Customer Reviews

Friedhofer: The adventures of Marco Polo/The Lodger/The Rains of Ranchipur/Seven Cities of Gold

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I remember reading somewhere that within the Hollywood music community, Hugo Friedhofer was the composer most respected by his peers. He spent many years at Warner Brothers orchestrating the music of others - principally Korngold and Steiner - and composed few scores of his own until the late 1940s. His music is not terribly well known even now. Until recently, there was almost nothing of his work available to the public beyond his Oscar-winning THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946), which should by all rights be as celebrated as the best known work of anyone. Fortunately, thanks to Maestros Stromberg and Morgan here and also to the good folks at Film Score Monthly elsewhere it's now possible to obtain more Friedhofer scores.

I've had this album for almost a decade and have listened frequently. I've always been fond of romantic exoticism and there's plenty of that here with THE ADVENTURES OF MARCO POLO (China), THE RAINS OF RANCHIPUR (India) and SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD (Ibero-America). These three scores are all of a piece yet wonderfully complementary. My favorite of the three is THE RAINS OF RANCHIPUR; its beautiful "Love Theme" actually conjures the mental image of a lonely, rainy day in South Asia. Amazing. The whole of SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD is gorgeous, also.

Now, the downside. First, I'll just state what another reviewer hinted at: this album would be improved minus THE LODGER. For one thing, the other three scores play better without its interruption. Secondly, most of THE LODGER is lost in the disc and doesn't project; minutes will go by in seeming silence. That is a BIG problem. But for the excitement at the outset (which, even so, is muted and unfocused compared to the original recording in the film itself) and again at the end, very little catches one's attention.

Much of THE ADVENTURES OF MARCO POLO seems to fade out, also. The orchestra sounds at times as if they're all struggling to stay awake - and I've felt the same way with other Stromberg/Morgan discs (especially THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME). I'm not a recording engineer and I've not miked orchestras, so I can't say what it is, but either the performance is not being adequately captured or the orchestra is playing too often at a whisper.

Still, this is an attractive program and a worthwhile purchase.

The "golden era" of Hollywood had film scores written by the likes of Rozsa, Steiner, Newman, Herrmann, and Friedhofer. Hugo Friedhofer is primarily remembered for his Academy Award winning music to THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES. Most of his scores are rich orchestral masterpieces but he is not as well known as well as some of his contemporaries. Still, his music is worth a listen today.

Marco Polo continues recording music from "forgotten" film classics with commendable performances by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. This CD contains superb music from four of his earlier works: ADVENTURES OF MARCO POLO -- 1937, 13 min.; THE LODGER -- 1944, 20 min.; RAINS OF RANCHIPUR -- 1955, 15 min.; SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD -- 1955, 25 min.

Digital recording on Marco Polo CD.

The modest skillful orchestrator Hugo Friedhofer spent most of his career in the shadows of his friends, film score icons Steiner and Korngold. In fact, during interviews he prefered to discuss their achievements rather than his own. John Morgan that master film score reconstructor has given us here a generous sampling of this talented neglected film composer/orchestrator. The selections span the "Golden Era", from the 1930's to mid fifties. None of this is great music, but other than the "Lodger" we're treated to some exotic instrumentation and melodic themes typical of the fables told and the locals filmed. The "Lodger" uses somber and sad elements and modern techniques to illustrate the demented Jack the Ripper. I prefer when Morgan strings together themes as in "Marco Polo", rather than the seemingly endless track by track divisions nearly always implemented not just with this composer. "Marco Polo" comes off more like an exotic tone poem. All in all, this is another well recorded project of one more valued film composer that if not undertaken would have gone down in obscurity.