Intrada Soundtrack Forum

INTRADA Announces:



FUNERAL IN BERLIN
Composed and Conducted by KONRAD ELFERS
INTRADA Special Collection 296

For the 1966 Paramount film Funeral in Berlin, famed Bond producer Harry Saltzman hired veteran German pianist and composer Konrad Elfers to provide the follow on score to John Barry's effort for the first film, The Ipcress File. Elfers wrote a score that sits comfortably between the works by Barry and Richard Rodney Bennett (who would compose music for Palmer's third film, Billion Dollar Brain), combining the requisite jazz/big band sound of spy movies with a mix of classical and modernistic orchestral music that evoked the historical and modern aspects of the film’s setting in Berlin.

The original RCA Victor LP boasted an unusually comprehensive presentation of Elfers’ score at around 39 minutes of music. This expanded Intrada version features all the album cues—including two that were dropped—sourced from 1/2” three-track masters.

Funeral in Berlin was directed by Guy Hamilton, who had made Goldfinger, the most popular Bond film to that point. The plot has Harry Palmer (with Michael Caine reprising the role having first played it in The Ipcress File) assigned to facilitate the defection of a Russian colonel, whom Palmer immediately suspects has another agenda. In fact, Stok is using Palmer to expose and eliminate an operative who has been facilitating defections from the Soviet Union. Palmer’s Berlin contact and friend initially aids Palmer, but after an attractive model attempts to seduce Harry, Palmer discovers that she is an Israeli agent in pursuit of a former Nazi in possession of money stolen from Jewish victims by the Third Reich.

INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 296
Retail Price: $19.99
Available NOW
For track listing and sound samples, please visit
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.9301/.f

I thought the clue "expanded LP reissue" meant it wasnt on CD, but there is a RCA Spain CD (which I have). The INTRADA description mentions this is a new mix from masters used for the album. The references to "album" instead of "original soundtrack" suggests to me the possibility that it was a re-recording done at the time. Can you clarify?

I have the previous CD release, but I just had to immediately buy this to help keep albums of this era coming.

Somehow that main title theme sounds so incredibly familiar, but I fail to see why. Now granted it's an extremely simple and almost generic tune, but still...

_________________
Grail: ONE OF OUR DINOSAURS IS MISSING (Ron Goodwin)

A lot of this stuff begins to blur once you've heard about a thousand marches.

That's good to know. A very similar situation seemed to have occurred with another previously Spain-only RCA CD, that being the recent Kritzerland release of Hefti's Oh Dad, Poor Dad album. That is a most welcome improvement in quality.

I just wanted to say that the sound quality is definitely improved here over the Spain release, minus the intro pop arrangement for obvious reasons.

I love 60s recordings like this one that sound much more defined and dynamic than a lot of today's recordings.