Intrada Soundtrack Forum

INTRADA Announces:



CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS – THE FRANZ WAXMAN COLLECTION
Composed and Conducted by FRANZ WAXMAN
INTRADA Special Collection 390


After thirteen years in development, Intrada and Warner Bros. bring forth a four-CD set featuring 11 films scored by Franz Waxman from the studio vaults of Allied Artists., MGM and RKO. With over 243 minutes of music featured and a comprehensive 40-page booklet that walks the listener through each film and score, this release showcases Waxman's brilliance and diversity in the golden age of Hollywood film scoring. Franz Waxman was a champion of quality in both the craft and the art of film music. Included on this set are scores from:

Captains Courageous (1943)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1939)
A Christmas Carol (1938)
Woman of the Year (1942)
Count Your Blessings (1959) (Stereo)
Love on the Run (1936)
Fury (1936)
Suspicion (1941)
The Devil-Doll (1936)
King of the Roaring '20's


The audio quality of the source material varies, depending on factors that include use and storage conditions. Most of the music was transferred from 78-rpm mono acetate reference discs made during the recording sessions, with a few sequences drawn from music scoring stems. A crown jewel in the collection, the 1959 score for Count Your Blessings appears in dynamic stereo from the original three-channel masters and is a rich and dramatic highlight of the set. All surviving cues from each film are included. Several scores are near-complete or feature most of the major highlights, while others survive in more truncated fashion. Rest assured, everything that could be transferred is here. In the case of the titular Captains Courageous, not only does the entire score survive in excellent sound but several exciting sequences not used in the finished production are present as well.

Lukas Kendall and Neil S. Bulk spearheaded this project, with the generous oversight of the composer's son, John W. Waxman.

INTRADA Special Collection 390
Barcode: 7 20258 53902 1
Retail Price: $39.99
SHIPPING NOW
For track listing and sound samples, please visit:
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.11293/.f

Outstanding! There are no words - this is a milestone release. Can’t wait to hear it.

Not a Golden Age enthusiast, but couldn't resist having three of these scores for just $40.

By any chance, were covers made for the scores represented on discs 2, 3 and 4?

Extremely happy to see THE DEVIL-DOLL on here! Major kudos to everyone involved with this phenomenal release.

This is one fantastic release! 4 Waxman CDs AND a 40 page booklet too! Franz Waxman was one of the best film composers ever. A great way to close out 2017. Thanks Roger and Doug for a wonderful Waxman Golden Age Box and for keeping Hollywood's Golden Age alive!

phenomenal release!

The release of the year!

...but only because Rooster Cogburn did not happen once again!

_________________
My Intrada wish list:

The Outfit (Fielding)
The Other Side of the Mountain I (Charles Fox)


and extremely unlikely, but...
Junior Bonner
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot

Now that I have played all 4 discs in this boxset, I can honestly say this is one of Intrada's greatest releases. Just this year alone Intrada has given us golden age score fans releases of scores that most of us thought we would never see... THE HEIRESS , THE CAINE MUTINY , and now 11 scores in a Franz Waxman collection. Thank you, Intrada. What further delights will be coming in 2018 ? Only time will tell.

I’m stuck on “King of the Roaring 20s” at the moment. To choose one example that I happen to be listening to at the moment, the propulsive jazzy stuff overflown by a searing solo cello in “Goodbye, Papa” is not something I’d expect to hear from anyone else, I don’t think. Loads of extended instrumental solos in this too, which is something else I don’t recall any other composer doing in a crime drama, not to this extent - very curious about the movie now.

Somehow I always forget how much fun Waxman seemed to have. Anybody have any idea if he was a fun guy to knock about with in life? His “Carmen Fantasie” sure seems like it was written by a guy who knew how to have a good time - and give his players a workout, thinking of “Taras Bulba” now. The “Auld Lang Syne” variations clearly demonstrate a guy with a sense of humor and the rare ability to unleash it as notes on a page, don’t they? “Shostakofieff” fer cryin’ out loud! LOL!

(The low woodwinds handing the line back and forth between various string players underneath the trumpet in “It’s Midnight” had to be replayed a couple times too. “No Dice” is just awesome.)

The music for the parachute jump in “Objective Burma” sounds like he just wanted to cut loose and frighten the hell out of everybody. I haven’t gotten round to seeing “The Story of Ruth” and I can’t imagine the film is anything like a rollicking good yarn but his music for it is among my favorite of his film work - the energy he puts into his main title alone sets me afire every time I hear it. “Untamed” is another one that sets the roof on fire - how can any movie follow it? My least favorite in this regard is probably “Beloved Infidel” but one can’t be partying all the time, I suppose.

He never managed to get pigeonholed at all, did he? Even Rózsa got ‘stuck’ in a series of phases over the years, whether he was the go-to guy for exotica, film-noir, historical dramas, or grand Bible epics, but not Waxman. Waxman’s always been a guy from whom I’ve looked forward to discovering new music with particular relish. In anticipation of this arriving I’ve been revisiting the Varese “Legends of Hollywood” series from the ‘90s. It warmed the cockles of my heart to realize how much of the music presented on those four CDs has come to us more or less complete in the intervening years.

How we get a Volume 2 some time.

_________________
Karl Morton IV

"Enjoy every sandwich."
-- Warren Zevon

Waxman always impressed me as a composer who was continually growing and challenging himself. One can only wonder what his work would have been like had he not been cut down so prematurely at 60. Might he have been a candidate for such things as TIME AFTER TIME or STAR WARS? Would he have fallen in with Jerry Goldsmith and developed a taste for incorporating synths and signal processing? The mind boggles.

Meanwhile, thanks, Intrada, for this deep dive into some Waxman I've somehow always manage to miss--the MGM years. I'm supposed to get this and DAMNATION ALLEY today, according to the tracking data supplied (although this time of year such data is not to be trusted.)

I received my copy yesterday. A truly magnificent box set of great Franz Waxman music! Just played Captains Courageous, a colorful and exciting score. Outstanding sound quality. Love the big 40 page booklet and art design and movie posters. Will play a Waxman score per day. Wonderful way to end 2017. Thanks Doug, Roger and the Intrada team!

King of the Roaring 20s is the highlight score for me. It plays great as is and has the sound quality of good early '60s mono jazz record.