Gottfried Huppertz

[giles.enders]

For anyone in the London area there are two performances of the Fritz Lang film Metropolis with a live symphony orchestra performing the original soundtrack. The composer is Gottfried Huppertz.  It is one of the biggest scores ever written for a film and anticipates later film music by giving each character and idea its own leitmotif. Having heard this music I can say it is some of the finest classical music ever written for film.  It is on at the London Roundhouse on October 10 & 11.

[mbhaub]

I would so much like to be there for that! The Huppertz score is wonderful, and it's too bad the recording that was made will likely never be released. But there's always the soundtrack on the dvd. In November, a new dvd/bluray is to be released which finally, after all these years, restores all (or most) of the missing parts. Someone found a print of the original in South America somewhere. Do you know what they're showing?

[giles.enders]

At the Round House they are showing the restored print with the extra twenty minutes and that means an extra twenty minuts of live music.  I believe they are also going to release the film in the cinemas with the extra footage and music.

[Alan Howe]

Huppertz's music for the films Metropolis and Die Nibelungen are now available:

https://www.mdt.co.uk/huppertz-gottfried-metropolis-rundfunk-sinfonieorchester-berlin-frank-strobel-pan-classics-2cds.html (2 CDs)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0127WVNMM/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1 (4CDs!)

[M. Yaskovsky]

And please don't forget https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/gottfried-huppertz-zur-chronik-von-grieshuus/hnum/4135477 which, to my opnion, is as good as Metropolis and/or Nibelungen.
Strange though, I own a one disc version of Metropolis' music by Huppertz/Strobel. The new release has 2 CD's.... Has some new music found or being restored or what?

[Alan Howe]

It seems to be the complete score:

For the first time on CD, Pan Classics presents the complete, recently reconstructed film score for Fritz Lang's silent movie Metropolis (1927): nearly two and a half hours of music, performed by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under the baton of Frank Strobel.
https://www.mdt.co.uk/huppertz-gottfried-metropolis-rundfunk-sinfonieorchester-berlin-frank-strobel-pan-classics-2cds.html

[TerraEpon]

Metropolis was recorded in full back in 2010, the CD release was just only released as a single CD of highlights. They are now (woo!) releasing the complete recording.

As for Die Nibelungen, that's been out for some years now.

[Alan Howe]

As for Die Nibelungen, that's been out for some years now.

Oh, quite. That's why I was bringing the thread up to date.

[Ilja]

I hope I'm forgiven for noting that Gottfried Huppertz' score for Zur Chronik von Grieshuus (The Chronicles of the Gray House, 1925) has been released by PAN without the forum noticing. It can also be heard on Spotify. More information here: https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/gottfried-huppertz-zur-chronik-von-grieshuus/hnum/4135477.
It is a very different beast from Huppertz' famous scores for Die Nibelungen and Metropolis, befitting what is basically a dark melodrama. As a result, it is moody and introspective rather than ecstatic, but with some very good (romantic) music indeed, and as an isolated piece of music it works a bit better than his more famous works, I think.

[Alan Howe]

My problem with all these scores is their 'bitty' nature; in other words, the question for me is whether a lot of bits of fine music actually add up to something worthy of repeated listening.

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks, Ilja. Listening now...

[adriano]

You are right, Alan. The music of "Metropolis" is, in my modest opinion, totally overrated. But it's an effective (and rather bombastic) "mood accompaniment", having many "empty" sequences based on primitive modulations with no real psychological, or additional contrapunctal interpretation of the image. A good example of a film soundtrack which cannot be listened separately - or, if ever, only in the form of an extracted/edited symphonic suite. I tried to listen to this "complete" CD several times, but always got bored after about 30 minutes. But together with the image it works.
As far as the DVD and BluRay releases of "Metropolis" are concerned, so far I was not able to get (of both) a clean copy without stops or jumps in the playing. Sloppy transfers. My own recording and DVD transfer from TV has not all this.
The newly found footage, now re-inserted, is disturbing, since, in comparison with the main bulk (which has been perfectly restored) is in really bad condition. They should have made this footage available on bonus tracks. Sometimes it's not a good thing to make "complete" editions if one has to make such compromises - and I am not sure if archaeological gimmicks of this sort make films better.
A similar case is Edmund Meisel's 1925 score to Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin". Many years ago I had planned to record this of CD because my (deceased) friend Arthur Kleiner, who had reconstructed this score, hoped so. But after having studied it, I changed my mind. In case, at least there would have been one advantage: the score is not as endlessly long as "Metropolis".

[Mark Thomas]

Well, I hadn't listened to any of Huppertz' film scores before and my initial impression was that this is attractive music, felicitously scored. And so it is, but after 30 minutes or so the extremely episodic and repetitive nature of it wears you down to boredom. It isn't intended to be listened to for its own sake and just doesn't work when it is. As I listened to the first few minutes I was expecting to disagree with Alan and Adriano, but you're right, chaps!

[adriano]

 

[Alan Howe]

Well, after all this is film music. It's not designed to be listened to without the visual image.