Adventures in Hollywood: (Compilation) From a production
standpoint, you can see what Citadel Records was trying to do when they assembled
the "Adventures in Hollywood" compilation in 1996. There was a sudden rush of
film music compilations in the 1990's, often featuring theme-based combinations
of re-recordings of popular film scores and original recordings that the labels
happened to own. By this time, many of these compilations were outstanding,
featuring re-recordings by some of the best ensembles in the world. Citadel owned
the rights to a handful of scores they had released on LP that they felt were
worthy of a digital transfer onto CD. In this case, they were the 1959 Hans J.
Salter score to the NBC television series
Wichita Town and select 1960
re-recordings of Robert Farnon's 1951 score to
Captain Horatio Hornblower.
To make the CD more attractive, Citadel contracted for the right to release two
recordings by a relatively unknown orchestral ensemble in Texas. This group
recorded the usual suite cue from Bruce Broughton's fantastic
Silverado
and a suite of famous Western themes written by Dimitri Tiomkin. The album was
then assembled by Citadel under a sort of "adventure" theme despite the obvious
fact that everything on the album was a Western score except for the nautical
Farnon swashbuckler. Unfortunately for Citadel, their ability to produce
compilations that could compete favorably with their competitors was lacking;
they simply didn't have the funds to offer anything spectacular (which is
necessary on such compilations). Citadel has instead always been known for their
release of B-rate scores by young or second-tier composers. In the case of
"Adventures in Hollywood," the product doesn't work on any level unless you're
interested solely in the straight digital transfer of Salter's
Wichita
Town from the label's previous LP release.
A largely forgotten series,
Wichita Town ran for just one
year before being pulled due to an over-abundance of Western television series
around 1960. Salter's light, orchestral Western music may have utilized every
structural cliche of the time, but it was praised for being written by the
composer before the series was filmed. Its original recording is presented here,
and it's rather unassuming and undemanding in its rapid succession of quick cues.
The three cues from
Captain Horatio Hornblower are easily the anomaly on
this album. Despite their placement at the end, Farnon's soaring combination of
high seas adventure and Golden Age love theme make for a score far better than
most of the others on the album, and definitely different from them. The 1960
recording was conducted in London by Farnon himself and is more vibrant than its
preceding offerings on the album. For the other two selections, Citadel
contracted the services of the Midland-Odessa Symphony Orchestra out of West
Texas. Perhaps it was their intent to use a performing group that hailed from an
area that could capture the true spirit of Tiomkin and Broughton's music.
Unfortunately, the performances by the volunteer group are horrendous in parts
and barely serviceable at best in others. They absolutely crucify
Silverado with their wretched horn section, and their inability to
correctly hit the slurring brass counterpoint that exists in the theme serves the
listener's ears a healthy dose of pain. With so many great performances of
Silverado available out on the market, this one is truly embarrassing. The
Tiomkin suite is performed without much enthusiasm; while the
Red River
and
High Noon themes aren't exactly barn-burners in their original form,
the group manages to make them even more drab and uninteresting. Several errors
in this 11-minute suite are also clear. Overall, there's really no point to this
compilation unless you're looking to replace your old Citadel LPs. The filler
material from the 1988 recordings of the Texas group is a major detraction from
the product.
** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
| Bias Check: |
For Bruce Broughton reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.36
(in 11 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.28
(in 4,513 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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The insert includes extensive information about the scores.
