Rerecording Max Steiner
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REVIEWS 469 Rerecording Max Steiner Max Steiner, The Three Musketeers; Miklós Rózsa, The King’s Thief; Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Captain Blood; Victor Young, Scaramouche. Brandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra/Richard Kaufman. Naxos 8.557704, 2005. Max Steiner, The Adventures of Mark Twain. Moscow Symphony Orchestra and Chorus / William Stromberg. Naxos 8.557470 (CD); 5.110087 (DVD-A), 2004. Max Steiner, King Kong. Moscow Symphony Orchestra/William Stromberg. Naxos 8.557700, 2004. brian c. thompson n this age of shrinking record for an adventurous catalog that far on Marco Polo are single discs catalogs, new recordings includes a substantial number of of King Kong (8.223763), They Died I of old film music are rare classic film scores. The music of with Their Boots On (8.225079), and sometimes precious things. Max Steiner, Georges Auric, Arthur and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre Quality sound recordings are Honegger, Bernard Herrmann, (8.225149); combinations of All especially valuable for teaching Franz Waxman and many other This, and Heaven Too / A Stolen film music, but the market appears leading film composers of the 20th Life (8.225218), The Lost Patrol / to be far too small for most record century have been re-constructed, Virginia City (8.223870), and Son companies to invest in. In this recorded, and packaged with of Kong / The Most Dangerous Game climate the current discography great care. The availability of this (8.225166); and a collection that of even a composer of Max series reflects the desire of the includes selections from Steiner’s Steiner’s stature is scant. Despite label’s management to develop scores for The Three Musketeers his prolificacy, his acknowledged a catalog of important but often (8.223607) and The Charge of the importance, and the enduring neglected 20th-century music, and Light Brigade (8.223608). popularity of many of the films the commitment of the musicians Earlier this year film music he worked on, few recordings of behind most of these productions: titles began to appear on Marco Steiner’s film scores have been the Swiss conductor Adriano and Polo’s sister label, Naxos, in a released on CD. Aside from various the team of composer John Morgan new Film Music Classics series. collections of “highlights,” there and conductor William Stromberg. Like the Marco Polo discs, they have only been recordings of the Most of their recordings have are attractively packaged, but as music from the most famous films: been made either by the Moscow Naxos releases they are sold for primarily, Gone With the Wind, Symphony Orchestra at Mosfilm just $6.98 – a remarkable price Casablanca and King Kong, but even Studio or by the Slovak Radio for some of the finest film music these are now mostly out of print. Orchestra in Bratislava. While ever composed. Already issued For this reason, the efforts of the recording in eastern Europe has on Naxos are Auric’s La Belle et la Naxos and Marco Polo record helped to keep costs down, overall, Bete (8.557707); the Herrmann/ labels should be more widely the performances have been Newman score for The Egyptian known. outstanding and the savings have (8.557702); Honegger’s Les Over the past decade the Marco been diverted into quality booklets. Miserables (8.557486); Waxman’s Polo label has become known The Steiner scores produced thus Objective, Burma! (8.557706); 470 THE JOURNAL OF FILM MUSIC Tiomkin’s Red River (8.557699); (and most important), Steiner’s Warner Bros. put some effort into collections of scores by Deutsch original annotated sketches, which presenting an accurate portrayal (8.557701) and Kilar (8.557703); a contain every note he composed of Twain, but historical facts were collection of horror film music by for this film.” (p. 20) The original not the highest priority. This is Salter and Skinner titled Monster job of orchestrating Steiner’s music essentially a war-time, feel-good Music (8.557705); and three had fallen to Bernhard Kaun, who film, presenting the grand sweep of Steiner titles. One of these is a worked wonders with the limits the life of an American icon. recording of Steiner’s music for of the RKO studio orchestra. For The Adventures of Mark The Three Musketeers appropriately Morgan’s re-orchestration is Twain, Steiner produced a score of packaged with Korngold’s music perhaps closer to what Steiner had nearly 100 minutes, opening with for Captain Blood and Young’s indicated in his sketches. The end an overture. The orchestration, music for Scaramouche (8.557704). result is not exactly what is heard again by Bernhard Kaun, was full Steiner’s score for The Three on the sound track of the film but and included a number of non- Musketeers dates from 1935, a highly effective digital recording. orchestral instruments as well the same year he won his first The Moscow Symphony Orchestra’s as chorus for the finale. As with Academy Award (for The Informer). performance is outstanding, Little Women, Gone with the Wind, One of the few really successful capturing both the excitement and and others, the film’s historical things about the RKO adaptation poignancy of this groundbreaking setting afforded opportunities of Dumas’s Musketeers was the score. for setting the scene through music. For this 1994 recording, By comparison, the music for quotation. The earlier segments of John Morgan reconstructed nearly The Adventures of Mark Twain might The Adventures of Mark Twain offered twenty minutes of Steiner’s seem an unexpected choice for some of the best opportunities for score, providing six cues and commercial release. Although colorful scoring. Steiner responds some of the finest music ever to this work earned Max Steiner by invigorating his late Romantic accompany a sword fight. This fine an Academy Award nomination idiom with splashes of period recording was made in 1994 by for best score (losing to his own song. In “Gold Rush” he hints at the Brandenburg Philharmonic, an score for Since You Went Away), the folk ballad “Oh, My Darling ensemble created in 1992 for the the Warner Bros. film is not well Clementine” before quoting the performance of early film scores. known. Produced in 1942, it was chorus in full. Quotations from The other Steiner discs issued by released two years later and soon “Oh, Susanna,” “The Battle Hymn Naxos are King Kong (8.557700) drifted into obscurity. A 1988 of the Republic,” and “Dixie” and The Adventures of Mark Twain release on VHS is now out of evoke 19th-century America in (8.557470). print and the film has yet to be the film’s Civil War-era segments. The King Kong disc originally released on DVD. Director Irving In each of these examples and appeared on Marco Polo in 1997. Rapper—who would complete elsewhere, the vernacular emerges For it, Morgan re-orchestrated the another biopic Rhapsody in Blue in naturally from the rich orchestral entire score – over seventy-two 1945—was initially reluctant to textures. In later parts of the film, minutes of music in this recording. take on this film. He consented Hawaiian guitar, pentatonic scales, His knowledge of this score is when actor Frederic March was and quotations from Arne’s “Rule extensive and dates back to the selected for the title role. March Britannia” accompany Clemens’s 1976 recording made by Fred had been a film actor since 1929 world travels. Twain’s theme itself Steiner, for which Morgan assisted and in 1932 had won the first of is first heard in the open credits in selecting tracks and writing the two Best Actor Oscars for Dr. Jekyll and subsequently appears in liner notes. In the liner notes for and Mr. Hyde (the second would various settings. Not surprisingly, the Marco Polo recording Morgan come in 1946 for his performance given Steiner’s abilities, this discusses how he reconstructed the as the returning WWII veteran theme, jaunty one moment and score from “the complete mixed in The Best Years of Our Lives). In sentimental the next, is perfectly soundtrack of the original film, The Adventures of Mark Twain, the analogous to the film’s depiction acetates of some of the music, and 47-year-old March gives a fine of the title character. If the music a few recently-discovered optical performance as Clemens, playing of Mark Twain is more about music stems containing several him from his early twenties to the color than depth, one can hardly additional cues. Secondly, the end of his life, and is especially fault the composer, and there surviving full scores, and thirdly successful as the elderly writer. is much to admire in Steiner’s REVIEWS 471 score. To create a reconstruction second recording of the Mark Twain way that transcends the period of that can fit on one CD Morgan score. They recorded 38 minutes of its composition.” (p. 6) Here we has omitted the overture, which this music with the Brandenburg have a full 70 minutes, wonderfully mostly comprises themes heard Philharmonic in 1993 (RCA Victor played by the Moscow Symphony elsewhere in the score, and made Red Seal 09026 62660 2). In the Orchestra, and finely recorded by other cuts. Otherwise, the changes liner notes Morgan writes that he engineer Genadiy Papin at Mosfilm are slight. One example is the proposed re-recording the score as Studios in February 2003. Those touching “Sorrow,” an episode in a memorial to the victims of the willing to shell out a bit more which Clemens sings to his dying 9/11 terrorist attacks. “Although may opt for the DTS Surround wife, where Morgan effectively the film and score are virtually Sound version.