This week on “Picture Perfect,” to coincide with the Summer Games in Paris, we’ll get the blood pumping, with selections from Olympic opening ceremonies and television broadcasts.
Featured composers with include Leo Arnaud (a Ravel pupil, who worked on “The Wizard of Oz” and went on to write THE classic Olympic theme), Angelo Badalamenti (David Lynch’s composer of choice), Basil Poledouris (composer of “Conan the Barbarian” and “The Hunt for Red October”), and John Williams (‘nuff said).
In addition, there will be a suite from the Olympic documentary “16 Days of Glory,” by Lee Holdridge (recipient of seven Emmys and a Grammy).
We’ll be shoveling in the Wheaties and going for the gold, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies – or at the very least music by film composers – now in syndication on KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon!
Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EDT/5:00 PM PDT
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – ALL NEW! – Saturday at 11:00 AM EDT/8:00 AM PDT
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EDT/4:00 PM PDT
This week on Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, it’s high time we celebrate B-movie maestro Roger Corman. Corman, producer and/or director of a hundred films, give or take, died on May 9 at the age of 98.
One of the key ingredients of Corman’s decades-tested formula of success was his unwavering ability to keep a lid on a budget. There’s a reason he titled his autobiography “How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime.”
But he also had an uncanny instinct for titillation and showmanship, and he understood what appealed to the masses, especially the young. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he was also a half-decent storyteller.
Part of keeping the costs down meant that Corman was always on the look-out for affordable talent. His productions served not only as springboards for new discoveries looking to break into the business, but also roosts for the faded divinity of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
By the early 1960s, Ray Milland was ready to hang up his hat as an actor (he won an Academy Award for his lead performance in “The Lost Weekend” in 1945), but a combination of boredom (on his part) and annoyance (on his wife’s) drove him back before the cameras for a string of lurid horror hits. One of the most memorable of these was Corman’s “X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes” (1963).
Overweening scientist Dr. James Xavier uses himself as a guinea pig for experimentation with forces that should not be tampered with (naturally), setting in motion a downward spiral of grim inevitability of a kind that characterized so many creature double features of the era.
Somehow, having rewatched the film, I feel as if I am repeating Xavier’s mistake in agreeing to Roy’s suggestion that we discuss it this week…
Some things can’t be unseen! Bring your “insights” to the comments section. We’ll be modeling our “Ray”-Bans, when “X” marks the spot for our conversation about Ray Millard, Roger Corman, and “The Man with the X-ray Eyes.” SEE YOU when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT!
If you missed our long-delayed bull session about the classic television series “The Wild Wild West,” here’s the link to that show, which took place surreptitiously (to head off bad luck?) this past Sunday:
July 25th – a.k.a. Christmas in July. Remember: if you can’t sleep at night, it isn’t the coffee, it’s the bunk!
Whatever the cause, a wakeful hour could not be more profitably spent than in the enjoyment of this Preston Sturges classic. Even second-tier Sturges is sharper than most of what passes for comedy today. The complete movie is posted here:
Leo Arnaud was born in Lyon, France, on this date 120 years ago. You may not know his name, but from July 26 to August 11, yet again his most famous music will resound everywhere, as the 2024 Summer Olympics take place in Paris.
Arnaud composed the most widely recognized of Olympic fanfares, “The Bugler’s Dream,” for Felix Slatkin, for inclusion on his 1958 album, “Charge!” It was originally part of a larger work, the “Charge Suite.” However, in 1968, it was picked up by ABC, for use in its coverage of the Winter Olympics from Grenoble. As a result, the fanfare entered the popular consciousness, and it has been used by ABC in all its subsequent Olympics coverage. When the games moved to another network, the fanfare fell into dormancy for a time, but was revived by NBC for the Barcelona games in 1992.
Arnaud, who worked as an orchestrator in Hollywood for many years, studied with Maurice Ravel and Vincent d’Indy. His orchestrations can be heard in films ranging from “The Wizard of Oz” to “Ryan’s Daughter.”
In the 1980s, he revisited “The Bugler’s Dream” for a new recording on the Telarc label with legendary symphonic band director Frederick Fennell. This is a very interesting recording, since the composer not only expanded the fanfare into an Olympic triptych – adding a second movement, called “La Chasse,” and a third, titled “Olympiad” (written only a few days before the recording session) – but he also appears with the ensemble as a percussionist.
In more recent years, Arnaud’s fanfare has often been heard in an amalgam with John Williams’ “Olympic Fanfare and Theme,” written for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
When it comes to Olympic music, these guys are pure gold. Happy birthday, Leo Arnaud (1904-1991)!
Slatkin’s recording of “The Bugler’s Dream” (Olympic Fanfare at 2:52):
The third of Arnaud’s fanfares, “Olympiad,” for Fennell:
The Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires is 80 today. Critics have turned handsprings over her Schubert and Chopin, but my favorite recordings are two made with Augustin Dumay.
Together, they hold me in their thrall with the three violin sonatas of Edvard Grieg. Who knew the unassuming Norwegian miniaturist harbored such volcanic passion? Okay, so there’s every possibility that theirs are not the most idiomatic interpretations, but who cares? I’ll take these above all others. Here’s a taste:
They also collaborated on a very fine collection of the Beethoven sonatas, perhaps more suited to their collaborative temperament. You can sample any of them here:
Dumay, now 75, also set down my preferred recording of Édouard Lalo’s “Symphonie espagnole.” I guess the French really do know how to cook.
Many (including myself) assumed the couple were married, but it turns out they were actually cohabitating. Following their split, they continued to play together and, according to Pires, remain good friends.
In 2006, Pires left Portugal to live in Brazil for 11 years, because of sustained negative publicity over an experimental primary school she established to introduce the arts into the lives of underprivileged children. She also tried to set up a program for sexually abused children, but claims she was stonewalled by the previously-cooperative Portuguese government, over the raging controversy. During her expatriation, the arts program continued to operate on her farm, overseen by a trusted friend. In the meantime, she initiated similar programs in Brazil.
With all the anxiety over the attacks in the press – which then invented a story that the reason for her move was so that she could be with her Brazilian lover (who did not exist) – she fell ill and had to undergo major heart surgery. She later dedicated one of her recordings to her medical team.
Pires returned to Portugal in 2017 and announced her retirement from the concert stage (after all, she had been performing in public since the age of 5), but every time she thought she was out, it seems, the instrument pulled her back in. There have been spills and injuries along the way – pianists are a lot like athletes – but she’s basically been back to concertizing since 2020.
There’s a video that’s been circulating on the internet for a number of years now, in which Pires shows up for a concert having prepared the wrong Mozart concerto and then delivers a note-perfect performance of the scheduled piece, despite not having played it for quite some time. Some combination of adrenaline, muscle memory, and/or the Force sees her through.
Personally, I’m not sure how such a mix-up is even possible, since, even in the modern world of fly-me-in artists, there’s usually at least one rehearsal. But it was a lunchtime concert, and they’re all world-class professionals, so there it is.
Pires claims a strong relationship with Buddhist philosophy. While she admits Buddhism influences her playing, with its sense of breathing, space, and quietness, she refuses to be pigeonholed as a Buddhist, stating that before anything else she is a human being.
Happy birthday, Maria João Pires. May your future surprises all be good ones!
Pires explains the source of the Mozart mix-up here:
Pires plays the Chopin Nocturnes, no studio trickery, live in concert:
