The Alamo: The Essential Film Music Collection
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Artist: Dimitri Tiomkin
Label: Silva America Category: Music Average customer rating: Format: Soundtrack Media: Audio CD Number Of Discs: 5 UPC: 738572081126 EAN: 0738572081126 ASIN: B00022MBNK Release Date: 2004-07-13 |
The Alamo: The Essential Film Music Collection
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Dimitri Tiomkin was one of the most prominent composers of Hollywood's Golden Age and beyond, his career spanning a half-century and some of America's most classic films. This sprawling, four-disc anthology (its title a marketing nod to the modern remake of one of Tiomkin's notable collaborations with John Wayne) features new digital recordings of full-bodied performances by the City of Prague Orchestra and Festival Chorus, the most ambitious and comprehensive tribute to the composer yet attempted. There's something here for film score buffs (rarities like a suite from his sci-fi genre-defining <I>Thing From Another World</I> and the "Main Theme" for the pilot of TV's <I>Wild, Wild West</I>) and novice alike; indeed one could scarcely ask for a more complete overview of Tiomkin's robust orchestral oeuvre. Divided into four chapters, disc one chronicles how the Ukrainian immigrant concocted a rich Western film heritage (including such genre landmarks as <I>Red River</I>, <I>High Noon</I>, <I>Gunfight at the O.K. Corral</I> and <I>Rio Bravo</I>) from largely European traditions, while the next two CD's cover his rousing work for epics and thrillers of every stripe, and collaborations with Hitchcock, Wayne, Capra, Stevens and more. The concluding disc pays homage to Tiomkin the unlikely pop tunesmith, via his hit vocal themes to <I>Rawhide</I>, <I>Wild is the Wind</I> and <I>High Noon</I>'s "Do Not Forsake Me." <I>--Jerry McCulley</I>Customer Reviews:
More expensive than the other Essential but worth it........2007-04-22
Excellent compilation of an important composer........2004-07-16
"film composer Dimitri Tiomkin gave his all and then some".......2004-07-13
Tiomkin was born in Ukraine, Russia [1894-1979] attended and graduated from St. Petersburg Academy[studied under the famed composer Glazunov] ~ had a degree in music as well as law ~ came to America in 1925, shown great interest for Native American music early in his film career.
Great fondness for "The Western" ~ "DUEL IN THE SUN" (1946) (Gregory Peck, Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotton, Lionel Barrymore, Lilian Gish and Charles Bickford - one of biggest and successful epic Westerns ever, score & photography was simply breathtaking), "RED RIVER" (1948) (John Wayne, Monty Cliff and Walter Brennan - the Duke should have won an Oscar for his performance as the aging cantankerous cattle baron)"HIGH NOON" (1952)(classic film with Gary Cooper in his Oscar winning performance of Will Kane), "TENSION AT TABLE ROCK" (1956), "GUNFIGHT AT THE OK CORRAL" (1957)(Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp & Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday pulled this off with the help of the Main Theme), "NIGHT PASSAGE" (1957), "RIO BRAVO" (1959) (top box office leaders John Wayne, Dean Martin, Walter Brennan and Ricky Nelson), "THE YOUNG LAND" (1959) (young Dennis Hopper), "RAWHIDE" (TV Series) (1959-66) (Eric Fleming as trail boss Gil Favor & Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates), "THE UNFORGIVEN" (1960) (Burt Lancaster, Audie Murphy and Audrey Hepburn), "THE WILD, WILD WEST" (TV Series) (1965-69)(Tiomkin's music never saw the light of day), "WAR WAGON" (1967) (John Wayne & Kirk Douglas starred) (beautifully melodic) ~ it's easy to see why Tiomkin loved Western lore.
Second disc contains The Epics ~ "LAND OF THE PHARAOHS" (1955) (Jack Hawkins as Pharaoh Cheops and a beautiful Joan Collins as his scheming wife), "55 DAYS AT PEKING" (1963) (Charlton Heston, David Niven and Ava Gardner is the all star cast), "THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE" (1964) (featuring Alec Guinness as emperor Marcus Aurelius), "CIRCUS WORLD" (1964) (John Wayne, Claudia Cardinale and Rita Hayworth under the big top) ~ next we Hitchcock Thrillers with "STRANGERS ON A TRAIN" (1951) (a masterpiece film featuring Robert Walker and Farley Granger are both very convincing as we learn, never talked to strangers on a train or anywhere), "DIAL M FOR MURDER" (1954) (tense moments come from Grace Kelly, Ray Milland and Robert Cummings - they don't get any better than this) ~ finally Drama and High Adventure with "HIGH AND MIGHTY" (1954) (another outstanding performance by John Wayne, as the co-pilot of an airline whistling the haunting theme), "GIANT" (1956)(another big epic film with Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean and Chill Wills show us what it's like to be a Texan, with oil and money), "WILD IS THE WIND" (1957) (Anthony Quinn, Anna Magnani and Anthony Franciosa), "THE GUNS OF NAVARONE" (1961) (World War II film featuring Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, David Niven and Stanley Baker on a small Greek Island trying to outwit the Germans and a very big gun) ~ some of Tiomkin's most inspiring themes rise to the surface.
On disc three ~ as we continue with Drama and High Adventures "IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE" (1946) (James Stewart, Donna Reed, Thomas Mitchell, Lionel Barrymore and Ward Bond with wholesome warm and endearing themes from our favorite composer), "TARZAN AND THE MERMAIDS" (1948) (in his 12th film as Tarzan, Johnny Weissmuller still had what it takes to swim and defeat the man-god Balu - Weissmuller and Tiomkin the perfect combination for this Tarzan adventure), "CYRANO DE BERGERAC" (1950) (Jose Ferrer stars as Edmond Rostand's famous swordsman with a even more famous nose), "THE WELL" (1951) (intense cues give the film musical triumphs in final scenes), "THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD" (1951) (exciting Howard Hawks film with a score to match), "FRIENDLY PERSUASION" (1956) (director William Wyler shows the life and times of a Quaker family played by Gary Cooper, Dorothy Mcguire and Anthony Perkins during the American Civil War, very touching), "THE ALAMO" (1960) (big budget epic western with Big John Wayne it's producer, director and star as Davy Crockett with a haunting and never to be forgotten "The Green Leaves of Summer"), "TOWN WITHOUT PITY" (1961) (Kirk Douglas in a post-war Germany story, blends jazz themes with Tiomkin signature arrangements) ~ Tiomkin always made the difference when it came to scoring a film.
The last and final disc four ~ The Tiomkin Vocal Songbook featuring "This Then is Texas" (Giant), "Rawhide" (Rawhide), "Do Not Forsake Me" (High Noon), "Follow the River" (Night Passage), "The Ballad of Jett Rink" (Giant), "Thee I Love" (Friendly Percuasion), "It's A Wonderful Life", "Wild Is The Wind", "The High and the Mighty", The Ballad of the War Wagon" (The War Wagon), "Rio Bravo", "Strange are the Ways of Love" (The Young Land), "The Ballad of Jim West" (The Wild Wild West), "The Wild Wild West" (The Wild Wild West) ~ many were hit makers of the day and in the top ten.
Outstanding performances by The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (Nic Raine, Paul Bateman, Mario Klemens - are the conductors), Crouch End Festival Chorus (David Temple - choir master), featuring vocals by Jason Howard and Keith Ferreira ~ hats off to James Fitzpatrick (producer), Reynold da Silva (executive producer), Olilvia Tiomkin Douglas, John Waxman, Rick Clark and Gareth Williams (associate producers) ~ all film producers and directors welcomed the legendary composer with open arms for their forthcoming projects ~ the "film-score-buff" collectors are ecstatic about this four disc release on the essential film music collection of DIMITRI TIOMKIN, the arrangements and performances are top notch inclusive of HDCD/Dolby Surround.
When listening to the music of a film, you had the feeling of the storyline, characters and convictions of the whole picture, they'll never be another to come this way again ~ Silva America has outdone themselves on this one, it is definitely a five star film score box set...gotta love it!
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