Concertos and such for film scores

[jerfilm]

As I was doing a little research on Oscar Levant for the thread about him, I was thinking (incorrectly, as it turned out) that he had played a part in the 1947 film Night Song.   I first saw this film in a horrible 16mm print for early television when I was a teen.  And really fell for the piano concerto, the "Concerto for Sweeney" that the blind composer Dana Andrews couldn't seem to complete.  And I had not paid attention to the credits to see who actually wrote the concerto.  It was performed, at the conclusion of the film by Artur Rubinstein with the NY Phil. under Ormandy.  An impressive thing for a 17 year old....

Well I wrote to Mr. Ormandy in Philadelphi to ask who composed it and if it had been recorded commercially.  I got a very kind note back; he knew nought of a recording but told me that Leith Stevens (1909-1970) had written the concerto and it was Piano Concerto in c.  He also gave me Mr. Stevens address in California.  So being a persistent teen, I wrote to him.  No, sadly, his concerto had never been recorded - it was written in 1947 during a musicians strike and union leader Petrillo had put a ban on any recording of the work.  As I recall, they had defied Petrillo  and went ahead with the film and that's what p'd him off.  Stevens said he had tried for over 20 years to get the ban lifted, without success.   I just read the NY Times review of the film - he hated the music and about all he did like was Hoagy Carmichael's role as Andrews friend and mentor......

It finally got done, again sadly, after Mr. Stevens death.   If you've never heard it, the clip from the film is on YouTube - 1947 sound, of course.  And they chopped about 2 minutes off of the ten and a half minute concerto.  The CD is still available and is complete.

Nothing profound, but I still like it.  And beware, the film is a real tear jerker.

Sorry for the ramble.....there has been a lot of interesting music written for films and not much of it has been taken very seriously.  Perhaps there's room for some discussion here.

Jerry

[Lionel Harrsion]

Sorry for the ramble.....there has been a lot of interesting music written for films and not much of it has been taken very seriously.  Perhaps there's room for some discussion here.

Jerry

I echo Jerry's suggestion about the discussion of film music, some of which merits serious consideration in my view.  Beginning with Korngold and Bernard Herrmann, composers wrote music of extraordinary quality which not only contributed greatly to the mood and and narrative of the film but, in many cases, is worthy of a separate existence as free-standing concert music.

[alberto]

With limited knowledge of the topic,
I am very fond of Naxos CD "Warsaw Concerto and other piano concerto for the movies" (Naxos 8.554323. P. Fowke piano, P.O Duinn cond., RTE Concert Orch.)
Works by:
-Richard Addinsell
-Jack Beaver
-Miklos Rosza
-Nino Rota
-Richard Rodney Bennett
-Hubert Bath
-Bernard Hermann
-Charles Williams
-Leonard Pennario
Mostly in the remote days of LP (or- better-...... short playing vinyl) obviously the Addinsell, but also the Rosza (Spellbound Concerto), the Bath (Cornish Rhapsody) and the Williams (The dream of Olwen) were fairly often recorded.

[TerraEpon]

Gershwin actually originally wrote about 2/3rd of his Second Rhapsody for the film Delicious (under the title 'New York Rhapsody') before expanding it into the work known known. It's recorded in the earlier form on another 'Piano Concertos from Movies' disc which many of the above ones as well.

There's also an interesting set of arrangements that were originally on the LP for Parrish with three themes for that film, plus Gone With the Wind and A Summer Place (available on the CD here http://www.screenarchives.com/title_detail.cfm/ID/10972/JOHN-PAUL-JONES-PARRISH/ )

[mbhaub]

Sorry for the ramble.....there has been a lot of interesting music written for films and not much of it has been taken very seriously.  Perhaps there's room for some discussion here.

Jerry

At least in my corner of the world, film music is becoming more and more frequently played in concerts. Last year we had a whole evening of classic scores: Captain Blood, The Magnificent Seven, North by Northwest, et al. And just last evening we had a fine concert beginning with Korngold's Much Ado About Nothing. Not film music, but just to hear Korngold live is a treat. The audience was totally delighted. We're getting the violin concerto (from film music) soon, and keep the fingers crossed, but talk of doing Korngold's Symphony is in the air. Sure, the Star Wars extravaganzas are still going strong, but slowly and steadily, film music is making its way in. And there is so much wonderful music to explore. Another good sign is the long overdue re-release of the RCA Classic Film Scores. Add to it the ongoing Chandos recordings, Naxos and the magnificent releases from Tribute Film Classics and I believe that there a lot of people taking film music quite seriously.

[Hovite]

Mostly in the remote days of LP (or- better-...... short playing vinyl) obviously the Addinsell, but also the Rosza (Spellbound Concerto), the Bath (Cornish Rhapsody) and the Williams (The dream of Olwen) were fairly often recorded.

Another concerto worth searching for is the Mansell Concerto by Kenneth Leslie Smith, from a film called The Woman's Angle. If my memory is correct, it is rather short, and so could easily be used to help fill up a disc. The film itself seems to have been a failure. One critic described it as "a grim little sample of bad writing, bad acting and bad directing all around" (no mention of the music).

[Arbuckle]

I always wanted to hear the Phantom of the Opera's Piano Concerto in it's complete (fictional) version! After all, none other than Franz Liszt played it and was enthusiastic about it! There's a four minute version on some CD that just doesn't cut it for me, of course the movie is one of my all time favorites, esp the version with Claude Rains. But all in all, movie piano concertos are fun for me.

[adriano]

... and there is also quite a luscius and uncommon Hollyoodian Piano Concerto by Shostakovich, entitled "The Assault on the Red Hill", to the Stalinist movie "The Unforgettable Year 1919". It was first recorded over here (with a wrong title translation "The Assault on Beautiful Gorky") in 1983 by EMI (Dmitry Alexeev, Piano") and later on, in 2000, I conducted the same piece in Moscow on a Marco Polo/Naxos recording (Pianist Ellena Alekseyeva) - the two artists are nor related.
Regards from Zurich/Switzerland
Adriano
(conductor-composer)

[semloh]

As a longtime fan of film music, I had been thinking about this for the last week or so, but the exchanges are already so thick and fast, and the generosity of members brings a constant flood of downloads to explore, so I thought maybe this was something for later down the track (as perhaps early music and baroque may be). Deciding who would count as unsung - especially from an international perspective - may be an issue; and, I can't imagine that we want to drift into electronic, pop, lounge, etc., which accounts for a lot of film music, so deciding what would be suitable for this forum might also be a problem. Just a thought.

[Delicious Manager]

Adriano just beat me to posting in connection with Shostakovich's so-called Assault on Beautiful Gorky. I can still mention, however the Cello Concerto included in Korngold's 1946 film score for Deception. This was later slightly expanded and published as an independent piece.

[jerfilm]

My favorite is Max Steiner.  But did Steiner write any concert music at all beyond, say, the long suite from Gone With the Wind?

Jerry

[eschiss1]

well, if we're no longer talking about concertos but just film scores as concert music, I think the suite (on cpo) arranged from The Night of the Iguana (1964, music by Benjamin Frankel) would work very well...

[Delicious Manager]

well, if we're no longer talking about concertos but just film scores as concert music, I think the suite (on cpo) arranged from The Night of the Iguana (1964, music by Benjamin Frankel) would work very well...

The title of the thread is Concertos and such for film scores, so I thought everyone was on topic.

[jerfilm]

They are on topic.  And that's why I hedged a bit in the thread title...........

Jerry

[eschiss1]

My. I thought my specs needed a nudge in their specs.