wimpel69
11-25-2011, 04:11 PM
Upgraded to FLAC. Link available below. This is my own rip.
Please add to my reputation if you download my material. Thank you!
A collection of excellent Max Steiner scores, with his music for Band of Angels (aka "Gone with the Wind Jr")
and Death of a Scoundrel (starring Mr. and Mrs Zsa-Zsa Gabor) at the center.
Enjoy!! :)
Tracks
1. Prelude (04:14)
2. Starwood (02:51)
3. The Slave Market (08:13)
4. Amantha (02:47)
5. Pointe du Loup (01:57)
6. Burning of the Cotton Crops (03:56)
7. Hamish Bond (06:25)
8. Reunion (06:12)
Tracks 1 - 8 from "Band of Angels" (Total Time: 38:57)
9. Opening & Closing Themes (04:08)
10. Mother, Mother (02:53)
11. Stephanie (01:52)
12. Waltz (01:21)
13. Kelly Blues (02:36)
Tracks 9 - 13 from "Death of a Scoundrel" (Total Time: 13:50)
14. Forward the Light Brigade (03:22)
from "Charge of the Light Brigade"
15. Symphonie Moderne (08:24)
from "Four Wives"
16. Indian Idyll (03:26)
from "The Searchers"
17. Petite Valse (02:03)
from "A Stolen Life"
Music Composed and Conducted by Max Steiner
Played by The Warner Brothers Studio Orchestra
& The RKO Studio Orchestra
"Although I could not agree with the writer of this album�s booklet notes who asserts that Max Steiner�s score for Band of Angels (1957) was one of the composer�s most memorable scores, I do agree that it has been unjustly ignored. There is plenty of good material in it but insufficient to justify 38 minutes devoted to it, for tedium sets in after a time on some tracks notably �The Slave Market� at eight minutes duration.
The film Band of Angels starred Clark Gable and Yvonne de Carlo (the Catherine Zeta Jones of the 1950s). Ms de Carlo played a Kentucky Belle who, on the death of her father, not only discovers she is penniless but worse, that she has the wrong coloured blood coursing through her veins! As a result she is sold into slavery, bought by a New Orleans millionaire (Gable) and becomes his mistress. Warners spent a pile on the misguided production directed with a wooden spoon by Raoul Walsh hoping that it would become a second Gone With the Wind. In the event it turned out to be a burlesque of almost every pre-Civil War story ever filmed � complete with rambling deep south mansions, spiritual intoning black slaves, exotic mulattos, powerful cotton barons from New Orleans and sadistic slave traders etc. The supporting cast included Torin Thatcher as a sea captain and Efrem Zimbalist Jnr as a Union officer.
Steiner�s Prelude is written in his grand, sweeping Late Romantic style. There is the big romantic tune and material suggestive of the rich comfortable living of the deep south aristocracy surrounded by submissive slaves � with equally cosy �I know my place� material on banjo and sentimental cellos. But there are also dramatic undercurrents too epitomised by a wild, strongly rhythmic dance that menaces.
For �Starwood� there is more feminine music commencing with material that seems to suggest a heroine dressed in flowing crinolines and big hat carrying a parasol to shield her from the sun as she rides stately in her carriage. When the tempo changes you can visualise her exchanging it for an evening at the ball. In �The Slave Market� Steiner toughens this theme and gives it a swagger that one would associate with Gable. The rest of the track includes material that quite clearly alludes to the vicious slave trader and the sea captain and there is a distinct French flavour to the music appropriate to the film�s New Orleans location. �Amantha� is much darker full of menace; with swirling strings and biting brass and canting/galloping rhythms. The big romantic tune in Pointe du Loup is rudely interrupted by a call to arms by bugles and drums.
One of the strongest tracks is �Burning if the Cotton Crops� in which Steiner�s heavily accented rhythms and harmonies give an intensely dramatic and very realistic picture of the scene. �Hamish Bond� has tragic overtones and the concluding �Reunion� brings the big romantic tune to a full flowering.
Much more impressive is the other rarely heard Steiner score on this disc for the tough melodrama Death of a Scoundrel (RKO, 1956). Quoting from Octopus book, The RKO Story, "� two hours� worth of rake�s progress, complete with betrayal, thievery, multiple seduction, suicide, murder and the added fillip of watching George Sanders cavort with his actual ex-wife (Zsa Zsa Gabor) and stab his real-life brother (Tom Conway) in the back." The film also starred Yvonne de Carlo. Sanders played the ruthless Clementi Sabourin, killed by one of the business associates he has trodden on, on his way up the ladder. The �Opening Theme� is one of the most darkly powerful that Max Steiner ever wrote. The music is convoluted and there are agonised cries from the horns as though they emanate from some wild beast. This music then softens into a typical bitter sweet romantic melody, followed by a little jazz-inflected music to indicate the New York setting, plus material featuring the cimbalom suggestive of Sabourin�s middle-European background (he had betrayed his brother to the secret police). �Mother, mother� pursues this middle-European association further with the cimbalom prominent in a string based mournful folk tune. �Waltz� is another cimbalom led folk tune. �Stephanie� (played by Nancy Gates) is a warm romantic melody for the young actress Sabourin promotes but cannot seduce.
Charles Gerhardt recorded the �Forward the Light Brigade� cue (from The Charge of the Light Brigade) in his tribute to Steiner in �Now Voyager� in RCA�s Classic Film Score series. It was one of the highlights of that album and here conducted by the composer it sounds even better, crisper and thrilling � even if it lacks Gerhardt�s stereo image. This is one of those occasions where you wish that they would repeat the stirring middle section rather than the more prosaic strict-tempo march that begins and ends the composition.
The Symphonie Moderne from Four Wives was also recorded by Gerhardt on the same album described in the preceding paragraph but this time I do prefer the added vibrancy of this Gershwinesque composition on the stereo recording
From The Searchers there is Indian Idyll a lovely work that has a Delian delicacy with its steady but gentle rhythmic ostinato for harp and little bells. The final excerpt is from the Bette Davis vehicle, A Stolen Life, the Petit Valse - witty and full of character.
Recommended to all Steiner enthusiasts!"
Ian Lace, MusicWeb
Format: FLAC 16-44 / Mono
Source: Label X LXCD 3
File Size (RAR): 416 MB / no pass
[B]Download Link (new, FLAC) - https://mega.nz/#!c1tQRC7Y!0NydWEqrVYLacBCwIbiCnHmXWBQhteuT7DhTpsXqpIg
Please add to my reputation if you download my material. Thank you!
This is my own rip. Please do not share or (re)post it without my consent.
Respect the artists. Keep buying film music albums!
Please add to my reputation if you download my material. Thank you!
A collection of excellent Max Steiner scores, with his music for Band of Angels (aka "Gone with the Wind Jr")
and Death of a Scoundrel (starring Mr. and Mrs Zsa-Zsa Gabor) at the center.
Enjoy!! :)
Tracks
1. Prelude (04:14)
2. Starwood (02:51)
3. The Slave Market (08:13)
4. Amantha (02:47)
5. Pointe du Loup (01:57)
6. Burning of the Cotton Crops (03:56)
7. Hamish Bond (06:25)
8. Reunion (06:12)
Tracks 1 - 8 from "Band of Angels" (Total Time: 38:57)
9. Opening & Closing Themes (04:08)
10. Mother, Mother (02:53)
11. Stephanie (01:52)
12. Waltz (01:21)
13. Kelly Blues (02:36)
Tracks 9 - 13 from "Death of a Scoundrel" (Total Time: 13:50)
14. Forward the Light Brigade (03:22)
from "Charge of the Light Brigade"
15. Symphonie Moderne (08:24)
from "Four Wives"
16. Indian Idyll (03:26)
from "The Searchers"
17. Petite Valse (02:03)
from "A Stolen Life"
Music Composed and Conducted by Max Steiner
Played by The Warner Brothers Studio Orchestra
& The RKO Studio Orchestra
"Although I could not agree with the writer of this album�s booklet notes who asserts that Max Steiner�s score for Band of Angels (1957) was one of the composer�s most memorable scores, I do agree that it has been unjustly ignored. There is plenty of good material in it but insufficient to justify 38 minutes devoted to it, for tedium sets in after a time on some tracks notably �The Slave Market� at eight minutes duration.
The film Band of Angels starred Clark Gable and Yvonne de Carlo (the Catherine Zeta Jones of the 1950s). Ms de Carlo played a Kentucky Belle who, on the death of her father, not only discovers she is penniless but worse, that she has the wrong coloured blood coursing through her veins! As a result she is sold into slavery, bought by a New Orleans millionaire (Gable) and becomes his mistress. Warners spent a pile on the misguided production directed with a wooden spoon by Raoul Walsh hoping that it would become a second Gone With the Wind. In the event it turned out to be a burlesque of almost every pre-Civil War story ever filmed � complete with rambling deep south mansions, spiritual intoning black slaves, exotic mulattos, powerful cotton barons from New Orleans and sadistic slave traders etc. The supporting cast included Torin Thatcher as a sea captain and Efrem Zimbalist Jnr as a Union officer.
Steiner�s Prelude is written in his grand, sweeping Late Romantic style. There is the big romantic tune and material suggestive of the rich comfortable living of the deep south aristocracy surrounded by submissive slaves � with equally cosy �I know my place� material on banjo and sentimental cellos. But there are also dramatic undercurrents too epitomised by a wild, strongly rhythmic dance that menaces.
For �Starwood� there is more feminine music commencing with material that seems to suggest a heroine dressed in flowing crinolines and big hat carrying a parasol to shield her from the sun as she rides stately in her carriage. When the tempo changes you can visualise her exchanging it for an evening at the ball. In �The Slave Market� Steiner toughens this theme and gives it a swagger that one would associate with Gable. The rest of the track includes material that quite clearly alludes to the vicious slave trader and the sea captain and there is a distinct French flavour to the music appropriate to the film�s New Orleans location. �Amantha� is much darker full of menace; with swirling strings and biting brass and canting/galloping rhythms. The big romantic tune in Pointe du Loup is rudely interrupted by a call to arms by bugles and drums.
One of the strongest tracks is �Burning if the Cotton Crops� in which Steiner�s heavily accented rhythms and harmonies give an intensely dramatic and very realistic picture of the scene. �Hamish Bond� has tragic overtones and the concluding �Reunion� brings the big romantic tune to a full flowering.
Much more impressive is the other rarely heard Steiner score on this disc for the tough melodrama Death of a Scoundrel (RKO, 1956). Quoting from Octopus book, The RKO Story, "� two hours� worth of rake�s progress, complete with betrayal, thievery, multiple seduction, suicide, murder and the added fillip of watching George Sanders cavort with his actual ex-wife (Zsa Zsa Gabor) and stab his real-life brother (Tom Conway) in the back." The film also starred Yvonne de Carlo. Sanders played the ruthless Clementi Sabourin, killed by one of the business associates he has trodden on, on his way up the ladder. The �Opening Theme� is one of the most darkly powerful that Max Steiner ever wrote. The music is convoluted and there are agonised cries from the horns as though they emanate from some wild beast. This music then softens into a typical bitter sweet romantic melody, followed by a little jazz-inflected music to indicate the New York setting, plus material featuring the cimbalom suggestive of Sabourin�s middle-European background (he had betrayed his brother to the secret police). �Mother, mother� pursues this middle-European association further with the cimbalom prominent in a string based mournful folk tune. �Waltz� is another cimbalom led folk tune. �Stephanie� (played by Nancy Gates) is a warm romantic melody for the young actress Sabourin promotes but cannot seduce.
Charles Gerhardt recorded the �Forward the Light Brigade� cue (from The Charge of the Light Brigade) in his tribute to Steiner in �Now Voyager� in RCA�s Classic Film Score series. It was one of the highlights of that album and here conducted by the composer it sounds even better, crisper and thrilling � even if it lacks Gerhardt�s stereo image. This is one of those occasions where you wish that they would repeat the stirring middle section rather than the more prosaic strict-tempo march that begins and ends the composition.
The Symphonie Moderne from Four Wives was also recorded by Gerhardt on the same album described in the preceding paragraph but this time I do prefer the added vibrancy of this Gershwinesque composition on the stereo recording
From The Searchers there is Indian Idyll a lovely work that has a Delian delicacy with its steady but gentle rhythmic ostinato for harp and little bells. The final excerpt is from the Bette Davis vehicle, A Stolen Life, the Petit Valse - witty and full of character.
Recommended to all Steiner enthusiasts!"
Ian Lace, MusicWeb
Format: FLAC 16-44 / Mono
Source: Label X LXCD 3
File Size (RAR): 416 MB / no pass
[B]Download Link (new, FLAC) - https://mega.nz/#!c1tQRC7Y!0NydWEqrVYLacBCwIbiCnHmXWBQhteuT7DhTpsXqpIg
Please add to my reputation if you download my material. Thank you!
This is my own rip. Please do not share or (re)post it without my consent.
Respect the artists. Keep buying film music albums!