The Battle of the Bulge [Original Score] [Soundtrack]

Benjamin Frankel (Composer), Werner Andreas Albert (Conductor), Queensland Symphony Orchestra Brisbane (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Queensland Symphony Orchestra Brisbane
• Conductor: Werner Andreas Albert
• Composer: Benjamin Frankel
• Audio CD (July 18, 2000)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Cpo Records
• ASIN: B00004U932
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,990 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: Prelude

2. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: Aerial Pursuit (Kiley's Plane Chases Hessler's Car)

3. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: Back To Base - Hessler's Arrival

4. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: The Plan Of Attack - Tank Inspection

5. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: Christmas In Ambleve - The Americans Debate

6. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: Panzerlied (Words: Kurt Wiehle, Music: Adolf Hoffmann)

7. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: Interlude With A Courtesan 1st Class

8. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: The German Tanks Emerge And Break Through

9. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: First Tank Battle

10. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: Massacre At Malmedy (The Massacre Of The American Prisoners)

11. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: The Armaments Train

12. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: The Siege Of Ambleve

13. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: Night Assault On Ambleve

14. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: Soldiers In Hiding - The Americans Prepare

15. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: Hessler In High Spirits - Flight Through The Fog

16. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: Final Tank Battle

17. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: The Attack On The Fuel Depot Fails And Hessler Is Killed

18. The Battle Of The Bulge - Complete Film Music: The Panzerman abandon their tanks : Victory And Postlude

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost the Original Soundtrack, August 11, 2001

By 

Kevin R. Austra (Delaware Valley, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Battle of the Bulge [Original Score] (Audio CD)

The original score to the 1965 movie THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE is very difficult to find. The current release is about as close as you are currently going to get to the original film music. This version was recorded by the Queensland Symphony in Australia in the late 1990's and mastered as a CD in Germany. The original soundtrack was first released as a double album and later pared down to a single album. Until the mid 1980's, the original soundtrack was available only as a Warner Brothers Japanese import. The problem was that it was missing half of the movie music. The current CD solves this and includes all of the tracks in their entirety in chronological order of the movie. The music was produced to sound very close to the arrangement on the movie soundtrack, though a avid fan of the film will be able to detect subtle differences. Liberties were taken with the arrangement of PANZERLEID to make it sound more like an Oktoberfest song, but overall it is similar to the movie original.

Likewise some of the arrangements do sound as if someone attempted to improve upon the original, but overall the recordings are almost identical. Even the CD cover bears a lobbycard image from the movie. The quality of the recording is superb. Until the original movie soundtrack surfaces again, this CD is a fitting replacement.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great orchestral film scores, July 2, 2005

By 

Call Me Ludwig (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Battle of the Bulge [Original Score] (Audio CD)

Frankel's music for The Battle of the Bulge has always impressed me, even when I was much younger (back in the 1970s I even paid the then-outrageous price of $20 to get a copy of the original soundtrack on LP--the only film music for which I would have attempted such financial lunacy).

There is no doubt that the rousing Panzerlied is, as one reviewed called it, the "guilty pleasure" of the movie (and the one melody not written by Frankel), but the music goes much deeper and wider. In particular, the Prelude, with its setting of Panzerlied leading to the Victory Theme is a striking work; the Prelude is recapitulated in part by the final movement, "The Panzermen abandon their tanks: Victory and Postlude." Those familar with Shostokovich's Fifth Symphony can hear the direct influence of the closing of that symphony on the Victory Theme, but that in no way diminishes the emotive power of Frankel's work. I have often imagined that the final movement, in the hands of a gifted arranger, could be expanded a little and turned into a most fitting tribute to those who sacrificed their lives in the Second World War, so compelling are its musical ideas (the all-too-brief transition from the panzerlied theme to the Victory Theme is especially moving).

The Queensland Symphony plays this music with verve, though there are a few points at which the music is so "busy," it seems the snare drum is following one beat and the members of the orchestra another. Still, the Orchestra is to be commended for a fine performance, made all the more remarkable given the inherent contradictions: Australia was not a part of the Battle of the Bulge, and the tropical heat of Brisbane is a long way from the Ardennes during what was the coldest winter of the century.

Some film music--some very fine film music--falls apart when removed from the movie for which it was written. Frankel's work absolutely informs the film (take, for instance, the scene where Colonel Hessler inspects his new tanks, or when we first see the Allied headquarters in Ambleve), but also stands on its own two feet. Elegiac, marshal, emotionally touching and...dare I say it...even rising at moments to greatness, this music deserves a wider audience. Perhaps someone will arrange a suite drawing on this music so that it may be incoporated more broadly into the orchestral canon, where it could then be enjoyed (and it WOULD be enjoyed) by audiences far and wide.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but a quibble, March 16, 2004

By 

Wulfstan "wulfstan" (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Battle of the Bulge [Original Score] (Audio CD)

Many folks interested in buying this will want to hear the panzer troopers sing the Panzerleid song. They will be disappointed. That portion of the Score isn't here. Instead, the composer re-recorded another version- one apparently (according to notes) designed to mock this song. It is fast, lighthearted and doesn't sound a bit like the one in the Film.

A Score really should be accurate, true to the film (Soundtracks, otoh aren't always so accurate). However, the rest of the titles are accurate and in many cases rousing good music. So, as long as you know that the panzer song is going to be different, and you're fine with that- then this is a good choice.