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 Post subject: The best they've ever done...
PostPosted: Wed Jan 18, 2012 1:31 pm 
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Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2005 3:48 pm
Posts: 2773
1/18/12

The best they've ever done! William Stromberg. John Morgan. Moscow Symphony. And the music by Herrmann isn't too bad, either!

Two war film scores written roughly a decade apart. BATTLE OF NERETVA finds Yugoslavia invaded by Nazis, THE NAKED AND THE DEAD finds action in the Pacific. Bernard Herrmann battles on both fronts with music scored for massive forces, particularly in pumped up brass. Hit play on your CD, Herrmann hits back harder. Moments of respite in Neretva do appear, notably with strings during "From Italy" and "Pastorale". But it's a brief rest. War isn't pretty, even if heroic. So brass and percussion just keep coming.

THE NAKED AND THE DEAD shares the war concerns but brings in considerable color, particularly in an amazing array of muted effects for brass and shifting figures for woodwinds. At times it plays like music for Harryhausen!

Ok, so with all this muscle and war, some 77 minutes of it, what's my favorite part? I'll tell you. Track 37. "Wilson's Death". We're in the Pacific on this one. Standing out amongst everything surrounding it, Herrmann writes a brief tribute to the fallen with nothing but pure rock solid major chords for low brass. Wow! What power, even at mezzo-forte levels! Just major chords for a wall of trombones and tuba. Beyond that, I can't get enough of the Dead's "Prelude", which also has a stunning array of major chords as well as some piercing stuff for trumpets. And percussion up the wazoo keeps it marching forward... never looking back.

What performing the Moscow players do! What robust conducting Stromberg displays! And Morgan just knows the music inside and outl, how it's written, how to construct it, how to re-construct it, you name it. Just give him Herrmann and get out of the way.

I just have to lavish praise on what this album does right that so many other re-recordings of film music do not-so-right. It lets the music be the thing! No insane added reverb, no numbing pumped up bass that plagues many other such efforts... just crisp, tight, realistic, close-miked, dynamically recorded, well-played music. What a joy to crank that Prelude from Naked up really loud and hear real tympani and brass without mushy sound and over-burdened sub-woofers telling me the engineering was mostly done after the playing was over. Stromberg and Morgan and Moscow capture it all on the stage and you're there with them. Add the visions of producer Anna Bonn to see the recordings cross the finish line and you've get a top drawer album! Here's my choice for "Best Recording by Stromberg, Morgan and Moscow" of all-time. Or, at least until their next one.


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