: (Jerry Goldsmith) Based upon an
acclaimed 1973 novel about a neo-fascist conspiracy to take over the
Italian government, the 1981 movie
was widely
criticized for the abysmal pacing of its adaptation. Despite a
reasonable concept and a handful of entertaining supporting actors, the
movie was shunned in Italy and failed to find an audience abroad. In the
film, an Italian detective stumbles upon a plot to install a fascist
government in Italy, and he finds that the corruption behind these
endeavors includes the country's own counterterrorism leaders. Obtaining
the help of Polish spy who doubles as the love interest, this
protagonist eludes his own capture, torture, and death along his route
to exposing the villainous Christopher Lee to the surprise of nobody.
The film was the directorial debut for highly awarded editor Peter
Zinner, who came to the project as an inexpensive option but ultimately
couldn't assemble a winner from the helm. He was also an accomplished
musician and music editor earlier in his career, and among the most
notable names he involved with the project was veteran composer Jerry
Goldsmith. Intrigued by the concept, Goldsmith wrote a rather short
score and recorded it in Rome on a tight budget. His music for the topic
was typical to his output for the genre at the time, largely orchestral
and laced with a sense of brutality that often defined his most powerful
thrillers of the late 1970's and early 1980's. Interestingly, though,
long represented Goldsmith's most obscure score of
the 1980's, never released on album, the studio tapes completely gone,
and its original manuscripts and notation completely lost. Various
versions of the film on home video didn't include all of the music
Goldsmith wrote for the film, either, cutting off the vital end credits
summary of his two major themes. The project was deemed a total loss
until the 2010's, when Tadlow Music and the Prometheus record label
teamed up to re-record the entirety of the score based solely from what
was heard in the film itself. The extremely difficult task of
reconstructing and orchestrating the score fell upon Goldsmith expert
Leigh Phillips, who impressively managed to complete the project within
a few months of laborious examination of the movie's audio track. That
music was then performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic, which had a
long history of conveying reconstructed film scores with
precision.
The efforts of Tadlow to bring the lost or poor-sounding
scores of yesteryear back to life must be commended at every
opportunity, for they take much effort and money to happen. For
dedicated Goldsmith enthusiasts, the 2013 addition of
The
Salamander to this collection was the best possible solution for its
unique situation. Two aspects of the recording are open for review:
Goldsmith's composition as reconstructed and the fresh performance
conducted by Nic Raine. The score itself is an above-average entry for
the composer in the genre, but not one without some awkward parts. He
starts with his standard orchestral ensemble and laces it with limited
contributions from a harpsichord but a significant presence for
accordion. He employed his nascent electronics of the era in the form of
slashing sounds that resemble abrasively tapped muted cymbals and other
metallics, with one notable concentration of other, heartbeat and outer
space effects in the horrendous "Car Bomb/Torture/Death of the Surgeon,"
the score's one true "what the hell?" moment. More engaging for
collectors is the composer's one choral passage that easily stands apart
in the work, represented in the re-recording beautifully. Modelled on
the popular Lacrimosa movement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Requiem in
D Minor," the "Funeral: Requiem for a General" cue blends the purpose of
source and drama in the film, featuring the same Latin text as a requiem
mass and beginning conventionally but straying impressively into
Goldsmith's own voice from the same year's
The Final Conflict by
the cue's end. (Also recalling that score are portions of "The Island
Adventure.") The rest of the score balances its material in the realms
of
Capricorn One and
The Challenge for Goldsmith but
emphasizing its florid love theme more than one might expect. The
narrative of the music doesn't really flow as well as hoped, its finale
more muted than one would expect for a thriller. The bulk of the really
exciting action material occurs earlier in the work, leaving the
comparatively cerebral finale without much of a climax. Still, Goldsmith
faithfully develops and maintains his two major themes for the picture,
providing both in their expected roles at each possible moment. The main
theme for the conspiracy and action elements is a brassy punch in the
face, but the heart of work resides in the pretty and stereotypical
romantic idea that the composer reprises as often as possible and
affords an outsized role at the end of the picture.
Goldsmith's main theme for
The Salamander is
anchored by an ascending four-note phrase adapted everywhere in the
score and heard immediately in its fullest form on brass in "The
Salamander Main Titles." The theme's first four notes quickly become a
rhythmic device in the bass while the full theme continues in several
renditions on top. It builds to a frenzy in "Neo-Fascist Training" with
an aggressive
Capricorn One meter, speeds into rhythmic duties on
top of the action in the rowdy "The Car Chase," and becomes suspenseful
throughout in "Island Adventure" on strings and timpani. Woodwinds carry
the theme in similar shadows in "Dante/Zurich/Lili" before it opens
"Photographs/Steffi's Abduction" on timpani and is fragmented by the
full ensemble later. It turns quietly tragic in "Steffi's Dead,"
reprises its pounding timpani again in "Car Bomb," and bursts with one
brass moment at the end of "The Forest." The main theme then takes a
brief militaristic turn in "The Guests Arrive" but becomes more
melodramatic in "After the Show Ended." It finally anchors the beginning
and end of the titles portion of "Goodbyes & End Titles." The love theme
is similar in style to
The Challenge but with different
progressions, a frequent contributor to the score and having an outsized
impact, almost always with an accordion. Strings join that instrument
for the theme's introduction in "Dante and Lili." Thereafter, it teases
early in "Island Adventure," returns to accordion romance in "Lili," and
extends over pleasant piano and triangle in "Manzini," building to
whimsical strings in full. The love theme then interjects with chimes
into the sadness during "The Mortuary" and "Death of the Surgeon," opens
"Phone Call to Lili," and guides the start of "Goodbyes & End Titles" in
true accordion form, leading to a large string finale and pensive
postscript. The flowing ensemble rendition with trumpets in the titles
portion is a massive interlude to the main theme. Goldsmith also employs
a three ascending notes in rapid bursts as an action motif throughout
the score. It emerges in "Lawyers/Dead People," becomes frantic in
"Dante Runs Upstairs" over rambling harpsichord, takes over from the
main theme as the ascending tool of force in "The Car Chase," and
mingles again with the main theme in "Island Adventure." This motif
takes a more prominent role in "Zurich," guides the thrill in
"Assassination Attempt," and is streamlined for suspense in "The
Forest." Overall,
The Salamander is a surprisingly engaging score
with numerous highlights, a pure representation of the composer's
techniques in the genre during that era.
The performance of the score by the City of Prague
Philharmonic (and chorus for the one requiem cue) is outstanding, even
if some of the synthetics sound like slashing metallics instead of
Goldsmith's original sounds. (Purists may quibble here.) They definitely
capture the raw brutality of Goldsmith's brass of the era, and it's
always a pleasure to hear such music performed in perfect sound quality.
The spread of the recording is extremely well mixed, bringing vintage
Goldsmith music more often than not stuck in mono sound to vibrant life.
The Prometheus album, which long stayed in print at reasonable prices,
also included two bonus tracks from other scores in that general period
in Goldsmith's career. The suite of "Main Titles" and "The Climber" from
1976's
The Cassandra Crossing features music that very closely
resembles what Goldsmith later constructed for
The Salamander,
its sensitive, restrained, and pretty main theme a solid match for the
later score's love theme, especially with the assistance of the
harpsichord. The action cue provided from that score utilizes the same
kind of rising, forceful brass structures as heard in the 1981 score but
with more complicated brass layering and percussive accents. The other
suite on the Prometheus album comes from Goldsmith's 1975 music for
Ransom, a work that has long harbored one of the composer's more
compelling main themes but has suffered from absolutely wretched sound
quality on its album releases. The duo of "Sky Chaser" and "Main Theme"
provide the highlights from that work, the first two minutes of "Sky
Chaser" serving as that score's clear highlight. Like the main theme in
The Cassandra Crossing, Goldsmith used rambling piano figures in
Ransom to represent the concept of uneasy flight and pursuit. The
clearly Eastern European-influenced main theme, helmed by delicately
plucky strings and harpsichord once again, features the melody conveyed
by oboe and then soaring strings, the piano accents never far. The brass
presence in this theme's performance is particularly enhanced in this
rendition. In sum, the addition of these highlights from
The
Cassandra Crossing and
Ransom are outstanding treats beyond
the impressive reconstruction and performance of
The Salamander.
Even if the 1981 score's tapes are someday found and preserved, the
quality of the 2013 Prague performance may render them little more than
academic, and hearing the best from
Ransom in a digital recording
yields much the same reaction. The Prometheus album is an easy
recommendation for any learned collector of Goldsmith's music from this
era.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
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