Battle Of Britain (1999) (Ron Goodwin)

Product Summary Label: Varese Sarabande UPC: 00030206657821 Release Date: 6/8/2004 Buy.com Sku: 61009423 Item#: MJMSWR Buy.com Sales Rank: 26588 Format:  CD Song Listing Disc 1 Song Title Sample 1. Battle Of Britain Theme ~ Original Soundtrack 2. Ace High March ~ Original Soundtrack 3. Lull Before The Storm, The ~ Original Soundtrack 4. Work And Play ~ Original Soundtrack 5. Death And Destruction ~ Original Soundtrack 6. Briefing The Luftwaffe ~ Original Soundtrack 7. Prelude To Battle ~ Original Soundtrack 8. Victory Assured ~ Original Soundtrack 9. Defeat ~ Original Soundtrack 10. Hitler's Headquarters ~ Original Soundtrack 11. Return To Base ~ Original Soundtrack 12. Threat ~ Original Soundtrack 13. Civilian Tragedy ~ Original Soundtrack 14. Offensive Build-Up ~ Original Soundtrack 15. Attack ~ Original Soundtrack 16. Personal Tragedy ~ Original Soundtrack 17. Battle In The Air ~ Original Soundtrack 18. Absent Frieneds ~ Original Soundtrack 19. Battle OF Britain-End Title ~ Original Soundtrack 20. March Introduction & Battle Of Britain March ~ Original Soundtrack 21. Young Siegfrieds, The ~ Original Soundtrack 22. Luftwaffe Victory ~ Original Soundtrack 23. Few Fight Back, The ~ Original Soundtrack 24. Cat And Mouse ~ Original Soundtrack 25. Scherzo "Gay Berlin" ~ Original Soundtrack 26. Dogfight ~ Original Soundtrack 27. Scramble/Battle In The Air ~ Original Soundtrack 28. Finale: Battle Of Britain March ~ Original Soundtrack   Album Notes and Credits Notes & Personnel Info The 1999 reissue of this soundtrack is one of the most exciting finds in the realm of film music in decades, but to understand exactly why, one must realize that the original soundtrack to the movie Battle of Britain was one of the most controversial movie scores of the 1960s. Sir William Walton, who had previously written the music for the film First of the Few (aka Spitfire), not to mention Sir Laurence Olivier's three major Shakespearean films, wrote a score for Battle of Britain only to have it dropped by the film's producers. At the time, United Artists Records, the music division of the movie's distributor, was having particular luck with orchestral pop-type releases, such as John Barry's James Bond scores, and Walton wrote a complex, serious music score that sounded like it came from the concert hall. The producers replaced his music with a much simpler, more conventional movie score, authored by Ron Goodwin and built around various brass-heavy march tunes, interspersed with a romantic theme or two. Then Olivier, who (with Michael Caine, was the star of the epic film, threatened to have his name taken off the credits of the movie over the snub of his composer friend's music. A compromise was worked out, wherein Walton's scoring for the climactic "Battle in the Air" was kept in the movie; mostly, it was the presence of the five-minute "Battle in the Air" theme that kept the Battle of Britain soundtrack in print (the movie was a notorious failure) for years. The 1999 Rykodisc reissue utilized surviving tapes of Walton's original music (conducted by Malcolm Arnold) to recreate his original score. The Walton "Battle in the Air" stood apart from Goodwin's relentless march themes in no uncertain terms, surging up gradually, through the lower strings, the reeds, and winds, with the brass adding punctuation while the violins play running scales. The recovered Walton score is no less impressive as orchestral writing -- his original main title theme is very similar to his music for Olivier's Richard III, while much of the rest of his writing involves some fairly complex music, sometimes with sophisticated development, with "Battle in the Air" now assembled from superior alternate takes, as the highlight. ~ Bruce Eder Producer: James Fitzpatrick   Technical Info Release Date : 06/08/2004 Original Release Date : 1999 Catalog ID : 066578 Label : Varese (Japan) Number of Discs : 1 Runtime : 58m : 40s Studio/Live : Studio Mono/Stereo : Stereo SPAR Code : n/a UPC : 00030206657821    Product Image