LA FEBRE D’OR (1993) (Joan Albert Amarg�s) (FLAC)

The filmmaker Gonzalo Herralde capped his career with this 161-minute adaptation of Narc�s Oller’s three-volume Catalan novel La febre d’or (1890-93). The film was available in Spain in both Castilian (regular Spanish) and Catalan versions, hence the double title, which literally translates as “The Gold Fever”. The score was entrusted to the Barcelona-born Joan Albert Amarg�s (1950), whose activity has run the gamut from the concert hall to arrangements for popular singers. He has also written a four-handed piano piece commissioned by the Lab�que sisters. Of the 28 tracks, all are his except for the second, which is a Catalan popular song, and the tenth, which is drawn from Gounod’s opera Faust.