steviefromalaska
07-27-2015, 02:52 AM
This DSD remix/remaster of the 1964 MY FAIR LADY soundtrack is from a different source than the commercial releases available on CD. My Fair Lady boasted a discrete 6 track stereophonic sound mix, which was state of the art for it's time and still probably sounds better than the majority of today's pictures. A 1 inch multi track tape source of the WB pre-recordings of the songs and Rex Harrison's on set live vocals mixed with the pre-recorded orchestra tracks was the primary source with additions from a 1/2 inch copy of the music & effects tracks and the final mixed soundtrack used to fill in any gaps to offer what I believe is a more enjoyable aural presentation of this fantastic soundtrack recording. How does this remix differ from commercial releases? Well for one, the orchestra is spread out more widely between channels than ever before and secondly, the voices are more solid and present, more like what was heard in movie theaters.
The movie benefits from the excellent expanded orchestrations and conducting by Andre Previn assisted by Robert Tucker's excellent choral work and the virtuoso playing of the Warner Bros. Studio musicians along with Rex Harrison's most polished Academy Award-winning performance as Higgins. I won't get into the debate over Audrey Hepburn's casting except to say that at the time the film was made, Julie Andrews, although obviously a better singer than Hepburn and probably wonderful on the stage, could not have even come close to the level of brilliance displayed by Audrey Hepburn in this role on the screen. Unfortunately precious little of Hepburn's superb performance is to be heard on the vocal soundtrack, which leaves us with a debate over how Marni Nixon, Hepburn's vocal double, compares to Julie Andrews. Other than the fact that her Cockney accent is not so great, Nixon acquits herself quite admirably in the role, although I believe that Hepburn should have been allowed to do more of the singing with Nixon stepping in vocally when the going got rough, such as she did for Deborah Kerr in The King and I. But even so, Marni Nixon is arguably every bit as good a singer as Julie Andrews and performs the songs beautifully, in my opinion.
Still, the Original 1956 Broadway Cast Recording should be a part of any serious music lover's collection, if only to savor Julie Andrews' sterling vocal performance as the original Eliza Doolittle. The 1964 soundtrack should be equally enjoyed on its own merits, as mentioned above, and for allowing one to hear in brilliant stereo sound a more complete and better orchestrated version of Lerner and Loewe's musical masterpiece. I hope you find this alternate non commercial mix as musically satisfying as I do.
FLAC: https://mega.nz/#!8pIygSDC!-hB_J7NUQQHgTbYCChrHW2lYt_GY2yO-sKxpw07n6YQ
Sorry, MP3 no longer available.
The movie benefits from the excellent expanded orchestrations and conducting by Andre Previn assisted by Robert Tucker's excellent choral work and the virtuoso playing of the Warner Bros. Studio musicians along with Rex Harrison's most polished Academy Award-winning performance as Higgins. I won't get into the debate over Audrey Hepburn's casting except to say that at the time the film was made, Julie Andrews, although obviously a better singer than Hepburn and probably wonderful on the stage, could not have even come close to the level of brilliance displayed by Audrey Hepburn in this role on the screen. Unfortunately precious little of Hepburn's superb performance is to be heard on the vocal soundtrack, which leaves us with a debate over how Marni Nixon, Hepburn's vocal double, compares to Julie Andrews. Other than the fact that her Cockney accent is not so great, Nixon acquits herself quite admirably in the role, although I believe that Hepburn should have been allowed to do more of the singing with Nixon stepping in vocally when the going got rough, such as she did for Deborah Kerr in The King and I. But even so, Marni Nixon is arguably every bit as good a singer as Julie Andrews and performs the songs beautifully, in my opinion.
Still, the Original 1956 Broadway Cast Recording should be a part of any serious music lover's collection, if only to savor Julie Andrews' sterling vocal performance as the original Eliza Doolittle. The 1964 soundtrack should be equally enjoyed on its own merits, as mentioned above, and for allowing one to hear in brilliant stereo sound a more complete and better orchestrated version of Lerner and Loewe's musical masterpiece. I hope you find this alternate non commercial mix as musically satisfying as I do.
FLAC: https://mega.nz/#!8pIygSDC!-hB_J7NUQQHgTbYCChrHW2lYt_GY2yO-sKxpw07n6YQ
Sorry, MP3 no longer available.