Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Franz Waxman

  • Film Composers Beyond the Screen

    Film Composers Beyond the Screen

    If after about three hours you find yourself getting played out on the Academy Awards– once Ennio Morricone finally wins his first competitive Oscar, that is (fingers crossed) – you might consider tuning in to “The Lost Chord.” We’ll both complement and enjoy counterprogramming to the ceremony by listening to concert works by composers better known for their work in film.

    Franz Waxman was a two-time Academy Award winner, honored with back-to-back Oscars, in 1950 and 1951, for his work on “Sunset Boulevard” and “A Place in the Sun.” Some of his other classic scores include those for “The Bride of Frankenstein,” “Rebecca,” “Rear Window,” “Peyton Place” and “The Nun’s Story.”

    In 1955, he was traveling from California to Zurich to conduct a new piece commissioned by Rolf Liebermann. When Waxman reached New York he was met with a request from Lieberman’s office for program notes for the impending premiere. Waxman was forced to admit he hadn’t yet begun work on the piece, which he had planned to write during the ocean voyage. Fortunately, he was accustomed from his experience in Hollywood to write very quickly. The result was his “Sinfonietta for String Orchestra and Timpani.”

    Five-time Academy Award winner John Williams – whose 50th nominated score, for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” is in contention tonight – is of course very well-known for his collaborations with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Over the years, he’s also accrued an impressive quantity of concertos. One of the more immediately attractive of these is his Tuba Concerto of 1985, written for the 100th anniversary of the Boston Pops.

    Finally, we’ll turn to three-time Academy Award winner Miklós Rózsa, honored for his work on Alfred Hitchcock’s “Spellbound” in 1945, the Ronald Colman thriller “A Double Life” in 1947, and “Ben-Hur” in 1959. He also composed quite a bit of concert music, including concertos for Jascha Heifetz, Gregor Piatigorsky, Janos Starker, Leonard Pennario and Pinchas Zukerman.

    Rózsa, Hungarian by birth, turned to film after a period of struggle as a young artist in Paris, where he learned from Arthur Honegger that he was able to pay the rent by supplementing his concert music with cinematic efforts. Rózsa’s “Theme, Variations and Finale,” Op. 13, of 1933, preceded the start of his film career by a few years. He revised the piece in 1943, by which time he had already completed his classic fantasy scores for Alexander Korda’s “The Thief of Bagdad” and “Jungle Book,” and was on the verge of becoming a leading composer of film noir.

    “Theme, Variations and Finale” received performances by Charles Munch, Karl Böhm, Georg Solti, and Eugene Ormandy. It was also one of the works that featured on the legendary concert that launched Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic, on November 14, 1943, when the young assistant conductor substituted at the last minute for an ailing Bruno Walter.

    I hope you’ll join me for an hour of concert music by composers better known for their work in film – “Against Type” on “The Lost Chord” – this Sunday night at 10 ET, with a repeat Wednesday evening at 6; or that you’ll listen to it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

    PHOTOS: Has anyone here seen Kelly? (Clockwise from left) John Williams wins the Oscar for “Star Wars;” Franz Waxman and Miklós Rózsa receive their awards from the hands of Gene Kelly

  • Arthurian Movie Music Legends on Screen

    Arthurian Movie Music Legends on Screen

    “Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil is rightwise king born of all England.”

    — Sir Thomas Malory, “Le Morte d’Arthur” (because simply pulling a sword from a stone isn’t enough)

    This week on “Picture Perfect,” we have music from movies inspired by the legends of King Arthur.

    The legends provide so much grist for “Prince Valiant” (1954), based on Hal Foster’s enduring comic strip, set in the days of Arthur, though Val himself is a Viking prince of the kingdom of Scandia. Janet Leigh plays Princess Aleta, James Mason the villainous Sir Brack, Victor McLaglen Val’s Viking pal Boltar, and Sterling Hayden a preposterous Gawain. For the title role, Robert Wagner dons the signature page-boy haircut. The score, by Franz Waxman, is every bit as vivid as the film’s Technicolor, and a clear prototype for the thrilling, leitmotif-driven music of John Williams.

    “The Mists of Avalon” (2001), adapted from Marion Zimmer Bradley’s novel, took the ingenious approach of retelling the Arthurian stories from the perspective of the often-marginalized female characters. The revisionist perspective breathed fresh life into the familiar tales, so that the book was greeted with critical and popular acclaim upon its release in 1983. A television miniseries, starring Julianna Margulies, Angelica Huston and Joan Allen, was produced for TNT, with music by Lee Holdridge.

    “First Knight” (1995) featured the unlikely cast of Sean Connery as Arthur, Richard Gere as Lancelot, and Julia Ormond as Guinevere. The film is unique, to my knowledge, in being based on the writings of medieval French poet Chretien de Troyes, as opposed to the more frequent source, Sir Thomas Malory.

    The score was by Jerry Goldsmith. It was actually a bit of a rush job for Goldsmith, who stepped up at the very last minute to replace Maurice Jarre. Jarre had been approached to write music for what was originally a three-hour cut of the film. However, he only had four weeks to do so. Goldsmith, very well-known for his ability to write at white heat, was able to complete the score, and record the music in the allotted time.

    For my money, the version most faithful to the spirit – if not always the letter – of “Le Morte d’Arthur” is “Excalibur” (1981). The film sports a peerless British and Irish cast, with an uncanny number of the supporting players going on to achieve world fame.

    Unfortunately the soundtrack is largely made up of pre-existing music by Wagner and Carl Orff (put to brilliant use, by the way) – with only a few atmospheric numbers composed by Trevor Jones. These, to my knowledge, have never been issued commercially. However, the same story was given the M-G-M treatment, as “Knights of the Round Table” (1953), with Robert Taylor as Lancelot, Ava Gardner as Guinevere, and Mel Ferrer as Arthur.

    While the film is nowhere in the same league as “Excalibur” – it’s far too glossy and pat – it does sport some satisfying 1950s spectacle, and a fine score by Miklós Rózsa.

    I hope you’ll join me, in the name of God, St. Michael and St. George, for music inspired by the legends of Arthur, on “Picture Perfect” – music for the movies – this Friday evening at 6, with a repeat tomorrow morning at 6; or enjoy it later as a webcast at wwfm.org.

  • Comic Book Movie Music on Picture Perfect

    Comic Book Movie Music on Picture Perfect

    Get out your Silly Putty! We’ll have plenty of vibrant colors for you to enjoy this week on “Picture Perfect,” when the focus will be on comic adventurers – as in heroes from the funnies.

    We’ll hear music from “Prince Valiant” (1954), based on Hal Foster’s enduring Sunday strip about the exploits of a Viking prince at the court of King Arthur. The film stars Robert Wagner (in a page-boy haircut), Janet Leigh, James Mason, Sterling Haydn, and Victor McLaglen (as Val’s Viking pal Boltar). It also happens to feature one of Franz Waxman’s most rousing scores, clearly a prototype for the kind of music that later made John Williams a household name.

    Then Billy Zane is “The Ghost Who Walks,” in a big screen version of Lee Falk’s “The Phantom” (1996). Like Batman, The Phantom harnesses personal tragedy – in this case, the murder of his father – to a thirst for justice. He is now part of an ancient lineage of Phantoms, who don the purple suit and fight crime from a cave in a remote African country, in part through the power of a magic ring. The memorable (though somewhat monothematic) score is by David Newman, one of the sons of legendary Hollywood composer Alfred Newman.

    Warren Beatty helmed an amusing adaptation of Chester Gould’s “Dick Tracy” (1990), replete with primary color production design and meticulously applied make-up that transformed some of the most respected actors of the day (including Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman and James Caan) into a live-action Rogue’s Gallery. Design and make-up were recognized with Academy Awards, as was Stephen Sondheim, for the original song “Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man),” sung in the film by Madonna. We won’t hear Sondheim’s song, but we will hear some of Danny Elfman’s underscore, which harkens back to Hollywood’s Golden Age.

    Finally, we turn from the American newspaper to the comic volumes of Belgian cartoonist Hergé, and his most famous creation, Tintin, a young journalist whose stories seem always to embroil him in globetrotting adventures. Developed for the screen by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, “The Adventures of Tintin” (2011) was shot as 3-D motion capture animation.

    After 50 years in the business, during which he wrote music for all manner of films, from across virtually every genre, John Williams finally got a crack at scoring an animated feature. The result was a double Academy Award nomination, as Williams had also written the music that year for Spielberg’s “War Horse.” Not bad for a 79 year-old composer.

    Unfortunately, “Tintin” never gained the kind of traction with the public that the filmmakers had hoped for, otherwise the score would certainly be much better known, as it is cut from the same cloth – and is of the same high quality – as those for the “Star Wars,” Indiana Jones, and Harry Potter series.

    I’ll see you in the funny pages this week, on “Picture Perfect” – music for the movies – this Friday evening at 6, with a repeat Saturday morning at 6; or listen to it later as a webcast, at http://www.wwfm.org.

  • Pirate Movie Music Scores on “Picture Perfect”

    Pirate Movie Music Scores on “Picture Perfect”

    Ahoy! This week on “Picture Perfect,” we sharpen our sabers and head for the high seas with an hour of music from pirate movies.

    We’ll exhume a buried treasure full of scores by Franz Waxman (“Anne of the Indies”), Elmer Bernstein (“The Buccaneer”), William Alwyn (“The Crimson Pirate”), Alfred Newman (“The Black Swan”) and Erich Wolfgang Korngold (“The Sea Hawk”).

    Remember, Turner Classic Movies: TCM is showing pirate movies every Friday night in June. You’ll be able to catch “The Crimson Pirate” tomorrow night at 8 ET and “The Sea Hawk” June 20 at 11:45, part of a full night of Errol Flynn films.

    Comb out your beards and polish your hooks, me mateys. We vary piracy with a little burglary, on “Picture Perfect,” this Friday evening at 6, or listen to it later as a webcast at http://www.wwfm.org.

  • WWII Film Scores Memorial Day Special

    WWII Film Scores Memorial Day Special

    Today is Richard Wagner’s birthday. Perhaps in his honor, I am going to go his megalomania one better by completely ignoring the fact and using the space for shameless self-promotion!

    This week on “Picture Perfect,” as we near Memorial Day, the focus will be on music from World War II classics.

    Among the selections will be a new release – and a very fine one – on the Intrada label of music by Miklós Rózsa. The album is called “The Man in Half Moon Street,” and includes re-recordings of some of his underrepresented though certainly deserving scores, among them, “Valley of the Kings,” “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers,” and “Sahara.”

    In “Sahara,” Humphrey Bogart plays a WWII tank commander who holes up at a desert well and uses his apparent position of power to delay a parched German battalion from participating in the First Battle of El Alamein. Allan Wilson conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, in what is truly the best project of its kind I have encountered in quite some time. Re-recordings so often lack the punch of the originals, but here is Rózsa is all his glory, sounding wholly idiomatic and presented in vivid digital splendor.

    Jerry Goldsmith’s music for “Patton” should require no introduction. The film is a bona fide classic, a winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Unfortunately for Goldsmith, at that stage of his career, he was always a bridesmaid but never a bride. George C. Scott notoriously rejected his Oscar for Best Actor; he should have given it to Goldsmith.

    Errol Flynn may seem an unlikely choice to play a U.S. Army captain, but he does just that in “Objective, Burma!” Flynn received criticism for remaining in Hollywood during the war, but the Warner Brothers publicity machine did what it could to hush up the fact that the world’s most famous swashbuckler had tried to enlist but was rejected on medical grounds. “Objective, Burma!” infuriated Churchill, and the film was actually banned in Britain for what was perceived as the Americanization of a largely British, Indian and Commonwealth conflict. The rousing score, also nominated for an Oscar, was by Franz Waxman.

    “The Guns of Navarone,” adapted from the novel of Alistair MacLean, is one of the all-time great adventure films. A team of Allied military specialists – played by Gregory Peck, David Niven and Anthony Quinn, among others – undertake a mission to blow up some very big Nazi guns trained over the Aegean Sea. Dimitri Tiomkin pulled out all the stops for his Oscar-nominated music. The recording features a spoken introduction by James Robertson Justice, who plays Commodore Jensen in the film.

    Join me for these scores from World War II classics on “Picture Perfect,” music for the movies, this Friday evening at 6:00 ET, or listen to it as a webcast, at http://www.wwfm.org.

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