Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Music From The Adventures Of Robin Hood (1988 Re-recording of 1938 Score)

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Music reviews of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Music From The Adventures Of Robin Hood (1988 Re-recording of 1938 Score)

Music Review: What a wasted opportunity!
Rating: 2 Stars

Well, I can honestly say this 1983 re-recording of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's legendary score is a major disappointment.

This is not a knock against the Utah Symphony Orchestra or its conductor Varujan Kojian. The quality of the performance is top-shelf (although I think Charles Gerhardt and the National Philharmonic Orchestra's rendition of the Robin/Merry Men fanfare is more appropriately bombastic). My problem is-and this is a gripe I have with ALL soundtrack albums-that Korngold's music has been severely edited and, in some instances, butchered beyond recognition. Huge chunks of music are missing from this album. The opening sequence, with Prince John's men attacking the Saxons, is absent, as is Robin's first appearance and rescue of Much. Robin's meetings with Little John and Friar Tuck are ridiculously pared down to nearly nothing. The scene where the Merry Men set and execute their trap for Sir Guy of Gisbourne in Sherwood is chopped in half, as is the music for Much's battle with the assassin Dicken and King Richard's stay in Sherwood. The coronation scene is cut off before Richard reveals himself to John. The finale where John is exiled and Robin is re-knighted is needlessly edited. The end credits music is completely absent. But the most unforgivable chopping comes with the climactic battle music. The fight in the throne room is just GONE, and the savage sword battle between Robin and Gisbourne...

...good grief, whoever decided to edit the music for this recording should be slapped. Repeatedly. With an armored glove. The music for this battle, with its ultraviolent orchestration and high-pitched xylophone percussion, is the high point of Korngold's score in the movie. For this recording, it's MUTILATED. We get the chase down the stairs, then an abrupt jump to the shadows bashing it out on the wall, then we get a grotesque, discordant, and just plain stupid bridge that was never in Korngold's score to begin with, then another bizarre jump to Robin getting backed against the wall, then ANOTHER jump to Robin freeing Marian. What the heck is this? The powers at Varese Sarabande clearly had access to Korngold's original compositions, especially with his son George producing the album. There was not one reason for them to butcher his score like this. But they did, as the end result is an album that, while nicely performed by a group of talented musicians giving it their all, is a disgrace to Korngold's work. To listen to this album, you'd never be able to understand why Korngold won an Oscar for this music.

Making this album an even bigger embarrassment is-surprise, surprise-the ROBIN HOOD DVD, which features an audio-only track in which every single bit of Korngold's music can be heard in all its glory, digitally remastered to the point where it sounds as brand-spanking new as any soundtrack album just coming off the assembly line. If the original soundtrack recording from 1938 still exists and is in pristine condition, why in blue blazes doesn't Warner Bros. release it all on a two-disc soundtrack album like they did with John Williams' SUPERMAN? After all, they released the soundtrack to James Cagney's YANKEE DOODLE DANDY just recently to coincide with the DVD release. Why don't they do the same for ROBIN HOOD and let people hear Korngold's score for what it is? Because I just have to say, it would beat the pants off this misbegotten Varese re-recording, and unlike this album, a full-blown Korngold reissue would actually be well worth the money.

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