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An Interview with Jean-Claude Petit

Marco Werba

An Interview with Jean-Claude Petit by Marco Werba
Originally published in Soundtrack Magazine Vol.11 / No.44 / 1992
Text reproduced by kind permission of the publisher, Luc van de Ven

Jean-Claude Petit is now one of France's leading film composers, alongside Gabriel Yared. In just over a decade, he has forged a solid reputation, especially since his superb work on MANON DES SOURCES and JEAN DE FLORETTE in 1986 and CYRANO DE BERGERAC in 1990. Since this interview took place, Jean-Claude Petit has signed the score for ZEBRE, the film directed by the late Jean Poiret. Even if some of the films he has collaborated on have not been great successes (MAYRIG, 588 RUE PARADIS, LE RETOUR DES MOUSQUETAIRES or DEUX), the music written by Jean-Claude Petit is always an important element in the final rendering of the film he works on. His talent, eclecticism and well-earned renown make him one of the most talented and important voices in French music. - Yann Merluzeau
 

Let's start by recalling that you were born on November 14, 1945, entered the Paris Conservatoire and won a prize in Solfège...
Actually, for solfège, it's called première médaille, and it's before harmony, counterpoint and fugue, which come later, at 15/16/17. I then obtained my first prize. It's an exam, and prizes are only awarded to those who have the necessary level. Many French and even foreign composers have graduated from the Paris Conservatoire.

Did you start writing anything?
Absolutely not. In writing, counterpoint, fugue and harmony classes, we did exercises, but what interested me most at the time was jazz, and I played the piano as a reaction against the classical music I'd been taught as a child. Jazz was what I liked and what I practiced, because from the age of 15/16, I played with Dexter Gordon, Johnny Griffin and many others, all the American musicians who passed through France. Up until the age of 20, I mainly played piano and jazz.

You worked mainly as an arranger for singers like Marie Laforêt, Joan Baez and others.
I was afraid of drugs and all those things, so I was probably right to be a little afraid, and then I was offered the chance to accompany fashionable French singers called Claude François and Sylvie Vartan. I started accompanying them, and very quickly they learned that I knew how to write music, which was rarely the case in the French variety scene, and is still relatively rare. Since I knew how to make music, I was asked to do arrangements and orchestrations for variety records. This happened very quickly, because by 1968, I was one of the most prolific arrangers in France. I arranged everything from Michel Sardou to Julien Clerc, from Johnny Hallyday to Claude François, from Sylvie Vartan to Mort Schumann, from Marie Laforêt to Joan Baez... I made records as an orchestrator and arranger, and from time to time, I composed songs. Gabriel Yared came along a little later, but he was an arranger exactly like me, with a gap of 3/4 years. It was more or less the same kind of career, except that he stopped arranging earlier than I did, and he started doing film music earlier than I did. I didn't have the courage until a little later, 3 or 4 years later. I've always had an interest in film music, and when you have a background that spans jazz, classical music and variety, it's ideal. Once again, it allows you to express yourself in all genres. I had no connections or opportunity to work in the film music world, and I didn't have that opportunity for a very long time. I simply approached film music as an arranger who wrote for others; we call that a ghostwriter. I did it a little, others did it, but I did it very little, for 2/3 years anyway. In the end, it was an enriching experience for me. It was an experience.


Did you also do some theater work?
Yes, it was at the same time as the arrangements. You always get the impression from biographies that I've had several lives. But it's true, I've had several lives, because the variety shows happened at the same time as the theater. I worked a lot with Jean-Pierre Micquel, who was the director of the Odéon at the time. I wrote a lot of music for plays, which got me out of the music business and once again enabled me to re-exploit the classical culture I'd been given as a child. Musicals like MAYFLOWER and RÉVOLUTION FRANÇAISE were great adventures in the French theaters I attended. In those days, I was the essential arranger, or almost, and as soon as something was done, I was asked to take part. For musicals, it was songs or orchestral passages developing songs. They were often large orchestras with strings, as they were in those days. I conducted and still conduct everything I do.

What was your first film?
VIVE LA SOCIALE! with Gérard Mordillai. Once again, it was by chance, because I knew the producer well. René Cleitman, who was the N°1 director in Europe and then became producer of Hachette films. Later, he produced CYRANO DE BERGERAC, and he knew me as an arranger. He asked me to write this first film score, which wasn't the first I'd written, but the first I'd signed. It was in 1981, a rather symbolic date. I jumped at the chance to abandon arrangements altogether. I'd had an overdose of the French variety music scene, so uncultured. Putting up with it for 15 years had become difficult. At first, it was enriching, then it became oppressive.

How did you come to do JEAN DE FLORETTE and MANON DES SOURCES?
Here again, it's the connections I had in variety music, thanks to Julien Clerc's former impresario, who is still my agent and who is now director of Art Média. After seeing me write the music for VIVE LA SOCIALE and the 3 or 4 others that followed, he said to me: "I'm an agent for the cinema and for a few composers, so if you want, we can work together". I replied: "I'd like to, I'm a young, old musician and I'd like to do a bit more in this field". It was he who introduced me to Claude Berri, who immediately trusted me and allowed me to write the music for JEAN DE FLORETTE and MANON DES SOURCES. This gave me a reputation beyond what I had at the time.


Have you done any research into period music?
Claude Berri came to me and said he wanted a theme from an opera, which I could understand. I came up with the theme of "Force of Destiny", and around it I built a score that had nothing to do with Giuseppe Verdi, but had something to do with the 1930s. I thought it was a very simple, beautiful and interesting theme for the film, and it was Claude Berri's idea from the start, so I couldn't do anything else at the time. I didn't just take the theme and unfold it. I arranged it, reorchestrated it and gave it a whole new meaning. I gave it another meaning with the harmonica. I wanted the theme to be grandiose, because the story is reminiscent of Greek tragedy, with its thirst for water, but at the same time it takes place in a humble, poor and fairly simple environment. I wanted you to feel both the grandiose and the simple.

Can you talk about your music for DEUX?
It's interesting, because it touches on contemporary music. I now write contemporary music alongside film music, which accounts for 90% of my time. The rest is more learned music, and it's true that contemporary music has no place in cinema at the moment, because it's rejected by the great mass of people. This gave me the opportunity, since the story deals with contemporary music, to write music that Claude Zidi was very afraid of. I wanted to go further with the music, but he was always holding me back. It was a big debate between us. I wrote a compromise, but I enjoyed writing it because it's the only time I've ever had the opportunity to write advanced music.

Did you find yourself in the film's protagonist, who is a composer?
Yes, strangely enough. Not completely, of course, because he used to be an impresario and now he's back to music. I'll never be an impresario, or even an agent, but it's true that I recognized myself in his attitudes, and his attitude to women too. There must be some things in common, and I think Claude Zidi analyzed the situation well, but unfortunately the film wasn't a success. Claude Zidi had made an effort, and for six months before filming, he had been going to contemporary music concerts. He had no idea what this music was, he'd been with the musicians, he'd seen me for 3 months before shooting the film. I'd spoken to him at length, describing what these musicians were like.

Gérard Depardieu captured the main characteristics of these musicians. This is his only serious film. He bit the bullet a little. He didn't do it again, given the film's lack of success, but he's still glad he did it, because it showed he could do something different from his usual films, which are quite good, but in a different tone. I'd like to reflect on this film. Gérard Depardieu is an extremely sensitive person, he doesn't know contemporary music. I had written a piano piece for him, which he was to play in a concert, pretending he didn't know anything about the piano. But when you see him, you really get the impression that he's playing the piece. He's a very gifted person. On JEAN DE FLORETTE we were together, on DEUX too, and on CYRANO DE BERGERAC and URANUS, it's a complete coincidence. After so many films, we know each other well. I knew his wife Elisabeth. I'd written the music for a play called Le Rire de David, which was being performed at the Théâtre de l'Europe, in which she had a role, and I'd also seen her before, because she was a singer, so she'd asked me to make a record. So we had an old relationship, and I also know her son, who came to see me for advice, because he wants to be a musician.

Let's talk about your music for CYRANO DE BERGERAC.
I was lucky, because first of all, there's a long score, which isn't always the case in French cinema. We know that there's sometimes a quarter-hour of music for an hour and a half of film. In this case, it was a good hour of music, and that's great for a composer. It's a romantic story, even if it's set in the 17th century, so great sentiments are always quite interesting for film musicians.

It's a fresco that works well with adventure and love...
...and at the same time with 17th century ingredients. In Roxanne's theme, there's a psaltery, which is a very old instrument, although this is romantic music.

How long did you have to compose the music?
It was a very long shoot. I was on set a lot. There was some music to write beforehand, for example the fife scene, the theater scene too, concert-style. I spent quite some time on that and then, to write the music, I had about 2 months, which is a luxury for a film in France, because generally, they don't even give you three weeks to do it.

Did you do the orchestrations?
Yes, of course I did. I write everything, with a few exceptions. I once had to get help with Richard Lester's THE RETURN OF THE MOUSQUETAIRES because I was really overwhelmed. There was an hour and fifteen minutes of music. I didn't have enough time to do it, so I got help with a three-minute number. But in general, I write everything myself, which seems to me to be the least I can do as a film music composer. There are film composers in our country who don't write a note of music because they don't know music. It's quite insane. Having said that, even when you write your own music, it can happen that you're a bit overwhelmed and you need help. Gabriel Yared has contributed a lot to French film music, he's very good, Vladimir Cosma too, but that's another genre, Georges Delerue is part of the history of film music. Michel Legrand has talent, originality and an exceptional personality. I respect these musicians.

There are many different types of musician in film music, and you have to be very flexible and let your personality shine through within each style. In general, we don't think badly of our colleagues; all those I've mentioned, I really like them and I listen to them as well. I respect Francis Lai enormously; he plays the accordion very well, he reads the music, he doesn't write the orchestrations, but he's done some unmissable melodies that I wouldn't be able to do. It's a different way of working. In the United States, there are melodists who get their music orchestrated, it's a practice, there are those who write everything, it's the most respectable, deontologically the most interesting, and there are those who write nothing. The American system is a division of labor. I don't mind working for American cinema in Los Angeles, but not in Los Angeles. I'm not interested in working with three collaborators, two lawyers, three agents and five negroes, one film editor. I'm a craftsman, I want to remain free, I'm not an industrialist.

Do you have a favorite orchestra?
I've had some not-so-good adventures with symphony orchestras, because in a symphony orchestra, there's a sound, an interesting sound, they're used to playing together, but there's always a weakness or weaknesses. That's the case in France too. I know all the musicians and I prefer to choose them one by one. When I work abroad, it's with the London Symphony Orchestra. I think they're great, except for specific instruments where they're weak and weaker than in France. I think the London Symphony Orchestra has a great sound, a habit of playing, exceptional flexibility, but there are weaknesses in one section in particular.

What about LE RETOUR DES MOUSQUETAIRES?
It helped me a lot with CYRANO DE BERGERAC. Firstly, I was closer to the 17th century in LE RETOUR DES MOUSQUETAIRES than in CYRANO DE BERGERAC because the adventure was less romantic. In the end, it's a funny film, so I got closer to the music of the 17th century. What's more, Richard Lester asked me to get very close to the music of the 17th century, to find old things, and so I did a whole investigation, I worked with the London Symphony Orchestra and also with an early music orchestra. I had to write this music in a state of intense stress, because it took me three weeks to write an hour and a quarter of music, generally disheveled, because they fight all the time in the film (in the second degree, because we laugh about it). It was very difficult to write, and I was very happy with the experience. The film wasn't a success, but it enriched me a lot for my next film, CYRANO DE BERGERAC. Jean-Paul Rappeneau didn't want to listen to the music. He said to me: "If I listen to this music, you'll have to do the same".

Do you have a favorite composer, a role model?
It seems a strange question to ask. I love all kinds of music. I know Indian music, Oriental music, Chinese music, Japanese music, Western music of course, contemporary music, modern jazz, which I'm still very interested in. I have many favorite composers, from Johann Sebastian Bach to Schoenberg, Berg and John Coltrane, it's so wide.

Let's turn now to your collaboration with Henri Verneuil.
MAYRIG and 588 RUE PARADIS are a bit like JEAN DE FLORETTE and MANON DES SOURCES. They both take place between 1930 and the present day. It's an important saga in the history of Henri Verneuil, the novel of his life. I wrote two themes for the film. He shot a lot of scenes with this music. Which only half pleased me. I discovered an Armenian instrument called the duduk, which is a wooden flute played a bit like a gypsy violin. It's very expressive and lends itself very well to a lyrical theme.

Would you like to collaborate with foreign directors?
I'd love to work with Ettore Scola, I'm a great admirer of his work. I've been a great admirer of Italian cinema in general. I watched Italian cinema as a teenager, with its neo-realism. I'm an orphan of that cinema, which I loved very much and which made me laugh and cry - what could be better in cinema?

Is your contemporary music performed?
I get specific commissions from time to time. I have a string quartet that's played a lot, and I have 2/3 other pieces. I don't write enough for contemporary music. I started around 1982, but since then I've only written five pieces, which isn't very many. I don't think you can do it seriously if you're writing other music at the same time. I like to do the impossible. I'm going to get them published, because I can afford to do that because of my film music. I'd like to do a whole CD with 45/60 minutes of sufficiently interesting music, but I'm not there yet.

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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