With all the interest in the music of Vaughan Williams on this forum I am surprised that no one, to my knowledge, has commented on Dutton’s release of
Scott of the Antarctic: the complete score with Martin Yates conducting the RSNO with soprano, organ and women’s chorus. See:
https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDLX7340For me, film music is one of the major musical mediums of the 20th century and attracted many of the century’s finest composers. Whilst my main interest is in the scores of Rózsa, Herrmann and Korngold, there are several other composers whose scores I have and would buy.
My first CD purchase of the year was the Intrada label’s release of Copland’s original soundtrack scores to
The Red Pony and
The Heiress.
The Red Pony had appeared before and, sadly, is incomplete.
The Heiress had never been released, although I had access to very scratchy and poor sounding acetates (which Intrada have improved vastly). Copland's score was altered without his permission and, it seems, he refused to collect the Oscar he won for it in protest. Intrada gives us what Copland composed plus the modified opening section. Anyone who loves Copland’s music should not hesitate to acquire this CD (whilst it remains available). It is a delight from start to finish. See:
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.10729/.fWhilst I love VW’s music, I was unenthusiastic about his seventh Symphony. However, hearing all that he wrote for
Scott of the Antarctic has won me to the music which inspired the Symphony. The CD runs to 79 minutes 48 seconds. The music was written before VW saw the film and less than half of it made it into the final cut. Martin Yates reconstructed the score from that used by Ernest Irving in the film, VW’s original finished score and his original drafts.
The recording quality is excellent and the complete score makes for a most enjoyable listening experience.
Yates concludes his CD notes with the following:
"The tale of the desperation and heroism of Scott and his men is perfectly told through this music; so perfectly told, in fact, that the film almost becomes superfluous – perhaps a conclusion that Vaughan Williams himself came to".In my opinion, this is the most important Dutton VW release since the
Early and Late Works CD of 2012 and should be in every VW’s enthusiast’s collection. A great release!