David Copperfield / The Roots of Heaven

Label: Naxos    
Catalogue No: 8.573366

Release Date: 2-Mar-2015
Total Duration: 62:10

UPC: 7-47313-33667-8
Moscow Symphony Orchestra conducted by William Stromberg

This disc was first released to celebrate Sir Malcolm Arnold's 80th birthday. He has composed over 100 film and TV scores, receiving an Oscar for David Lean's epic film, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI from 1957. One year later he received an Ivor Novello award for THE INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS.

The two scores on the Naxos CD were also included on a Chandos CD with the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Ruman Gamba. Since they don't contain the same number of cues, both recordings have their place. Typically classical music is recorded with different interpretations of the same works. The same should be true for film scores, The Moscow Symphony Orchestra is conducted by the always-dependable William Stromberg, from score restorations by John Morgan.

First up on the CD is an extended 33-minute suite from THE ROOTS OF HEAVEN (1958), an adventure tale about the efforts to save African elephants. The film stars Trevor Howard, Errol Flynn and Juliette Greco. The suite consists of 20 tracks and begins with an extended Overture, which Sir Malcolm composed for the New York showings of the film. As he explains: “It's an overture in the old operatic sense, which features all the themes heard in the score.” The Main Title follows with heavy use of brass and then moving on to a quieter section for celesta and strings, before returning to the brass fanfare. The next two tracks feature first recordings. The first one is “Fort Lamy,” using a combination of percussion instruments (marimba, maracas, tom-toms) and solo exotic sounding oboe, to indicate the locale at a French outpost in Central Africa.

One of the high points of this score is found on track 4, “The Great Elephants,” which wasn't even used in the film. This cue was simply titled “1m2” and was to be used when the elephants first appear. It lasts less than a minute but makes quite an impression with its heavily accented theme to accompany the huge elephants. The theme for Minna (played by Juliette Greco) is first heard in track 7, when she flirts with St. Denis (Paul Lukas). It continues on the next track, also a first recording, when she meets Forsythe (Errol Flynn). Arnold builds up a sense of approaching danger in “The Ivory Poachers” and “The Elephant Hunt”. Alfred Newman “made developments” of several tracks in this score, including “Return to Biondi - Part 2” and “Minna's Goodbye.” Both are first recordings, orchestrated for this CD by John Morgan. They demonstrate Newman's mastery of composing music to accompany any situation at hand. Not that they were really necessary, considering what an exceptional score Sir Malcolm provided for this film.

DAVID COPPERFIELD was Sir Malcolm's last film score, composed in 1969 for a TV movie version of the classic Charles Dickens story with an all-star cast of British actors. The 13 tracks included on the CD give ample evidence of what an accomplished composer can do in accompanying one of his favorite Dickens stories. The music is full of lush, melancholy music, especially the lovely theme for David Copperfield. This theme is introduced in the Main Title, and then heard in various transformations on other tracks. Its most thrilling expression is found on track 27, “Love for Dora,” which goes from a somber statement of David's theme to a light and airy waltz. There are other delightful themes too, such as for “Mr. Micawber” and its reappearance a few tracks later in “Mr. Micawber Exposes Heep”.

As with the earlier film, the DAVID COPPERFIELD suite has several first recordings. Of these, the one that makes the most magical impression is “Dora's Declaration”, with a mixture of flute, celesta and strings sounding somewhat Herrmannesque. The final track has “David's Resolution & Finale” combining David's theme with that of his true love, Agnes (Susan Hampshire), in a bold, romantic swelling of the orchestra which brings the story to an end in grand fashion.

The attractive 32-page CD booklet is filled with useful information. Notes on the two films and scores were written by Arnold's personal representative, James Cox. There are also several photos of Sir Malcolm, as well as film stills and manuscript pages from each score. At the back of the booklet are pertinent notes by John Morgan.

This is yet another outstanding Naxos CD from the Stromberg - Morgan team in their ongoing series honoring the best film composers from the past. Don't miss this superb release.

Originally published in Soundtrack Magazine Vol. 20/No. 78/2001 - With permission of the editor, Luc Van de Ven