Foreword: I am aware that Kobalski and others have posted some of these albums, possibly all, on the Shrine before (with Les Miserables and Crime et Chatiment only bumped today) - I can assure you that these are all my rips from my CDs; I have been preparing these posts for a number of weeks and by sheer coincidence, as I was finishing up writing these notes I saw Kobalski's threads and realised that I would be re-posting. No matter - with all the greatest respect to him; it can't hurt to have another mirror for these splendid albums and they're so good I think it's justified to have more than one person singing their praises at a time!

Absolutely nothing is meant by me posting these now - sheer unbridled coincidence is responsible and nothing more. :)


ARTHUR HONEGGER
The Complete Marco Polo Film Music Releases
Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4



Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (formerly Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra)
conducted by
Adriano

Featuring Excerpts From:
Crime et Chatiment, L'Idee, Les Deserteur, Le Grand Barrage
Les Miserables, La Roue, Mermoz, Napoleon
Mayerling, Regain, and Le Demon de l'Himalaya
and including the complete recording of
Les Miserables

My rips. FLAC at Level 8. Full scans included.

TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 4hrs, 58 seconds.

WARNING - 1gb DOWNLOAD
Mega: https://mega.co.nz/#!0xhTHaKR!NzPiuCzN6J9FKuJtvUdNKw5uM3Z4UVcjKm361ac _eu4

MP3 (LAME 3.99.5 -V0) with reduced-quality scans - 414MB DOWNLOAD
Mega: https://mega.co.nz/#!w5ZhhJpS!fJQIBgiNEoH9EiKE0Vuuf2NQY_9eRY8TzvZfk8U SeAo

I'm sure most people have heard of the record label Naxos - even those folk who class themselves as anti-classical... but please indulge me a potted history nonetheless... Naxos was founded in 1987 with the intention of offering good performances on extremely cheap CDs. In their early years, they achieved the latter more often than the former, with a succession of recordings made in Czech, Polish, and Hungarian sweatshop conditions. Often, they were made with no-name conductors and soloists, by jobbing engineers in average recording venues. Of course, they're infinitely better today, but back at the beginning it was all about being as cheap as humanly possible.

Marco Polo was founded as a "sister" label for Naxos; they focused on recording minority interest specialties. Sales were expected to be low (and they were) but expenses were low and prices were high - so Marco Polo prospered. Long before Stromberg and Morgan were in the business, Marco Polo began recording obscure film music - and one of their first was a selection by French-Swiss composer Arthur Honegger. Following this experimental 1987 release, they followed by with three further volumes - a complete recording of Les Miserables in 1989, and two additional volumes of excerpts from Honegger's other scores in 1993.

Most of these CDs are pretty hard to come by these days. The 1989 Les Miserables was re-released on Naxos in 2004 (as often occurs with popular old Marco Polo albums) but the others have drifted into obscurity, long since deleted.

I fell instantly in love with the music, of course... but a word of warning about the recording quality is warranted.

All volumes are digital recordings, sure enough, but the low budget is very obvious - particularly in the first volume. Pristine it ain't. Dodgy edits abound. Get this one for the music, not for the sound quality - it's not by any means bad, but will probably offend people who are more interested in the production values and less interested in the quality of the music. Please bear in mind that Volume 1 is a recording made literally in Naxos' first six months of life and has a certain "seat of your pants" feeling about it. Putting aside the usual warnings of dragons herein, on with the show.

Enjoy! :)
TT

Thanks!!

Thanks a lot! I have tried a compilation of Arthur Honegger(1892-1955) and getting interested with this composer.

Thank you!

thanks a lot!!

Thank you tangotreats for this great Arthur Honegger post.

Thank you very much!

Pleasure, folks. :)

Updated with MP3 version (with reduced quality but still very readable) scans for space-conscious listeners.

Great!
Thank you for the music and the illuminating notes!

Thank You so much!!

Thanks very much.

thank you, tango
hope the excerpts aren't too main theme heavy :-)

The selections are quite varied - then again, Honegger never really went in for the whole "big theme" and "underscore" thing. Obviously they're not complete scores (with the exception of Les Miserables) but rather astutely selected - in some cases, by Honegger himself - suites that play like self-contained symphonic poems. :)

Thank you very much!

Marvelous description -- factual, great perspective and a really endearing restoration of the Naxos evolution.

And "Pristine it ain't" ain't even marginally false.

Yet as much as it is Marco Polo, it's also Adriano. I cherish him for what he brought to recordings but also his insights in both his conducting and his writing.

Yeah, I live with his "Les Miserables" -- best film of the novel ever and a stirring, moving, frequently brilliant score. The others I've yearned to find. I didn't even know they did this reissue or when it was done.

Thank you for every aspect of your post. (Your writing's at least as good as Adriano's!)

Thanks !

Thank-you very much for these rare albums. Viva la flac!

A trillion and a half THANKS!

Thanks for this great upload!!!!

Thanks for sharing, tango!

Great post! Thanks!

Thanks.

Thank you very much.

A very big thanks tangotreats !

Many thanks indeed. A great collection and a great share.

this is a great forum because it contains users as educated and generous as tangotreats, thanks for this share and honegger is really a top composer

Could you please repost this collection in FLAC format? The MEGA link is dead.

Thanks!

Yes, I too am hoping for a reupload.