steviefromalaska
03-23-2016, 12:07 AM
THE BEGINNING OR THE END was a 1947 MGM film, told in semi-documentary style, chronicling the development of the US nuclear program and the dropping of the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki, Japan. The musical score was written by Daniele Amfitheatrof, a Russian born composer who was nominated for an Academy Award a year earlier for Disney’s Song of the South. In 1953 Amfitheatrof collaborated with George Duning on the scoring of SALOME, a laughably bad religious epic starring Rita Hayworth, who was in her mid-thirties, as a 15 year old Salome. He contributed Salome’s required “Dance of the Seven Veils” to the picture and a few other cues. Prior to his Hollywood years, Daniele Amfitheatrof was a classically trained composer-conductor whose 1935 composition, “American Panorama”, was premiered by Dimitri Mitropoulos & the Minneapolis Symphony, and also made recordings of his own works and other classical composers in the 1930s. The “American Panorama” & Borodin Prince Igor Overture recordings date from 1937 and are from European 78 transfers. “The Beginning or the End” excerpts are from acetate transfers and all appeared on a 1994 Label X CD devoted to Amfitheatrof’s music. “Salome” was transferred by me from an original 10 inch American Decca DSD archived LP of cues from the soundtrack, but minus the intrusive dialogue segments on the album for a “music only” presentation of the remaining score. The sound from the 78 & acetates has been improved marginally, but the music is a worthwhile listen despite the deficiency in the sound of these historic recordings. “Salome” has the typical pinched sound for which American Decca was infamous but the sound has been improved using the extraction process which allows a more realistic perspective from typical 2 speaker/ headphone systems today. Musically this download provides an interesting cross section of music from a seriously neglected composer who worked for all of the major studios during Hollywood’s Golden Age, so please excuse the less than ideal sound.
MP3 (320 kbps): https://mega.nz/#!Ixh0QQAL!hJl9XRmw1Frbh733C7zpg5qYJlMNHjG8x2YBJrlCmJQ
FLAC NO LONGER AVAILABLE
MP3 (320 kbps): https://mega.nz/#!Ixh0QQAL!hJl9XRmw1Frbh733C7zpg5qYJlMNHjG8x2YBJrlCmJQ
FLAC NO LONGER AVAILABLE