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EDITOR’s RECOMMENDATION August 2000
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Benjamin FRANKEL
Battle of the Bulge
Music from the film Queensland
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Werner Andreas Albert.
cpo 999 696-2
[78:43]
Crotchet
Amazon
UK
The 1960's. A decade with ironclad behemoths stalked the silver screen. Real
epics. Not like today's Super-35 pseudo-epics, but the real epics with overtures
and intermissions and shot in Ultra-Panavision 70, offering a truly widescreen
aspect ratio of 2.75-1. Battle of the Bulge (1965) was one such film.
Overall its reputation hasn't stood the test of time as well as The Longest
Day or The Great Escape, the two best-known war epics which
immediately preceded it. But who knows? For decades the film has only been
seen (or half-seen) on television, and it is simply not possible to judge
the full merits of such superb spectaculars this way. What has undoubtedly
stood the test of the intervening 35 years is the music score by Benjamin
Frankel.
Frankel is not as well known a composer as he should be. However, a fine
introduction to his life and music can be found in the Benjamin Frankel pages
on Classical Music on the Web, starting at:
http://www.musicweb.uk.net/frankel/.
Suffice to say that Frankel made an early career as a jazz musician and arranger,
before moving into film work in the 1930's. In total he scored over a hundred
film, TV and theatre productions, including such cinema classics as The
Man in the White Suit, The Importance of Being Ernest and The
Night of the Iguana. From 1958 onwards Frankel concentrated on his concert
music, writing eight symphonies among many other works, retiring from film
composition following Battle of the Bulge. Little of his film music
has ever been issued in album form, and now, following a complete symphony
cycle on CPO which has seen Frankel acclaimed as one of the great composers
of the post-war period, CPO have embarked on a series of CDs of Frankel
soundtrack re-recordings. This current disc is actually the very first
re-recording of any complete score by Benjamin Frankel. For this we have
to thank in large measure Dimitri Kennaway, Frankel's stepson and an
indefatigable champion of the composer's music. In various ways, not least
in the actual preparation of the scores and sometimes in the reconstruction
of missing parts, Mr Kennaway has been instrumental in bringing this music
to us.
I interviewed Dimitri Kennaway recently, (to read the interview follow the
link)
and he explained that while a series of albums were planned, they started
with Frankel's last score because Battle of the Bulge is still a film
with a wide following, to say nothing of having the sort of 'big' score that
has a good chance of appealing to both film music collectors and those who
have bought the previous CPO symphony recordings. It is a big score, this
CD running virtually 79 minutes and essentially containing all the music
from the film: a few short cues, which were slight variations on material
included on the album, were omitted because it wasn't possible to fit any
more music onto the disc. However, there is twice as much music here as on
the original soundtrack LP, and a lot of it is to all intents and purposes
new because in the film it was mixed so low as to be nearly subliminal inaudible.
Those familiar with the film may initially to shocked to find the overture
missing. Worry not, it is here, but where it really belongs, in correct film
sequence as track 11, 'The Armaments Train'. What became the overture was
actually written for this particular sequence, which in the finished film
plays without music.
There are 18 tracks in all, with music ranging from exciting set-pieces such
as 'The German Tanks Emerge and Break Through' to more reflective moments,
'Christmas at Ambleve', even incorporating traditional carols. There is the
guilty pleasure of such source music as the 'Panzerlied', here including
the essential rhythmic snap of marching feet, the sound of which was omitted
from the original soundtrack. There is a huge amount of music to assimilate,
from the savagery and desperate terror of 'Massacre at Malmedy' to the final
triumph of 'The Panzermen Abandon their Tanks: Victory and Postlude'. This
is not simply one of those very long scores which repeats the same couple
of ideas over and over until the CD is full, but instead is packed with a
wide variety of material worthy of much more detailed analysis than a simple
review. Reflecting this, Dimitri Kennaway provides not only excellent
accompanying notes but also illustrates the booklet with several significant
musical examples. Of course none of this would mean a thing if the sound
and performances were below-par. Fortunately the sound is as vivid and dynamic
as one could hope for, and the performances, by players who are by now utterly
familiar with and sympathetic to Frankel's musical world, simply superb.
This is not just a feast of great film music, but a very significant album
which will hopefully lead to the classical audience exploring more film music,
and the soundtrack audience uncovering the riches of Frankel's symphonic
output. Certainly album of the month, and undoubtedly one of the best
re-recordings of the year.
Reviewer
Gary S. Dalkin
