Blog Post

An Interview with Steven and Annemarie North

Daniel Mangodt

An Interview with Steven and Annemarie North by Daniel Mangodt

Originally published in Soundtrack Magazine Vol.10 / No.40 / 1991

Text reproduced by kind permission of the editor, Luc Van de Ven

In 1960 I saw THE WONDERFUL COUNTRY in a small cinema in my home town. Although I was only 10 years old at the time, I’ll always remember the impact this film had on me. One scene became engraved on my memory, where the injured gunman (Robert Mitchum) rode into a windy, half-deserted border town. Today this scene is still an example of suggestive film music composing.


From then on, Alex North became one of my favorite film composers (although I didn’t even know his name at the time!), along with Rozsa, Bernstein and Jarre. I grew up with big epics like BEN-HUR, SPARTACUS, LAWRENCEOF ARABIA, and in those days cinemas sometimes respected the American roadshow way of film presentation. I saw KING OF KINGS with the overture, while the curtain was closed and enshrouded in a mystical blue light. Wonderful!


When I heard of Alex North’s death, it was a sad moment for me. I had fought with Spartacus against Crassus, fallen secretly in love with Varinia and even with Cleopatra (there is no accounting for tastes…) and I learned to appreciate Michaelangelo’s work thanks to THE AGONY AND THE ECSTACY. Never have Michaelangelos frescoes been so musically illustrated as in this film.


At the Ghent Film Festival the newly restored version of SPARTACUS was presented and I didn’t want to miss this presentation in old Hollywood style, complete with overture, intermission and end title music. Even if only 10 extra minutes had been restored, the experience was as grand as seeing the “new” LAWRENCE OF ARABIA two years ago. I have lost count, but I must have seen SPARTACUS more than 15 times by now.


At the Festival I also saw North’s last film, THE LAST BUTTERFLY, and I was able to interview both Alex’s son, Steven, (who produced THE LAST BUTTERFLY) and his widow, the German-born Annemarie.


When your father was scoring THE LAST BUTTERFLY, did he discuss the music with you?
Steven North: THE LAST BUTTERFLY was originally conceived in 1981, as a picture with Marcel Marceau (the mime artist). My father had scored a film I had produced in 1973 called SHANKS with Marcel and he started thinking about the concept of the film 8 years before the actual film was scored. He came to Prague when the film was first planned in 1983, and worked with Karel Kachyna, the director, on concepts for the music and what kind of thematic ideas Karel had in mind. So he actually had a few years to think about the project. The project then collapsed financially and it took me another 6 or 7 years to put it together and of course he had stored away his notes, his scribblings.


When you see the film, you will see there are some ballet sequences, and there are certain things that are choreographed to music, so he had actually written the music for the choreographed portions of the film, that were going to be played on the piano while we were shooting, and then re-recorded in Prague at the end. So those themes had been written much earlier than the film was actually made. Eventually the film was set up, first with Ben Kingsley, but that didn’t work out and eventually with Tom Courtenay.


Did the director adapt his movie to the music?
Steven North: Some of the themes had been written, but then my father by 1989 was quite ill. So he worked with another composer, Milan Svoboda, who is a Czech composer. There was a collaboration, because he was not well enough by the end to write the big pieces that were finally used in the picture. The entire dramatic score is Alex North’s and the choreographed pieces are by Milan Svoboda.


Did you father talk to you about his music?
Steven North: We talked about it, but I left home when I was very young, so we didn’t have that much chance to talk about his later scores. One of my proudest moments was when John Williams, discussed the score for VIRGINIA WOOLF at my father’s funeral. I remember very distinctly being at the university at the time, and saying to my father that I thought that a baroque score with a guitar would work for the picture, because it took place on a college campus and my father – I guess – took that to heart and eventually wrote a very beautiful score for guitar.


North loved working for difficult, theatrical subjects…
Steven North: I think he loved working for the theatre, for plays that had been adapted. Arthur Miller always said that Alex North captured the spirit of Willy Loman in his score for DEATH OF A SALESMAN. And they were able to work again on THE MISFITS. He felt that he caught the spirit of Nevada, and the spirit of these lost souls. So he was always trying to establish in his music what the playwright or screenwriter was trying to establish with words.


This year they released the restored version of SPARTACUS.
Steven North: Sadly he never saw it. He was not well enough to go and see it. However SPARTACUS was one of his favorite scores for several reasons. First of all, Kubrick allowed him a year and a half to write the score, which is exceptional (the producers give a composer six weeks to write a score now), so he was actually working on it from the very beginning, but more importantly it was a novel by Howard Fast, who had been blacklisted; it had a screenplay by Dalton Trumbo, who had also been blacklisted; and my father was living in Paris and his passport had been taken away by the State Department. In fact he was given special permission to come to Brussels to write a ballet for the Brussels World Fair in 1958, so Brussels had a special meaning to him, and this picture broke the blacklist as it were, in that it brought him back to America. Together with Fast’s name and Trumbo’s name, it was a very important picture for him both politically and artistically.


Was your father politically motivated?
Steven North: Yes. In the 30’s he was very involved in left wing movements. He had been very close to Elia Kazan, but Kazan gave names, and my father refused to give names. From the day Kazan actually testified in front of the Un-American Activities Committee, my father never spoke to him again until the end of his life.


Your father was never under contract to a studio?
Steven North: He never signed a contract with a studio. He was asked various times in his life to join Twentieth Century Fox, to join CBS at one time. He wasn’t a joiner. I don’t think he was a member of a club, or a political party in his entire life. I think he voted republican, democratic or communist depending on who the candidate was. He never signed a contract with a studio, nor with anybody else. He kept his independence.


How did he react when a director asked for a certain kind of music? Did he give in or did he follow his own view?
Steven North: It’s interesting, that question, because, if you look at his career, with the exception of Martin Ritt and Daniel Mann, most of the directors he worked for, Zinnemann, Kubrick – Kazan he did 2 pictures for, but the reason they split was political- most directors he worked with only once, because he had a very independent view of how to score a picture and very often he rowed with the director. In fact Alex had barred Mike Nichols, the director of VIRGINIA WOOLF, from the stage at Warner Bros., because Mike wanted to continue to make changes in the score and my father was so convinced that he was right about the score that he wouldn’t allow Mike Nichols on the stage. Jack Warner actually came down and made sure Mike wasn’t allowed. It was Nichols’ first film, so at that point my father had some say. But he never worked with Mike Nichols again. He worked with directors like Lumet, Zinnemann, because he was very strong in his feelings about how things should be done.


He did work several times with director John Huston…
Steven North: Huston and Alex were very close. Huston he did 5 pictures for. John and Alex seemed to see things almost identically. In other words John would have an idea for a film, let’s say an operatic approach as in PRIZZI’S HONOR and my father would sit in the screening room and say to John before John mentioned anything: I think this should be done with an operatic approach and John would say: I can’t believe it Alex, that’s exactly what I had in mind. My father did THE MISFITS and then he didn’t work for John Huston for many years, because my father saw THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, which had been offered by John Huston and he told John he thought it was a terrible picture and didn’t want to score it, and John didn’t want to talk to him for several years. So he was very strong in his opinions.


Mrs. North, how did you meet our husband?
Annemarie North: I met Alex North in 1967. I was working then for an orchestra called the Graunke Symphony Orchestra in Munich, which was then the only private symphony orchestra. It was very interesting working for them: I did secretarial work, translations, setting up concerts, film recordings. The orchestra needed the extra money, it wasn’t fully subsidized. Most of the big orchestras in Germany are, thank God, so they can survive. So we needed the film music and that was an input I had a lot to do with. And Alex came to do his AFRICA, that ABC had commissioned him to do and he had an enormous orchestra of 108 people. We had over a week time to do that, which was quite unheard of. Usually the composers from Hollywood would come and everything was set up and do it in a couple of sessions and it was always rushed. Not so with Alex. He took his time. He came in, everything was prepared and it worked beautifully. And the orchestra members had enormous respect for him.


Alex North wrote music for big orchestras, but he also wrote for small ensembles. Which did he prefer?
Annemarie North: I don’t think he had a preference. What he always wanted was to write music for films where he was able to relate to the characters. The big epics weren’t really his big love, although he got to be known for them. At one time it seemed he was the one to do SPARTACUS, CLEOPATRA and SHOES OF THE FISHERMAN, but he sure loved these small, little combinations, especially when he did A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, he always told the story that Ray Heindorf asked him, “What’s the matter with you, you have the big orchestra available. Use it. They are here for you.” He said, “No, I want to make a dramatic point, and I want a change.” He had a different concept and he used a very small group. And everyone knows that: the breakaway from wall-to-wall writing like the old Viennese school (Steiner, Korngold). He also tries to underline the characters musically in SPARTACUS. That’s the mark of any good composer.


Did he discuss the music with you when he was writing?
Annemarie North: No, not really. Most often he worked like this: he would always read the script and then go and look at the film. He really preferred to know what the story was about before he even met with Alex North Remembered the director. After he’d read the script and seen the film, they would discuss it. But he usually had a concept pretty much when he walked in, which way he would go and if he was lucky to find a director that would go along with him, then it was an easy ride. If he didn’t, it was a different story.


On THE LAST BUTTERFLY, the orchestrations were by Alexander Courage. Did he usually use an orchestrator, or did he prefer to do everything himself?
Annemarie North: No, he wrote it out before, absolutely. It was almost not necessary for him to have an orchestrator. But then again the copyist couldn’t take it out of the score; it had to be put together. There were very distinct directions although he did work with Courage, Maurice De Pakh, David Tamkin, and these are big names in the industry. They worked totally together and he appreciated their input very much. They always used to say that he almost didn’t need an orchestrator. The score was almost completely written.


Alex North received 14 nominations, but he never won an Oscar. Did he regret that?

Annemarie North: I don’t think he regretted it so much. It became almost a joke, you know! When you see the kind of competition he was up against at times… If a picture had a big song in it, then the majority would choose for that. The most important thing for Alex was that his peers respected him and after all you are being nominated by your peers. Being nominated is sometimes more important, because these people know what they are talking about. Also he refused to campaign. Other composers would campaign, go to parties, wine and dine with producers. If it was a picture for a big studio like Warner Bros. or Fox, and they had music and de it was very prestigious to them and they would go behind it and make a lot of hoopla. But Alex couldn’t deal with that. He was beyond that. Some of the industry made up for that when they gave him the Life Time Achievement Award Oscar in 1986, and he is the only composer so far to receive it.


Alex North kept working, in spite of his illness…
Annemarie North: It was an amazing feat that he was able to work at all. The week before he died he called his agent and said, “What’s the matter with you? Why don’t you get me a job, I need to work, I need to earn some bread for the family.” Indeed up to the very end he had offers; he was supposed to do THE GRIFTERS and GUILTY BY SUSPICION.
Steven North: Scorsese always said Alex was his favorite composer, but he never worked with him (laughs). He found THE GRIFTERS too violent.
Annemarie North: Not only that. The doctor said it would be too stressful for him.


He also felt DRAGONSLAYER was too violent…
Annemarie North: Not really. DRAGONSLAYER was a fairy tale. What he didn’t like was that Robbins, the young producer, wanted him to depict certain action on the screen with drum rolls and that kind of stuff. Alex said: “This may be a Disney picture, but we don’t have to mock it.”


What was his view on electronic film scoring?
Annemarie North: He thought certain effects were effective, but he didn’t really like it very much. Also the use of rock scores. You can’t really call it a score. They just use songs. But that is the trend in the industry and it sold a lot of records and consequently when the studios were taken over by the money people, the interest wasn’t in art any longer. A good artist like Alex would of course suffer by that.


CARNY had music by Robbie Robertson on one side…
Annemarie North: But Robbie Robertson at least is an artist. He knew what he was doing. It was a wonderful collaboration. They adored each other. There’s a wonderful story. I was sitting in the booth and they were doing the main title where Busey sits and makes up his face as a clown; Robbie Robertson and Busey were standing next to me and they didn’t know I was sitting there and was listening to what they were saying. Busey said, “Jesus, Robbie, listen to this. Look at me. I didn’t know I was that good. This is incredible.” And Robbie patted him on the shoulder and said, “Now you know why I wanted Alex.” It was just that innate, instinctive quality Alex had to bring out of these characters as he was underplaying them with music. It’s really a tremendous gift. Alex always said you had to work with the characters, and hit the subconscious of the audience, but not take it away. Let them do it.


Alex North usually conducted his own scores?
Annemarie North: It varied very much. Alex truly preferred to be in the booth and listen to what the input was, where he could control the engineer and he thought that was a better situation, rather than conducting and then coming back in listening and having to change it. It worked sometimes, sometimes it didn’t. I’ve also been in a position where I watched him where the conductor didn’t bring quite the quality he wanted and he had to go out and do it himself, and then they adjusted it in the booth. On the whole I would think he preferred not to conduct. That had also to do with his shyness. He didn’t like to go in front of a crowd. That was always difficult for him.


There were certain conductors he trusted, Alfred and Lionel Newman, for instance. For VIVA ZAPATA they worked on the main title for a whole week. It’s extraordinary the amount of time they had available then. Listen to SPARTACUS: its quality, the nuances, and the definition. You don’t hear that today. Now you record a score in 2 or 3 sessions and that is already too much. One cue, run through and the next one is a take. Well, look at THE MISFITS. The studio was pressing to have an early release, before Christmas, in order to get it for the Oscars and because 2 of the 3 actors had already died. They wanted to use all that publicity. And Alex said to John Huston, “I can’t do this picture justice. I can’t produce a score in such a short time,” and Huston was strong enough to say: “That’s all right, don’t worry, I’ll fix it.” And indeed he did. With a lesser known director it would have been a problem. Then again the quality would have suffered. Maybe Alex wouldn’t even have done the picture!


Did he work on the restoration of SPARTACUS?
Annemarie North: No. They did ask him but Alex felt there wasn’t really much he could do. When they were going to remix it, they called him up but he said: “The engineers are so good, it’s not really necessary for me.” He was quite sick then and mixing is a very tedious job.


Did he rewrite some of his scores for concert pieces?
Annemarie : There are only 2 or 3 that exist, unfortunately. He always meant to do it, but by the time he had finished one he was really quite bored with it. It’s a shame, because we get questions from the Boston Pops, the Cincinnati Pops. All these orchestras now have film music programs. His scores are not available now, but we’re trying to put that right. Christopher Palmer is going to make little suites out of various important scores. That’s our future project.

 

Charles Gerhardt & Classic Film Scores

by Pascal Dupont • 10 May, 2024
Charles Allan Gerhardt English version adapted by Doug Raynes - FRENCH VERSION AND COLLECTION had a reputation as a great conductor, record producer and musical arranger. His major work at RCA on the Classic Film Scores series earned him recognition from film music devotees of Hollywood’s Golden Age, as well as other renowned conductors of his day. Born on February 6, 1927 in Detroit, Michigan, Charles Gerhardt developed a passion for music and percussion instruments from an early age. At the age of five, he took piano lessons, and by the age of nine, had established a solid reputation as an orchestrator and composer. He spent his early school years in Little Rock, Arkansas, then after 10 years, having completed his schooling, moved with his family to Illinois for his military duties, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II as a chaplain's aide in the Aleutian Islands, then became an active member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He went on to study at the University of Illinois, at the College of William and Mary, and later at the University of Southern California. Throughout his time at school Gerhardt was attracted not only to music, but also to the sciences. Passionate about the art of recording, he joined Westminster Records for five years, until the company ceased operations, and then joined Bell Sound. One day, he received a phone call from George Marek to meet with the heads of Reader's Digest, to discuss producing recordings for their mail-order record business; a contact that was to secure his musical future and a rich career spanning more than 30 years. Gerhardt's first job for Reader's Digest was to produce a record; “A Festival of Light Classical Music”; a 12 LP box set that he produced in full. One of Gerhardt's finest projects was the production of another 12 LP box set, “Les Trésores de la Grande Musique (Treasury of Great Music)”, featuring the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by some of the leading figures of the day: Charles Munch to Bizet and Tchaikovsky, Rudolf Kempe to Strauss and Respighi, Josef Krips to Mozart and Haydn, Antal Dorati to Strauss and Berlioz, Brahms 4th Symphony by Fritz Reiner and Sibelius’ 2nd Symphony by Sir John Barbirolli. In the 1950s he conducted works by Vladimir Horowitz, Wanda Landowska, Kirsten Flagstad and William Kapeli. In the early 1960s, Gerhardt lived in England, where he made most of his recordings, but kept a foothold in the United States, mainly in New York. Often, when he went to the United States after a period of recording sessions, he would stop off in Baltimore and spend some time listening to cassettes of his new recordings. Gerhardt loved percussion instruments, especially tam-tams. One of his favorite recordings was the Columbia mono disc of Scriabin's Poem of Ecstasy, with Dimitri Mitropoulos and the New York Philharmonic. He had great admiration and respect for the many conductors he worked with, starting with Arturo Toscanini, with whom he worked for several years before the Maestro's death. It was Toscanini who suggested that Gerhardt become a conductor, which he did! His career as an orchestra director began when he had to replace a conductor who failed to show up for rehearsals. It was a position he would later occupy for various recording sessions and occasional concerts. His classical recordings include works by Richard Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Ravel, Debussy, Walton and Howard Hanson. Hired by RCA Records, he transferred 78 rpm recordings of Enrico Caruso and other artists to 33 rpm. He took part in recordings by soprano singer Kirsten Flagstad and pianist Vladimir Horowitz. He worked with renowned conductors such as Fritz Reiner, Leopold Stokowski and Charles Munch, from whom he learned the tricks of the trade. Still at RCA, he assisted Arturo Toscanini, with whom he perfected his conducting skills. Then, in 1960, he produced recordings for RCA and Reader’s Digest in London, and joined forces with sound engineer Kenneth Wilkinson of Decca Records (RCA's European subsidiary), The two men got on very well and shared a passion for recording and sound quality, making an incredible number of recordings over a 30-year period. Also in 1960, RCA and Reader's Digest entrusted him with the production of a 12-disc LP box set entitled “ Lumière du Classique (A Festival of Light Classical Music) ”, sold exclusively by mail order. With a budget of $250,000, Gerhardt assumed total control of the project: repertoire, choice of orchestras and production. He recorded in London, Vienna and Paris, and hired such top names as Sir Adrian Boult, Massimo Freccia, Sir Alexander Gibson and René Leibowitz. The success of this project, in terms of both musical quality and sound, earned him recognition from his employers. Other projects of similar scope followed… A boxed set of Beethoven's symphonic works with René Leibowitz and The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. A boxed set of Rachmaninoff's works for piano and orchestra with Earl Wild, Jascha Horenstein and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the above mentioned 12 LP disc set “Trésor de la Grande Musique (Treasury of Great Music)” with the Royal Philharmonic conducted by some of the greatest directors of the time: Fritz Reiner, Charles Munch, Rudolf Kempe, Sir John Barbirolli, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Antal Dorati and Jascha Horenstein, with whom Gerhardt had sympathized. In January 1964 in London, Gerhardt joined forces with Sidney Sax, instrumentalist and conductor, to form a freelance orchestra. This successful group went on to join the National Philharmonic Orchestra of London, an impressive line-up that would later become Jerry Goldsmith's orchestra of choice. With Peter Munves, head of RCA's classical division, he conceived the idea of recording an album devoted exclusively to the film music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, one of his favorite composers. Enthusiastic about the project, Munves gave Gerhardt carte blanche, and was offered a helping hand by George Korngold, producer and son of the famous Viennese composer, who owned all the copies of his father's scores. The Adventure Began : The Sea Hawk: Classic Film Scores of Erich Wolfgang Korngold. For this first disc, Gerhardt selected 10 scores by Korngold, which he recorded in the Kingsway Hall Studio in London, renowned for its excellent acoustics. The disc thus benefits from optimal recording conditions, favoring at the same time the performances of the National Philharmonic (and its leader, Sidney Sax), a formidable orchestra made up of London's finest musicians and freelance soloists. Each album was recorded in the same studio, with Kenneth Wilkinson as sound engineer and George Korngold as consultant/producer. As soon as it was released, the album's success received strong acclaim in classical music circles and received a feature in Billboard No. 37, a first in this category in December 1972. It took no less than a year to sell the first 10,000 copies in all the specialist record suppliers and the album went on to sell over 38,000 copies, making it the fifth best-selling album in the “classical” category in 1973. On the strength of this success, Peter Munves and RCA entrusted Charles Gerhardt with the production of further discs devoted to other world-renowned composers of Hollywood music. The program includes several albums dedicated to Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold plus one each to Miklos Rozsa, Franz Waxman, Dimitri Tiomkin and Bernard Herrmann, followed by 3 volumes associated with specific film stars such as Bette Davis, Errol Flynn and Humphrey Bogart. Then, a disc devoted to Alfred Newman, a composer who was a pillar of the famous Hollywood sound, who Gerhardt admired and had met: “Newman was a charming man, full of good humor. He was friendly, fun and always had a joke. With his eternal black cigar in hand, he was a composer by trade, down-to-earth, discussed little about himself but was a first-rate advisor in my life. “ Gerhardt would consult certain composers in advance about how to recreate suites from their works, or when this wasn't possible, he would rearrange the suites himself and submit them to the composers for approval. "Some critics complained that my suites were too short, but my aim in the case of each album was to present a well-split 'portrait' of the composer, highlighting his many creative facets". Although Korngold, Newman and Steiner were no longer around to lend their support, Gerhardt was lucky enough to still work with Herrmann, Rózsa and Tiomkin as consultants who turned up at the recording studio to lend a hand. Gerhardt also had the idea of creating albums focusing on a single film star. Three specific volumes were devoted to music from the films of Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn and Bette Davis. Although these albums suffer from too great a diversity of genres, they still offer the chance to hear and discover rare and previously unpublished compositions. The best conceived album was arguably the one devoted to Bette Davis. Conscious of the important role played by music in her films, the legendary actress took part in the conception of the album, knowing that it favored scores by Max Steiner designed for Warner Bros. The Collection Begins ! Gerhardt's passion for certain composers knows no bounds, but he soon envisages a disc devoted to Miklos Rozsa, including suites for “Spellbound” and “The Red House”, one of his favorite scores, which he will exhume to create one of the longest suites in the series. At the same time, he received various fan wish lists and films to watch, such as “The Four Feathers”, which he had never seen and which gave him the opportunity to discover a splendid score by Miklos Rozsa that he had never heard before. He was disappointed, however, not to be able to conceive a longer “Spellbound” sequel for rights reasons. Despite RCA's full approval, Gerhardt realized that it was not easy to record film music in its original form, as few were ever edited, played and made available for rental. For The Sea Hawks album, things were simpler, as Georges Korngold had copies of his father's scores, and Warner Bros had also archived material in good condition. From the outset, Gerhardt encountered other major problems in the search for and discovery of scores hidden away in other studios, often with the unpleasant surprise of discovering missing or incomplete conductors, or others heavily modified by orchestrators during recording sessions, or the surprise of discovering, in certain cases, instrumentation information noted in shorthand on the edges of the conductor score. For the disc dedicated to Max Steiner, for example, the conductor score for “King Kong” had disappeared from the RKO archives, having been shipped in 1950 to poorly maintained warehouses in Los Angeles where it had become totally degraded and illegible. With the help of Georges Korngold, Gerhardt was able to reconstruct a substantial suite from the piano models left by Steiner at the time. This experience was repeated when the conductor score for Dimitri Tiomkin's “The Thing” was discovered in the same warehouse, in an advanced state of disintegration. Fortunately for Gerhardt, Tiomkin, who was still alive, had been able to provide precise piano maquettes with orchestration information in shorthand, revealing a complex and highly innovative style of writing. Tiomkin always composed at the piano, inscribing very specific information and signs on the edges of the scores in pencil, an ingenious system of his own invention that was difficult to decipher. “Revisiting the score of ‘The Thing from Another World’ was a complex task, involving experimental passages and an unorthodox orchestra. You can understand that I had a huge job on my hands. When I approached the recording sessions, it was not without some trepidation. However, the composer present made no criticism or comment on my work, and was delighted. He was delighted.” For “Gone With The Wind”, Steiner was against the idea of remaking a complete soundtrack, as he felt that too many passages were repeated. It was an opportunity for him to revisit his own score, integrating his favorite melodies. This synthesis gave him the opportunity to revitalize his music by eliminating the least interesting parts of the score. Conceived as long suites or isolated themes, the discs reflect the essence of the composers' work. The “Classic Film Scores” series by Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann and Miklos Rozsa etc will become a big hit with collectors. For Gerhardt, this will be an opportunity to unearth forgotten or rare scores such as Herrmann's “The White Witch” and “On a Dangerous Ground”, Hugo Friedhofer's “The Sun Also Rises” and early recordings for Waxman's “Prince Valliant” and Rozsa's “The Red House”, all with new, impeccable acoustics. For “Elisabeth and Essex”, Erich Korngold had already prepared a suite in the form of an Overture, which was given its world premiere in a theater. The suite for “The Adventures of Robin Hood” also pre-existed. Franz Waxman created his own suite for “A Place in the Sun”, which was also performed in concert. Dimitri Tiomkin, Miklos Rozsa and Bernard Herrmann acted as consultants and contributed arrangements to their scores. For the continuation of “White Witch Doctor”, Bernard Herrman added percussion to link the different musical tableaux. He did the same for the different parts of “Citizen Kane”. Miklos Rozsa saw an opportunity to add a male choir to the suite from “The Jungle Book”, based on an idea by Charles Gerhardt. For the record dedicated to Errol Flynn, Gerhardt re-orchestrated the theme “The Lights of Paris” from Hugo Friedhofer's “The Sun also Rises”, as the original was no longer available. “I wanted to go back to that time and systematically explore the very substance of the great film scores of the late 30s and 40s, sending them back directly to their images as dramatic entities. The desire to rediscover tunes we know and to take into account the contexts in which they were originally used. I decided to recreate these scores with their original orchestrations, and this could only be done by returning to the ultimate sources, as the composers had originally conceived them.” Keen to open up the collection to other genres, such as science fiction, Gerhardt dedicated two further albums to the series in 1992. The first featured contemporary sequels to “Star Wars” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, promoting the work of John Williams, a leading composer of new film music. Then another called “The Spectacular World of Classic Film Scores”, presenting a disappointing compilation of scores that had already been recorded, except for the creation of a sequel to Dimitri Tiomkin's “The Thing From Another World” and Daniele Amfitheatrof's rarely heard theme “Dance of the Seven Voiles” from Salome. In 1978, the collection was published in Spain by RCA Cinema Treasures. In the USA and Europe, the Classic Film Scores LP series was reissued in the early 80s with a black art deco cover and colored star index. All Volumes in the First Series Were Reissued : By the end of the '80s, the series was running out of steam, and Charles Gerhardt planned to relaunch his collection with albums dedicated to famous American actresses, a new volume for Max Steiner and the Western, a volume reconstructing the score of Waxman's “The Bride of Frankenstein”, followed by volumes devoted to Alex North, Hugo Friedhofer, Victor Young and Elmer Bernstein... But RCA would not support Gerhardt in these projects, preferring to release the collection on CD for the first time. In early 1990, RCA asked Gerhardt to supervise and co-produce the collection, which he saw as an opportunity to revisit some of the volumes, inserting tracks that had not appeared on the LPs or extending certain suites. The volume devoted to Franz Waxman, “Sunset Boulevard”, was the first to be released. The CD did not benefit from any particular promotion, but sold very well, as did the other CDs that followed... A collection marked by a new design in silver pantone. The CDs series was reissued in 2010, still under the RCA Red Seal label, but distributed by Sony Music Entertainment. RCA Victor's Classic Films Scores series represents a unique collection in the history of film music recordings. 14 recordings of rare quality, produced by Georges Korngold and Charles Gerhardt to become one of the revelations of the reissue phenomenon. Other Concepts... Later, Gerhardt spent most of his time in London, continuing to make recordings. After retiring from RCA in 1986, he returned to independent work for Readers Digest and other record labels, a position he held in production and musical supervision until 1997. Since 1991 he had lived in Redding, California. In later years, he did not appear professionally, refusing all public invitations because of his desire to remain discreet. In his entourage he was close to three cousins, Lenore L Engel and Elizabeth Anne Schuetze, both living in San Antonio, and cousin Steven W Gerhardt of St. Pete Beach, Florida. In late November 1998 Charles Gerhardt was diagnosed with brain cancer and died of complications following surgery on February 22, 1999. He was 72 years old. Thus ends this tribute to Charles Gerhardt and the most famous collection of film music records: The Classic Film Scores series.

Exodus

by Doug Raynes • 24 Jan, 2024
Following on from Tadlow’s epic recording of El Cid, the same team – Nic Raine conducting and James Fitzpatrick producing – have turned their attention to a completely different type of epic film for the definitive recording of Ernest Gold’s Academy Award winning score for Otto Preminger’s Exodus (1960). The score is something of a revelation because aside from the main theme, the music has received little attention through recordings. Additionally the sound quality of the original soundtrack LP was disappointing and much music was deleted or cut from the film.
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