Korngold: Adventures Of Robin Hood

William Stromberg (Artist), Erich Wolfgang Korngold (Composer), William T. Stromberg (Conductor), Moscow Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Moscow Symphony Orchestra
• Conductor: William T. Stromberg
• Composer: Erich Wolfgang Korngold
• Audio CD (August 3, 2009)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Marco-Polo
• ASIN: B0000BX5L0
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,827 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #19 in Music > Classical > Historical Periods > Modern, 20th, & 21st Century > Composers > Korngold, Erich Wolfgang

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The First Korngold Reference Recording Of The 21st Century!, December 13, 2003

By 

William F. Flanigan Jr. (North Potomac, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Korngold: Adventures Of Robin Hood (Audio CD)

1. Make that six stars out of five! A quick comparison of this CD with analog-reference recordings BMG RCA Victor 60863-2-RG, 1972 and BMG RCA Victor 0912-2-RG, 1975 (both CDs conducted by Charles Gerhardt, performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra, and available from Amazon.com), and DCC Compact Classics GZS-1094, 1996 (originally recorded in 1961, conducted by Lionel Newman and Kurt Graunke, performed by an uncredited Munich orchestra, and available from Amazon.com) tells all: we have had a regime change!
2. This CD is one of a quartet of releases on CD and DVD marking the 65th anniversary of the film (see reviews of the film's music on DVD-Video release Warner Home Video 65131 and DVD-Audio release Marco Polo 5.220501).
3. The score for The Adventures of Robin Hood (TAORH) won Erich Wolfgang Korngold (EWK) an Academy Award for what was his "first" swashbuckler score. He had declined to take on-screen-compositional credit for the score of CAPTAIN BLOOD, 1936, even though he wrote all but the 2-3 minutes he lifted from Liszt. A 12-minute suite Korngold distilled from his full score may have been the first film music ever performed in a concert hall (which was conducted by the composer also in 1938). Proceeding beyond the original sound track (OST), this CD contains the first recording ever made of the complete score for TAORH. It includes music that was edited out prior to the film's release (now restored in Track 19) and (in Track 6) music that never made it into the final score and, therefore, has never been heard before! The CD also presents the first modern recording in the same (or extremely close to) tempos that EWK used when he recorded the OST.
4. The restoration/orchestration of this new reference re-recording is top-of-the-line, first rate (so is the miking/mixing). Mr. Morgan's restoration and Messrs. Morgan and Stromberg's orchestration yield a score jam packed with instances of instruments brought to the fore (pick any track) and probably not so distinctly heard (or heard at all) since Korngold conducted the score. Even Little John's whistling is included (it had to be lowered an octave before any male could whistle it which means that Korngold probably used a lady whistler!). Perfectly presented percussion passages abound (again, pick any track). Interludes that under-line EWK's light-hearted sense of musical humor are copious (e.g., the Little John cues in Track 6, the Friar Tuck cues in Track 8, and the Sir Guy, High Sheriff of Nottingham, Little John, and Friar Tuck slapstick interactions cues in Track 12).
5. Mr. Stromberg's conducting is simply superb. The Moscow Symphony Orchestra has been carefully and skillfully crafted into a disciplined whole that mesmerizes the unwary (or even wary) listener to the point of near total distraction; the ensemble is also extremely well rehearsed. The latter hard work rewards us big time especially in the banquet fight and escape (Track 5), the forest attack (Track 10), the archery tournament capture (Track 14), the escape from the gallows (Track 16), and the final battle and sword fight (Track 23). Throughout, the music repeatedly refuses to, well, stay on the page! Properly presented tempos and transitions between tempos as well as back-and-forth "dueling" of tempos/themes have much to do with it.
6. The multi-authored CD booklet provides a special treat and a substantial bonus. Film historian Mr. Rudy Behlmer sets the scene with little known and fascinating background facts and anecdotes about both the score and the film. Principal Korngold biographer Mr. Brendan Carroll builds on information in his biography, and provides one of the most comprehensive and lucent (not to mention riveting) non-technical, film-score analysis written to date. Mr. Carroll has also provided scoring-session photos that have never been published before (including one with EWK on the podium and his parents sitting off to the side--wow!). Restoration guru and master orchestral arranger Mr. John Morgan describes the psychological roller coaster he experienced in his quest to fully restore the complete score for TAORH and offers a number of commentary gems including that during the OST recording, the pace of Korngold's music would often require "turning a page every two seconds!" (Korngold did not use a conductor's score, but conducted from the full orchestral score.)
6. A final observation. The primary problem with EWK's music (and, especially, his film symphonies) is that it is too darn addictive. Even when you manage to stop playing a disc and go cold turkey, the music can go on in the mind's ear for weeks. With this CD, I wager, the rehab process could jump from weeks to months. Fair warning.

William Flanigan, Ph.D.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Recording of a Beautiful Score - And Complete!, December 9, 2003

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Korngold: Adventures Of Robin Hood (Audio CD)

This is another in Marco Polo's series of modern recordings of classic film scores. And this is one of the REAL classics. It was written in haste by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) for the Warner Brothers release, but you'd never know that. There have been recordings of bits and pieces of the score before, but this is the very first one that contains all of its 75 minutes (an amazing amount of music for a film lasting only 102 minutes). Even more amazing is the fact that Korngold didn't think he could write the music because there is so much action in the movie--which means lots and lots of notes for underscoring--and because he didn't 'relate' to it. But he was prevailed upon and the result is, simply, quite amazing. The action music is appropriately perky (as the whistling tune when Robin meets Little John), agitated (as in the attack on Sir Guy and his men, and for Robin's arrest), dramatic (as for the music of the archery tournament). And then there is the insouciant theme song for the Merry Men which opens the score and recurs throughout the film. And on and on. From a strictly musical point of view, the score shows Korngold's utter ease at using leitmotivs for various characters, scenes and situations, and his ability to combine them contrapuntally when appropriate.

I have always loved Korngold's 1919 tone poem 'Sursum Corda' and knew that he quoted and extended much of that material in this score. He had done so at the urging of his father, the eminent Viennese music critic Julius Korngold, and indeed motives from that piece occur throughout the score. It first appears as a trumpet tune during the film's first appearance of Errol Flynn as Robin. The tune is memorable in all its guises.

Like all other Korngold scores, the musical materials are quintessentially late Romantic in both their kind and use. This means there is Romantic sweep, arching melodies, extraordinarily seamless counterpoint, lush orchestration (done here, actually, by Hugo Friedhofer to Korngold's extensive specifications), exciting action and ceremonial music, melting love music (the Love Scene between Robin and Maid Marian, with its use of shimmering vibraphone and celesta is sui generis for its time, and romantic as can be). All the things that we associate with the best of movie scores of this period are here. And this is one of Korngold's best. I well remember seeing this film as a boy and whistling the March of the Merry Men as I left the theater.

The restoration of the score from the parts of the original score still extant and from the optical track of the film itself is done by movie music expert, John Morgan. The performance by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra is led by conductor William Stromberg whose CD of music ['Death Valley Suite,' et al.] by Ferde Grofé I raved about earlier this year. Both the performance and the recording are terrific.

A word needs to be said about the CD's booklet. It is quite extensive and extremely informative. There is an account by movie historian Rudy Behlmer of how the movie came to be made and the score composed. There is a 15-page set of notes by Korngold biographer, Brendan G. Carroll, detailing in scholarly detail all manner of things about the music, including a scene-by-scene description of the movie's action and the music that accompanies it. There are two pages of black-and-white pictures of the original recording of the movie's score, conducted by Korngold himself. And there is a two-page essay by John Morgan about how the score was restored. One couldn't ask for a better production values.

I know that movie music buffs will be snapping this one up. I fully expect Amazon reviewer William F. Flanigan, Jr, to be writing another review, better informed than mine, soon.

Heartily recommended.

Scott Morrison

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Historic Soundtrack Re-Recorded Brilliantly, December 14, 2009

By 

John C. Hitchen "Music Lover" (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Korngold: Adventures Of Robin Hood (Audio CD)

The Adventures of Robin Hood was among the earliest full blown action adventure films with a full symphonic soundtrack backing, and for this reason, it is well worth exploring this excellent CD. William T Stromberg has resurrected many classic soundtrack scores similar to this one, and re-recorded the complete scores with the outstanding Moscow Symphony Orchestra. Korngold was a serious classical composer, and did not really relish this undertaking, but he gave it his best, and the merger of formal classical styles with a fast -paced action score is a treat to listen to. The modern recording does wonders in transcending the obviously older style of this soundtrack, and welcomes the modern listener. Get this one while you can on a factory pressed CD-note that the default selection is for an on demand CDR, without accompanying full graphics packaging. Highly Recommended.