MYSTERIOUS ISLAND Soundtrack Bernard Herrmann
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Edition: Music CDMusic reviews of MYSTERIOUS ISLAND Soundtrack Bernard Herrmann
Music Review: New Recording, New Label, New Pinnacle!
Rating: 5 Stars
1. Folks, what we have here is a Bernard Herrmann "sampler" combined with and as a result of a fully-restored, over-the-top classic-film score from master music magicians Messrs. John Morgan and William Stromberg.
2. This MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1961) re-recording is plain-and-simple overwhelming. Literally spine tingling or body shivering (depending on your constitution) filmatic music--all 61 tracks!
3. You will also find strong inducements for the hairs on the back of your neck to again stand at attention as a result of variations on and recycling of sensational scores (and proto-scores) Mr. Herrmann has woven into the musical fabric of MYSTERIOUS ISLAND. Easily recognizable are musical back-and-forth threads from his music for JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (1959), NORTH BY NORTH WEST (1959), JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963), and several others. Like just about all great (and prodigious) film composers from the so-called "Golden Age" of USA film production, Mr. Herrmann had a strong propensity to and talent for creating and recycling thematic variations.
4. This recording is one of the two kick-off releases from a new CD label--Tribute Film Classics (the other release is Mr. Hermann's exceptionally unique score for FAHRENHEIT 451[1966]). This label means business from the get-go. Both its débuts deliver a not-to-be surpassed, definitively restored and conducted classic film-score recording as well as superbly produced, pure listening pleasure to the maximum extent possible with the now nearly 30-year-old CD technical standard. Tribute's star line up is one of a kind: classic-film score Restoration/Arrangement Masters John Morgan and William Stromberg with Maestro Stromberg on the conducting podium for starters.
5. The music dramatically realized on this CD far exceeds and out distances any and all of its predecessors including versions recorded with the composer at the helm. (Film-score composers are not necessarily the best conducting conduits for their art form.) As is the case with all Morgan/Stromberg productions, the film score is definitive. It includes all the music composed by Mr. Herrmann for the film including what was cut from the final version as originally released as well as the correction of mistakes (due to miscopied notes) made in the original sound track plus a bit more.
6. The conductor is at one with his orchestra (his customary style). It sounds unlikely that much, if any, sight reading was involved. But, to the contrary, much rehearsal time seems to have been the norm. Engineering and editing are top of the line. Even thought we are limited to two sound channels, you feel you are in the middle of the orchestra and within elbow reach of individual instrumentalists when it's their turn to move to the forefront. Maestro Stromberg's unique physical arrangement of instruments and clusters of instruments adds much to this starling experience.
7. The CD booklet is extensive. It even lists all the instruments that made up the orchestra. Although a bit overloaded with recollections, it springs to life with John Morgan's "Recording Notes" (Morgan's writings on score restorations are always a treat, but always too short!) and Kevin Scott's outstanding track by track analysis (although we could live with a bit less academic stretching between Herrmann and classic-music composers going back centuries).
8. The closest you will likely get to the composer musically--even if you're a relative!
William F. Flanigan, Jr., Ph.D.
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