Film Scores: King Kong (Max Steiner)
Vložit
- čas přidán 2. 01. 2022
- This legendary 1933 masterpiece of film scoring is regarded by many as the first great Hollywood movie soundtrack, and with good reason. Steiner's music added immeasurably to the impact of the film at a time when the wisdom of continuous music was still being questioned. This first-ever modern recording of the complete King Kong music features the Moscow Symphony Orchestra under William T. Stromberg on Marco Polo Records.
- Hudba
As Steiner's biographer, I'm delighted that you spotlighted such a worthy project. John W. Morgan, who reconstructed the score, knew and studied (informally) under Max, and no one conducts Steiner's music with more authenticity and drama than William T. Stromberg. Thank you.
Thank you for chiming in. I look forward to talking about many more Steiner scores!
I didn't know about this CD, despite having a number of those Naxos/Marco Polo reconstructed soundtracks. Happily it's on streaming platforms, so I can listen. Strangely, the Warner BluRay of the film I own is OOP already (at least it's on HBO Max). You would think the film would never be difficult to get. I'm glad you've made good on your threat to serve up some videos on film music. Please keep them coming! Steiner, Waxman, Rozsa, Korngold, Herrmann, Rota, Elmer Bernstein....can't get enough of them!
I've watched King Kong so often I can talk along with the dialogue, but hearing this recording is a revelation.
"Don't be alarmed, ladies and gentlemen. Those chains are made of chrome steel." - Carl Denham
I have a lot of these re-recordings by Stromberg and the Moscow SO.
They also recorded the Steiner scores for Son Of Kong and The Most Dangerous Game on another disc. So glad to appreciate film scores such as these are performed.
My interest in film scores was the gateway to my introduction to classical music. As a boy John Williams' score to Star Wars really got me into appreciation of orchestral music. There's a gold mine of much more film scores to cover.
I've heard this reconstruction. It's great. That "death" chord that Steiner pounds when the screaming dude is taken from the tree and eaten by the dinosaur is always so powerful. Also the way Steiner laid off the music entirely for a couple of seconds with silence before that fateful coda. Such a master.
My personal favorite moment is when they're approaching the island through that heavy fog - the music is so eerie, atmospheric and oppressive. That music reminds me of Jaws when Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss find that lost fishing boat at night, and when I watch THAT scene, it always makes me think of King Kong!
The screaming dude eaten by the (herbivorous) Brontosaurus scared me as much than any other scene in the film when I first saw it. I’ve watched KONG countless times since then, but for years thereafter I had to mute the volume to avoid the screaming. The same goes for the sequence in which Kong causes the (screaming) sailors to fall from the log bridge. (BTW, it was Sound Designer Murray Spivack who supplied those screams.)
It's great you're doing film music. I've been collecting soundtracks from Hollywood's Golden Age for decades - there IS a lot of great music. I wish that John Morgan would create arrangements of some of his many reconstructions that could be used by amateur/community orchestras. What a nice addition to the repertoire that would be. Alas, there's probably so many copyright issues that it won't ever happen. Also, everyone interested in film music really needs to read "Music by Max Steiner" by Steven Smith that came out last year. Terrific read and you learn not only about Steiner's own tragic life, but the whole miserable Hollywood movie machine.
Yes..everyone..read Steven Smith's book.
Thank you for alerting us to these. There is something special about the work of these Hollywood masters. I played in orchestras led by the Bakaleinikoff brothers (RKO and Columbia). Max Steiner, ohh…I’ll never walk in the Wienerwald by night!
Did the Bakalenikoff brothers actually write music for films or just conduct?
@@mahlerii they conducted
Incredibly excited for this new series. So much greatness ahead! what a way to kick off 2022!
This is too good!
Looking forward to more reviews of soundtracks.
Love, love, love this score. Thank you for doing this talk, David. Everyone always credit Willis O'Brien for creating Kong, (and he deserves it), but no one talks about the fact that it's the music that makes Kong seem so huge. Try watching the film without it and Kong looks like an animated toy.
I applaud you for giving credit to Willis O’Brien. Yes, the stop-motion effects are crude by today’s standards, but in 1933 he was the master.
I'm so glad you're doing this! There was a great CD on Telarc years ago that had music from It's a Wonderful Life by Dimitri Tiomkin and the 1951 version of Scrooge by Richard Addinsell. I don't remember the orchestra or conductor. I so regret not getting that at the time. I know Telarc is gone now but I hope sombody will re-issue that CD.
David Newman and the Royal Phil (also includes Mockridge's "Miracle on 34th St"). The entire Tiomkin score was reconstructed and recorded INCLUDING LOTS of very dark, disturbing cues that accompanied the childhood ice pond scene, the Gower/poison pill scene, George's attempted suicide, a number of nightmarish "unborn scenes", etc.....you really get a sense of just how BLEAK this film was before Capra and LIberty films tried to "brighten it up" for Christmas 1946 release, cutting much of Tiomkin's best music, burying it under the vocal/effects tracks and/or replacing it with older cues by Leigh Harline, Roy Webb and Alfred Newman. There's also the very recent La-La Land release of Tiomkin's entire original studio recording..but the Telarc has MUCH better liner note and tracking info. LR
The network television premiere of “King Kong” took place in (I think) 1956. I was four years old at the time, but my parents, bless ‘em, let me stay up and watch. Kong and the dinosaurs naturally scared the bejeezus out of me, but so did Steiner’s remarkable score. In fact, it was a film score I heard a few years later that sparked my lifelong interest in “serious” music. I watched the 1939 version of “Of Mice and Men” and the music accompanying the opening title credits immediately grabbed my attention. I took notice of the fact it had been composed by somebody named “Aaron Copland.” Not long after that I saw “The Red Pony” for the first time and, by God, Copland stole my heart forever. Now, sixty years later, among my hundreds of classical CDs are a even dozen recordings of his Third Symphony alone (among many other cherished works). I could ramble on, but let me just share with you what a blessing it has been having discovered your website and CZcams channel! Thank you, David! Now I’m going to watch your “Jane Eyre” video!
I first saw it in May, '58; I was in first grade, and our parents got us out of bed right during the Brontosaurus chase scene, which leads to the horrific, pulse-pounding log-rolling scene, followed immediately by the Tyrannosaurus battle scene. My brother and I were fried, and jumped back into bed. But we couldn't resist, and got up again to witness the native village chaos to the bitter end. I was a changed man (boy) after that night. And yes, Steiner's music really makes the film.
Happily, I wasn’t the only kid of elementary school age who couldn’t sleep after viewing KING KONG!
Really welcome excellent addition to your series. Understand completely in this context if you can't play samples, not to review. However can I shamelessly plug, as I've done before, the reconstruction of Franz Waxman's Bride of Frankenstein (written only a couple of years after Kong in 1935 and a really notable early example of leitmotif technique being used in film). It's a wonderful score (so good in fact Universal used it in loads of stuff subsequently, including the Flash Gordon series!). Apart from the Creation of Bride cue (included in few anthologies) the rest of the score has been shamefully neglected. The only game in town is/was the Silva Screen version with a pickup orchestra (however it's very well done).
Hope you'll include Bennard Hermann's Jane Eyre score - that's extraordinary and on Naxos I believe. Cheers
The original film tracks (though parts of them are lost) for Bride of Frankenstein were released two years ago by La La Land Records. Though a modern re-recording would be wonderful, obviously.
S U P E R ! This is great stuff .
"The Big Sleep" is a classic film noir that has crossed over to being just a 'classic film', period. In-spite of the hype surrounding Bogart and Bacall, I'm convinced that at least half of the credit for its success should be given to Max Steiner for his outstanding score. It's amazing! He even uses Wagner's leitmotiv technique, to some degree. I recently watched a New Year's themed 'film noir' that was produced by Eagle-Lion Studios - a low budget subsidiary of Arthur Rank Films of London. It's titled "Repeat Performance", as the female protagonist gets to relive her disastrous, previous year (it's complicated). Anyway, it had a fantastic soundtrack by George Antheil.
What a great idea for a series! I know you'll get to other scores based on your judgment of merit, your own workload, and licensing considerations, but a couple I'd love to hear are (beside anything by Bernard Hermann, of course) are David Shire's score for "Farewell My Lovely" and Michel Legrand's score to "The Go-Between."
Yes I have that great CD and RCA also has some excerpts. PLEASE do the fabulous Georges Auric score for my favorite film La Belle et la Bete
Excited to hear about a film score / soundtrack series! I hope Goldsmith's "Planet of the Apes" soundtrack gets addressed, as well Jonny Greenwood's film-related works such as "There Will Be Blood" and "The Master."
These are all dependent on my ability to get permission to use samples, and I don't know of any Goldsmith titles where that will be possible at present.
Excellent series! I can't wait to learn if I am right in my guess that the Star Wars theme "borrows" from one of George Enescu's symphonies. Also, doesn't the equally popular theme of the Game of Thrones TV show reproduce music form one of Bruckner's late symphonies?
i have three favorites movie themes....''how the west was won'' ( a.newman) ( 1962)....''superman''( john williams) ( 1979),and ''airport'' ( a newman) ( 1969)...i like the opening sequence of movie ''airport'' with his ''ballet '' of big snow machine cleaning the airport runway
You've opened Pandora's box. Now you'll have to Robin Hood, Now Voyager, Mildred Pierce, Sunset Blvd, The Bad and the Beautiful, Rebel Without a Cause, Something Wild (Copland's score is a masterpiece, attached to a decidedly non-masterpiece film), Dead Ringer (superb Previn, written in "old" style), In the Heat of the Night, Rosemary's Baby...
I have a feeling Battleship Potemkin will be on your radar soon, with its curious musical incarnations, including Shostakovich...
North by Northwest by Bernard Herrmann. One of my favorites.
Isn't it everyone's?
@@DavesClassicalGuide Vertigo! Happy New Year, by the way!
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir was Herrmann’s personal favorite among his scores. It’s my favorite, too. I’m surprised it’s not better known.
The Blu-ray of North by Northwest (but not the older DVD) gives you the option of listening to the music score without dialogue as the disc plays.
Here's hoping you'll dig into some of Ennio Morricone's (admittedly VAST) film score work. Even though you probably won't be able to play samples from any of 'em, which is a shame...
Yes, it is a shame, because then I won't do it.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Aren’t you tempted to sing to us the theme from The Good, the bad and the Ugly?
As much as I like classical. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band do a very good version of this theme.
Miklos Rosza please!
Tadlow Music. The City of Prague Philharmonic conducted by Nic Raine have redone the entire scores to Ben Hur, King Of Kings, El Cid, Quo vadis etc. They may let you sample their work.
And they are all out of print or insanely expensive, at least on Amazon.
I have the honor to have the Tadlow recording of Waxman's Taras Bulba.
@@mahlerii First, I take back what I last said. You can get them all directly from Tadlow, thank goodness. Second, I reviewed Taras for ClassicsToday.com. It's a terrific set.
I have the recording conducted by Fred Steiner with the National Phil done in 1976 and released on cd in 1984. It is on a label called Southern Cross. Well, I have both recordings and I can tell the sound is great on the oolder recording and it is much more exciting then the Morgan version conducted by Stromberg. It is only 46 minutes long but it is tremendously exciting version in surprising good sound. Are you familiar Mr. Hurwitz with this other version.
Yes.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Just yes, do you like it? Thank you so much.
@@georgenestler2534 Sure, what's not to like? It's great fun, and I agree it's more vividly recorded than the Macro Polo, so you're spot on there. The problem is that it's impossible to find (at a sane price) now.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Yes it is impossible to get now. I bought it at J&R in NYC about 20 years ago...Take care and I just love your talks on the classic film scores.