prior to the film's release (now restored in Track 19) and (in Track 6) music that never made it into the final score and, therefore, has never been heard before! The CD also presents the first modern recording in the same (or extremely close to) tempos that EWK used when he recorded the OST.
4. The restoration/orchestration of this new reference re-recording is top-of-the-line, first rate (so is the miking/mixing). Mr. Morgan's restoration and Messrs. Morgan and Stromberg's orchestration yield a score jam packed with instances of instruments brought to the fore (pick any track) and probably not so distinctly heard (or heard at all) since Korngold conducted the score. Even Little John's whistling is included (it had to be lowered an octave before any male could whistle it which means that Korngold probably used a lady whistler!). Perfectly presented percussion passages abound (again, pick any track). Interludes that under-line EWK's light-hearted sense of musical humor are copious (e.g., the Little John cues in Track 6, the Friar Tuck cues in Track 8, and the Sir Guy, High Sheriff of Nottingham, Little John, and Friar Tuck slapstick interactions cues in Track 12).
5. Mr. Stromberg's conducting is simply superb. The Moscow Symphony Orchestra has been carefully and skillfully crafted into a disciplined whole that mesmerizes the unwary (or even wary) listener to the point of near total distraction; the ensemble is also extremely well rehearsed. The latter hard work rewards us big time especially in the banquet fight and escape (Track 5), the forest attack (Track 10), the archery tournament capture (Track 14), the escape from the gallows (Track 16), and the final battle and sword fight (Track 23). Throughout, the music repeatedly refuses to, well, stay on the page! Properly presented tempos and transitions between tempos as well as back-and-forth "dueling" of tempos/themes have much to do with it.
6. The multi-authored CD booklet provides a special treat and a substantial bonus. Film historian Mr. Rudy Behlmer sets the scene with little known and fascinating background facts and anecdotes about both the score and the film. Principal Korngold biographer Mr. Brendan Carroll builds on information in his biography, and provides one of the most comprehensive and lucent (not to mention riveting) non-technical, film-score analysis written to date. Mr. Carroll has also provided scoring-session photos that have never been published before (including one with EWK on the podium and his parents sitting off to the side--wow!). Restoration guru and master orchestral arranger Mr. John Morgan describes the psychological roller coaster he experienced in his quest to fully restore the complete score for TAORH and offers a number of commentary gems including that during the OST recording, the pace of Korngold's music would often require "turning a page every two seconds!" (Korngold did not use a conductor's score, but conducted from the full orchestral score.)
6. A final observation. The primary problem with EWK's music (and, especially, his film symphonies) is that it is too darn addictive. Even when you manage to stop playing a disc and go cold turkey, the music can go on in the mind's ear for weeks. With this CD, I wager, the rehab process could jump from weeks to months. Fair warning.
William Flanigan, Ph.D.
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