This week on “Picture Perfect,” for the 70th anniversary of the release of Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments – and just in time for Passover – we’ll hear selections from Elmer Bernstein’s classic score.
From a 6-CD set on the Intrada label – that includes the complete 2 ½ hour score, three commercial soundtrack releases, and bonus material intriguing enough to curl Charlton Heston’s beard – we’ll hear lovingly remastered highlights from the 1960 Dot and 1966 United Artists soundtrack re-recordings, the Pillar of Fire and parting of the Red Sea sequence from the original score, as heard in the film, and rare demos, prepared for Mr. DeMille by the composer, who announces his themes as he plays them, from the piano.
So let it be written, so let it be done!
It’s the collector’s equivalent of stone tablets handed down from Mount Sinai. Join me for the definitive “The Ten Commandments,” on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX Classical Oregon!
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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 – 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
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu
Tag: Elmer Bernstein
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“The Ten Commandments” on “Picture Perfect”
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A Hollywood Bowl Super-concert on “Picture Perfect”
Regardless of how you feel about the current state of the industry or the awards ceremony itself, you have to concede, there’s quite a rich history of impressive music written for film. And the Academy Awards is always the perfect excuse to look back.
This week on “Picture Perfect,” I’ll be leaning heavily into the nostalgia, as virtually every major composer from the golden age of Hollywood comes together at the Hollywood Bowl for a concert of now-classic film scores, originally broadcast on CBS Television in 1963. The event is often referred to as “the greatest film music concert in history.”Participants included, among others, Alfred Newman (“How the West Was Won”), David Raksin (“Laura”), Alex North (“Cleopatra”), Johnny Green (“Raintree County”), Franz Waxman (“A Place in the Sun”), Bernard Herrmann (“North by Northwest”), Dimitri Tiomkin (“High Noon”), and Miklós Rózsa (“Ben-Hur”). They were joined by Mahalia Jackson, Andy Williams, and Jack Benny!
An album was released on LP, but understandably the three-hour concert was severely truncated. This was somewhat remedied on a CD-reissue on the Columbia Legacy label in 1995 that included 70 minutes of music. Among the casualties, however, was Elmer Bernstein conducting the theme to “The Magnificent Seven.” I will perform a service to film music by restoring that cut from another source.
Based on my reading and the fact that I’m finding other selections in my personal library that were recorded at the venue on the same date, there’s still much that remains to be compiled. Put out whatever you’re holding back on a double-disc, please, Sony Classical!
Hollywood couldn’t assemble this much musical talent today if it tried. Fortunately, recordings like this one endure. I hope you’ll join me for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX Classical Oregon!
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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 – 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
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu -
Bustin’ Out of the Joint on “Picture Perfect”
This week on “Picture Perfect,” get yourself free. It’s an hour of music from movies about prison breaks.
Indomitable Steve McQueen does hard time on Devil’s Island in “Papillon” (Jerry Goldsmith); Paul Newman sticks it to The Man in “Cool Hand Luke” (Lalo Schifrin); Tim Robbins makes good use of a Rita Hayworth poster in “The Shawshank Redemption” (Thomas Newman); and an all-star cast, led by a barbed-wire hopping McQueen, flee their Nazi captors in “The Great Escape” (Elmer Bernstein).
Let’s face it, nobody looks good in orange. Grab a shank and a file. We’re bustin’ out of the joint, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, now in syndication on KWAX Classical Oregon!
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Clip and save the start times for all three of my recorded shows:
PICTURE PERFECT, the movie music show – Friday at 8:00 PM EST/5:00 PM PST
SWEETNESS AND LIGHT, the light music program – Saturday at 11:00 AM EST/8:00 AM PST
THE LOST CHORD, unusual and neglected rep – Saturday at 7:00 PM EST/4:00 PM PST
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
https://kwax.uoregon.edu -
Villa-Lobos’s Amazonian Hollywood Tale
When Heitor Villa-Lobos was contracted by M-G-M to write music for a big screen adaptation of W.H. Hudson’s novel “Green Mansions” (1959), expectations ran high on both sides. The Brazilian master began immediately, diving into the project with characteristic gusto. After all, he had been writing music inspired by the rain forest for his entire career.
Unfortunately, he had very little affinity for the practicality of the filmmaking process, turning in musical impressions of scenes from the book. The studio was befuddled. Since Villa-Lobos was unable to adapt to the customary way of doing things, he was replaced by M-G-M house composer Branislau Kaper, who used the Villa-Lobos material as a springboard for his own dramatic conception. The result is part Villa-Lobos, part Kaper, and all M-G-M gloss.
Villa-Lobos was a little embittered by his Hollywood experience. He promptly assembled a multi-movement symphonic poem, “Forest of the Amazon” (1958), some 75 minutes in length, which employed his rejected sketches. He made a recording of 45 minutes of the music in 1959, for which the soprano Bidu Sayão came out of retirement.
This week on “Picture Perfect,” we’ll have selections from both versions of “Green Mansions,” as well as from the Mayan adventure “Kings of the Sun” (1963), composed by Elmer Bernstein, and “The Night of the Mayas” (1939), by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas.
I hope you’ll join me for cinematic evocations of the indigenous peoples of Latin America, on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, 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 – 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
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
PHOTO: The project that left Villa-Lobos feeling green around the gills
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Americana Film Scores for the Fourth of July
This week on “Picture Perfect,” it’s my birthday AND the Fourth of July, so I’ve selected four Americana film scores to enjoy with sparklers and cake.
Okay, so “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962) is not the most celebratory film, but I don’t care – it’s a beautiful movie, based on a beautiful book (by Pulitzer Prize winner Harper Lee), with beautiful music by Elmer Bernstein, full of nostalgia and yearning, and a playful sense of fun when the kids are rolling in tires. It’s steeped in Americana, so I’m going with it. Gregory Peck is unforgettable as the forthright attorney and model father, Atticus Finch. FUN FACT: John Williams played the piano part in the original recording heard in the film.
A rather more questionable role model is at the heart of “The Film-Flam Man” (1967), with George C. Scott as “Master of Back-Stabbing, Cork-Screwing and Dirty-Dealing” confidence man Mordecai C. Jones. Irvin Kershner directed, and Jerry Goldsmith’s music (harmonica, banjo, honky-tonk piano, etc.) lends to the film’s freewheeling spirit with a folksy, bluegrass-imbued score.
Jerome Moross is largely recognized for his classic score for “The Big Country.” However, that sense of quintessential Americana colors much of his output, including, most sensitively, his music for “Rachel, Rachel” (1968). Joanne Woodward plays the isolated schoolteacher of the title (the character lives above a funeral parlor with her mother), who belatedly experiences passion and asserts her independence. The director was none other than Woodward’s husband, Paul Newman.
Finally, we’ll turn to one of John Williams breakthrough scores, for “The Reivers” (1969), based on the semi-autobiographical novel of William Faulkner. The music, if possible, is even folksier and more frenetic than Goldsmith’s “The Flim-Flam Man” – though, typical of Williams, there is also an expansive sentiment and indefinable yearning to the more lyrical episodes.
It’s said that the composer’s work on “The Reivers” is what moved Steven Spielberg to hire him for “The Sugarland Express.” The Spielberg association brought Williams to “Jaws,” and the first of his truly iconic film scores. Williams collaborated with the director of THIS film, Mark Rydell, on a number of occasions, as well – on “The Cowboys,” “Cinderella Liberty,” and “The River.”
I hope you’ll join me for a Fourth of July tug of war between rowdiness and sensitivity, with Americana film scores on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, 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 – 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
Stream them, wherever you are, at the link!
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