Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Man of Many Melodies...Alfred Newman!", October 17, 2001
Alfred Newman (3/17/1901 - 2/17/1970), brother to Lionel Newman, uncle to Randy Newman, and father of two well known sons Thomas and David Newman, both accomplished composers in their own right...but the man who composed early in the '30s such great scores as ~ "Street Scene"(1931)..."I Cover The Waterfront"(1933)..."The Call Of The Wild"(1935)..."Stella Dallas"..."The Prisoner Of Zenda"(1937)...then came 1939, when he composed not one, or two or three, but nine great scores "Beau Geste", "Drums Along The Mohawk", "GUNGA DIN" (one of my all-time favorites, from any composer that lived or living today), "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame", "The Rains Came", "The Real Glory", "They Shall Have Music", "Wuthering Heights", "Young Mr. Lincoln"(another high on the list, starring Henry Fonda)..."Grapes Of Wrath"(1940)..."Blood & Sand"(1941)..."How Green Was My Valley"(1941)..."The Black Swan"(1942)..."Heaven Can Wait"(1943)..."My Friend Flicka"..."A Tree Grows In Brooklyn"(1945)..."Gentlemen's Agreement"(1947)..."A Letter To Three Wives"(1949)..."Down To The Sea In Ships"(1949)..."Prince Of Foxes"(1949)..."Twelve O'Clock High"(1949)..."All About Eve"(1950)(classic film, great cast)..."David & Bathsheba"(1951)..."With A Song In My Heart"(1952)(the Jane Froman Story, with Susan Hayward)..."The Robe"(1953)..."The Egyptian"(1954)..."A Man Called Peter"(1955)..."Love Is A Many Splendored Thing"(1955)..."The Seven Year Itch"(1955)..."Anatasia"(1956)..."The Diary Of Anne Frank"(1959)..."How The West Was Won"(1962)(then came CINERAMA, three cameras and sound that put you in the picture)..."The Greatest Story Ever Told"(1965)..."Airport"(1970)(this was Newman's last film), I've touched only the surface of his composing career, which involved arranging all the music for 20th Century-Fox studios, where Mr. Newman was music director.Newman's scores gave the audience what they wanted ~ warmth, sensual, inspiring, haunting melodies...a gift of telling a story without words, best to hear the music through tempo and rhythms, which produce peaks and valleys, thus this is life, and our favorite composer was obviously successful and a master of "International Melodies", many of which appeared in his filmscores. Silva America's 2-CD-Set, featuring The City Of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Alwyn, Paul Bateman and Nic Raine and the Crouch End Festival Chorus(Choir Master-David Temple). Recorded in "Dolby Surround" with the new technology of "HDCD", "film-score-buffs" with flip their wigs on this compilation...composing over 150 film scores and countless arrangements for other composers, this legacy of such dedication will always be with us through CD's, such as this one ~ ALFRED NEWMAN! You might try other Silva America releases, all worthy of a good listen ~ "The Godfather Trilogy"(SSD-1121)..."The Lion in Winter"(SSD-1131)..."Gone With The Wind:The Essential Max Steiner Film Music Collection"(2-CD-Set)(SSD-1132)..."John Barry:The Collection"(4-CD-Set)(SSD-1128)...please check out my reviews on amazon.com/music. Total Time: Disc One 57:27 on 14 Tracks &
Disc Two 57:00 on 13 Tracks ~
Silva America SSD-1122 ~ (2001)
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very complete summary of Alfred Newman's film music, November 22, 2001
This is a very good two-CD edition of the best of Alfred Newman's film music. Moreover, it includes several suites not available before, such as "The Razor's Edge", "The Keys of the Kingdom", "How the West was won", "The Diary of Anne Frank", plus the magnificent new Cantata "Man of Galilee", adapted from music of "The Robe" and "The Greatest story ever told". It includes also the overture of "The Mark of Zorro", that well deserved to be included in a Newman-Anthology (though it had been previosly relesed by the same label in a separate CD). Regarding other tracks, for instance "Cathy's Theme" from "Wuthering Heights" or "Conquest" from "Captain from Castile", in my opinion the tempos are very slow, though the versions are also good. In the particular case of "Conquest" I prefer other recordings, with more strength, such as Newman's symphonic suite, Korngold-Gerhard's recording, and Naxos'recording by Richard Hyman in "Majestic Marches", which includes not only the famous march but also the prelude of "Captain from Castile".
The only single contrary comment deals with the information booklet. I detected some "inventions" in the text. For instance the author speaks of Mexico as being part of South America, while most of Mexico (especially today's Mexico City) is in North America (only the Yucatan peninsula is in Central America), and says the Spanish conquerors cross the "pampas", while the "pampas" are not in Mexico, but thousands of kilometers to the South. They are huge and completely plain land extensions, without mountains, located in the South Cone of South America, especially in Patagonia. Obviously this mistake is not important, but it is convenient to avoid geographic confusions.
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2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
It's a bad CD!, June 6, 2002
By A Customer
It's a bad CD! It isn't Alfred Newman!...The choir is the worst choir I ever hear! The singers have horrible voices....
If you want hear the true Newman , buy the available originals in SAE, Rhino and Tsunamy labels
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