Customer Reviews

Erich Wolfgang Korngold: The Warner Bros Years - Motion Picture Soundtrack Anthology

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Collectors and film historians alike know why this collection of Korngold film music is a veritable treasure. In the 1960's Warner's made the decision to destroy all the acetate production recordings of dialogue and music in their archives. Luckily, the composer's son,George Korngold, transfered the remaining optical tracks from the original Warner Bros. recording sessions to tape and preserved them in the family archive. Therefore, this collection consists of the only original recordings (apart from composite soundtracks) of Korngold conducting his own music! I think you'll agree...limited sound quality is a small price to pay for the joy of hearing the original scores conducted by the composer at work! Of course this collection is incomplete due to the fact not all the originals sessions were preserved. In fact it was derived from over 20 hours of tape. Love it for what it is...a treasure that was almost lost forever!

These are some of the best film scores ever composed and are presented here in their original recordings. As such, the sound quality is not 21st century perfection. But anyone who'd expect that-- as a couple of the other commenters here seemt to have-- is crazy. With recordings this old you never know what you're going to get; some sound better than others, but they're all at the very least better than what you hear on the actual films. For those who want modern recordings, there are plenty for virtually all of the pieces in this set. But for those who want the originals, don't hesitate to get this! The audio samples, assuming they're still available when you read this, give a pretty good indication of the recording quality. The CD's do, of course, sound better, but it's not night and day, so if you're happy enough with the samples, at least the Windows Media versions (the Real Player ones sound muffled), grab this while you can.

Jarring to the ears yes, but it's the real deal. I like it because I'm hearing exactly what I would be hearing if I were watching the movie. You can't beat that.

This is a CD set whose objective was truly outstanding!
Regrettably, it's audio execution is HORRIBLE. I can't bare to
listen to it--and I truly love to hear Korngold conducting his
own film symphonies (especially when they are on CDs directly
linked with "his" film studio). Hopefully, there will be a
second version using modern digital techniques to render these
invaluable historical recordings palatable to ear.

I realize original recordings from this era require a more forgiving ear, but in this case the noise is far greater than the signal. Fortunately, the recent re-recordings offer an alternative.