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Varese Sarabande releases Midway!


Koray Savas

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MIDWAY

Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Music Composed and Conducted by John Williams

Following on from our premiere release of John Williams’ 1976 score for Alfred Hitchcock’s final film – Family Plot… now comesMidway the original soundtrack recording – for the very first time!

Featuring one of John Williams’ most famous marches, a second march which is every bit as good, a delicate love theme, plus a thrilling action score tying everything together, it has always been bewildering that the Midway score has never been released in its original form. Mr. Williams has performed the Midway March in many of his concerts, and even recorded it with the Boston Pops, but the only full album of the complete score, prior to this release, was the 1998 Varèse Sarabande recording featuring Rick Wentworth conducting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

This is a historic album. Midway was the only remaining John Williams score composed since Jaws to have never received an official soundtrack release. That has now been rectified and the gap has finally been closed.

The Battle of Midway sounded its furious thunder in June 1942, just six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Midway interweaves the dramatic personal stories of the men who fought the courageous battle that was to be the Pacific turning point for the United States. The all-star cast and breathtaking war footage convey the Battle of Midway with powerful reality and epic sweep. The film was directed by Jack Smight and starred Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, James Coburn, Glenn Ford, Hal Holbrook, Toshiro Mifune, Robert Mitchum, Cliff Robertson and Robert Wagner.

Price: $19.98

Catalog #: VCL 1011 1124

1. Prologue / Main Title (2:59)

2. Yamamoto’s Choice (1:22)

3. Signal Corps Con (1:24)

4. Yamamoto’s Second Meeting (2:18)

5. Hiroshima Harbor (:49)

6. Haruko’s Dilemma (1:03)

7. By Order Of Nimitz (3:16)

8. Canceling Operation K (1:30)

9. Strawberry 5 (1:16)

10. Missing The Flatlands (:52)

11. Morning Of The Battle (1:18)

12. Scout 4 (1:01)

13. Ensign Gay Afloat (:39)

14. Burning Carriers (1:20)

15. Crash Landing (1:50)

16. Good News For The Nimitz (1:18)

17. Matt Takes Off / Matt’s Crash / Red Parks Fighters / Attack Begins* (4:06)

18. End Credits* (2:45)

19. The Men Of The Yorktown March (3:12)

20. Midway March (2:46)

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They say it's the original film recording, but on the back cover it says conducted by Sandy De Crescent. Williams didn't conduct?

:blink: What?

And what does it say on the front?

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So anybody here actually seen the movie? I haven't.

I just know the "Midway March" and the track "The Men of the Yorktown March" from the Japanese JW Filmworks.

I'm blind, never mind.

:lol: That's the excitement...

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So is it a Thor release or a KM release?

What does that mean?

Thor release = Listening experience

KM Release = Expanded/Complete Score

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Listened to the samples, meh I'll be skipping on this one. However, Mimic I do find interesting and I ordered it from Peter.

I think it's cool Varèse is releasing the Karate Kid scores separately for those who missed out on the box set. Since I own the box set, no need to get the separate releases.

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Thor release = Listening experience

KM Release = Expanded/Complete Score

Ahh ok.

But those 2 things are not mutually exclusive, are they? ;)

It's both.

The original Varese album was already complete, just a rerecording. Here we have the same complete score, but originally conducted by Williams.

Don't understand why they didn't release the Williams-conducted version in the first place, though.

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Just woke up... Wowza! So ordered!

(Not too familiar with the score and haven't yet checked out the clips on the site. Have a copy of the Varèse re-recording and listened to it like once; and have only seen snippets of the film broadcast on tv. But I reckon Men of the Yorktown March happens to be my very fave march of his and this is JW prior to his ascent to greater things in '77 and beyond: a no-brainer really.

Back to sleep got me a long drive to MA...)

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Ordered.

I've recently been listening to it quite a lot, so it will be great to be able to compare the re-recording (which I always found to be quite good) with the film version.

I've also watched the film a couple of times. Nice film, hardly a good one.

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Will order Midway and Mimic.

It's very nice to have finally the original recording Williams did. Too bad track 17 & 18 are mastered from monoaural elements.

But anyway, great to have this. I always thought that the re-recording does sound good but is slitghly to "heavy".

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wow amazing!

um, for europe what shipping do i check?

'Will call' (i dont know what this means) 0$

UPSP 1st class 7.50$

quick... i need to order! :P

EDIT: never mind, checked family plot order, gotta pay those 7.50$ :(

EDIT2: ordered!

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No worries, it's a KM release. Post 1970 Willlams action score. I'm sure it'll be better than that re-recording.

But in the context that's I've been waiting a year to hear a Hook announcement it's disappointing in that regard

I already pre-ordered from SAE, any idea when this ship?...I think there's delay with Varese right?

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Great news! I do have the re-recording and like it quite a bit but I am happy that the original tracks are being released. Only down side is that I can't afford this until later so I really hope this won't sell out very soon.

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I always thought that the re-recording does sound good but is slitghly to "heavy".

Meaning?

While the tempis are very good the sound of the orchestra seems for me a little bit to forced in some cues.

It's one of the best re-recodings one can get but I'm very happy that the original recording are released now.

The Williams recording has some kind of clearer structure (based on the samples) and that's what I like.

But I have to admit that Men of the Yorktown March sounds beautiful on the re-recording.

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I never bought the rerecording released in 1998 (?)... Great my patience is finally rewarded with the original tracks ! :cheer:

Ordered of course.

Mmmh, what's the matter with tracks 17 & 18 ?

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Mmmh, what's the matter with tracks 17 & 18 ?

I guess the mono aural recordings were the only ones available for them when they restored the score.

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As with 1941, this is actually one of the Williams scores I don't care for very much. Except for the nice march, there's just a lot of rumbling suspense music, IMO. So I'm set with the old rerecording, which is actually pretty good, performance-wise.

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Wow, I don't know if I should get this. I have the rerecording and I like it, and I'm interested in this recording, but I'm not sure if it's worth $20 right now or if I can wait.

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I'm actually quite thrilled with the news, which was altogether unexpected! I placed my order this morning. Mike M. did wonders with FAMILY PLOT, so I'm not too worried about tracks 17-18.

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Me neither. Family Plot is one of my favourite releases of 2010. Along with Black Sunday.

I already pre-ordered from SAE, any idea when this ship?...I think there's delay with Varese right?

Varese starts shipping on October 24th.

'Will call' (i dont know what this means) 0$

It means that you can collect your order directly from them. So in our case it's not exactly 0$ ;)

I'm really happy they're releasing this. The march is a really cool piece (with a bit more brass band feel to it). And I like what I'm hearing in the samples. Besides, it's post-Jaws 70's Williams so I can't go far wrong with that.

Karol - who pre-ordered a copy from Varese

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Interesting - Mike Matessino didn't produce this - the album was produced by Robert Townson. MM was just involved with mixing tracks 17 and 18. That's a bummer - when will all the labels learn that MM is the best album producer??

Regardless of that, it's a cool release that I'm glad is coming out. Will fill in a nice hole in my Williams collection, cause I never bought the re-recording

EDIT: Mike Matessino just let me know he actually wrote the liner notes for this release! Great news!

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Interesting - Mike Matessino didn't produce this - the album was produced by Robert Townson. MM was just involved with mixing tracks 17 and 18. That's a bummer - when will all the labels learn that MM is the best album producer??

It would seem like it, but not necessarily. Maybe he did more than that, but the back cover only mentions the two tracks because of their nature. Who knows? If he's involved in mixing and liner notes then it's already great!

Karol

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Interesting - Mike Matessino didn't produce this - the album was produced by Robert Townson. MM was just involved with mixing tracks 17 and 18.

EDIT: Mike Matessino just let me know he actually wrote the liner notes for this release! Great news!

Hum... So does Midway count as one of the 2 upcoming Williams releases Mike said he worked on, if he didn't "produce" here?

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Interesting - Mike Matessino didn't produce this - the album was produced by Robert Townson. MM was just involved with mixing tracks 17 and 18.

EDIT: Mike Matessino just let me know he actually wrote the liner notes for this release! Great news!

Hum... So does Midway count as one of the 2 upcoming Williams releases Mike said he worked on, if he didn't "produce" here?

I would say yes, it's one of the two.

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Hmmm. Trying to decide if I'm gonna go for this or not. I'm not very familiar with any part of this score...the samples sound fairly interesting, but after having just spent $30 on 1941, I'm a little hesitant to immediately buy another 1970s WWII Williams score, especially since I tend to be a little less impressed with Varese's releases. Decisions, decisions...

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This is going to be another Family Plot, which was surprisingly unsuccessful.

If Matessino didn't produce it, I ain't buying it. That's how I roll.

Yeah, you're right. Let's boycott it!

Karol

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