I just wanted to reiterate my love for this amazing album. I love Jerry's western scores and Rio Conchos is fantastic, feeling more epic in this amazing London Symphony performance than it did in the (still wonderful, more intimate-feeling) original performance. Bandits Ho is a good case in point. Super cool in the original version, but for me on a nice sound system the re-recording blows it away! And don't get me started on the mind-blowing Wall of Fire. This is just an incredible score, incredibly well recorded. Unlike many re-recordings predating the late 90s, this one is missing none of the energy of the original film performance, and you can tell that Doug and Jerry wanted it to be so perfect that no expense in time or money was spared. And CHRIST they got the LONDON SYMPHONY! Is this the only full length re-recording of a film score that they've done?
Ah, and then there's my actual FAVORITE part of this album: The Artist Who Did Not Want to Paint. What an inspired inclusion. Now again, I love the original recording on this as well (actually quite equally because it brings out different things in the composition) but what a powerful piece and what a powerful performance we got here. I think it is actually my very favorite thing that Jerry EVER wrote. It's such a perfect composition and I think it should be getting performed regularly in classical concerts in the great halls around the world.
In my personal opinion, Rio Conchos/The Artist Who Did Not Want to Paint is the greatest re-recording Intrada has ever done, yes even better than the excellent Broughton-conducted ones. It is *easily* the best re-recording Goldsmith ever conducted of his own work. His re-recordings for Varese were incredibly disappointing to me, missing almost all the power of the originals, and his other outing for Intrada, Islands in the Stream, while it has some merits was clearly not near the same production/performance league (but probably not realistic to expect the Hungarian Orchestra to compete with the LSO in the late 80s).
Frankly, this album in my opinion is a viable contender for greatest re-recording of ALL time. What say you?
Yavar
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