Drawgoon

Yesterday Alan Menken finally received his Max Steiner award in what was originally going to be the 2020 Hollywood in Vienna gala concert, until it got postponed twice by one year each due to the pandemic. Once again, the entire programme was dedicated exclusively to Menken compositions, with the exception of Broughton's opening fanfare and the traditional final Gone With the Wind encore.
 
The programme consisted of:
Overture & Be Our Guest (from Beauty and the Beast, but with "funny" modified lyrics to fit the evening)
Bless Our Show (from Sister Act - the musical; I keep forgetting Menken was involved with that)
Enchanted - Suite
Suite & I See the Light (Tangled)
Home on the Range - Suite*
Go the Distance & Gospel Medley (Hercules)
 
Intro & Friend Like Me
A Whole New World
Prince Ali
Proud of Your Boy(all from Aladddin)
Pocahontas - Suite*
The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Suite
The Little Mermaid - Suite* 
Under the Sea (same)
Something There
Suite* (Beauty and the Beast)
 
Encores:
How Does a Moment Last Forever (Beauty and the Beast)
Suddenly Seymour (Little Shop of Horrors)
 
Some of the suites included songs (I've marked those with an asterisk). Most importantly, this meant that Pocahontas included Colors of the Wind, and The Little Mermaid included Poor Unfortunate Soulds (brilliantly performed by Drew Sarich) and Part of Your World. Sadly, some were purely instrumental; I usually find Menken's underscore nice enough, but mostly secondary to the songs, so I'd usually rather have just the songs instead. Tangled is the one where I find the actual score more interesting than usually, but sadly they didn't include the standout piece (Kingdom Dance) in the suite. Hunchback's dramatic Orff-Requiem finale I always found good but overrated, and it's long… I would have preferred the dramatic opening song/score, or Heaven's Light & Hellfire. The Beauty and the Beast suite ended with the titular song - but sadly with an arrangement of the pop version that started out as a duet and ended up involving the entire ensemble. The only bits I didn't know were Sister Act and Home on the Range, and at least without context it was rather grotesquely eccentric. How Does a Moment Last Forever was performed by Menken himself at the piano, after receiving the Steiner award.
 
The ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester (as usual) was conducted by Michael Kosarin (co-composer, arranger, and conductor for many Menken projects since Hercules - the programme booklet claims that their first collaboration was when he allegedly conducted Pocahontas, but neither the CD booklet nor IMDb corroborate that he was involved with that at all). The cast was made up of Broadway and West End singers, many of whom originated the stage versions of the songs the performed - much better than my initial fear that they would cast Austrian/German musical singers (or even perform the German versions of the songs).
 
Sounds great so far? It probably could have been, but Hollywood in Vienna has been persistent in making each concert bigger and more EPIC! than the previous one. What started out with a first rate concert conducted by John Mauceri (with music by Korngold, Williams, and Goldsmith, among others) has long since become a big spectacle with a click-tracked, amplified orchestra and choir that puts more emphasis on the projections, light show, "funny" moderators, and overall EPICness than the actual music. Even then this year's programme could have fared reasonably well, but for most of it, the mix was a mess. Even when the orchestra wasn't mixed so loudly as to drown out the singers, the balance was off (because the voice came from the overhead speakers, while the massive orchestra came, when not over-mixed, primarily from the stage). But mostly, everything was turned up to 11 (orchestra, soloists, choir), and when the percussion kicked in, all you could really hear was drums and a massive wall of sound. I was very much looking forward to the gospel stuff from Hercules (possibly the most ingenious thing Menken has done), but for much of it I could only make out the drums and the lower alto (?) muse. In retrospect, I Won't Say (I'm In Love) would probably have worked much better.
 
There was a relatively brief stretch - from Pocahontas to The Little Mermaid - where the mix (or perhaps the arrangements) was more tempered, and that part of the concert was really quite good (although as I mentioned earlier, not my favourite selection for Hunchback). Sadly, everything was turned up to 11 for an EPIC version of Under the Sea. Ending the official part of the programme with an overproduced, full cast arrangement of the pop version of Beauty and the Beast kind of sums up everything that's wrong (as far as I'm concerned, or from what I expect from a *music* concert as opposed to an epic entertainment spectacle) with the format.
 
Ultimately, the cast was probably first rate, and the performances mostly very fine (I See the Light felt somehow lacking in emotion to me, which may well be attributable to the strict click track), but the overall result was a rather sad, if loud, mess. It'll probably fare much better in a recorded version (I assume a Blu-ray release will be coming), and those who only experience it in that form will probably not even understand much of my criticism.
 
During her speech at the end of the concert, producer Sandra Tomek mentioned that the future is unclear and they don't yet know if there will be another Hollywood in Vienna. I don't know if that is because of lack of funding or for artistic reasons, but we (the traditional group of friends who usually meet up at this (and other film music) concerts) speculated before the concert what they might come up with next, and couldn't think of anything, because after Zimmer and Menken, it seems like they've almost exhausted the big crowd pleasers that can work in this extravagant format (and I can't see them return to a more settled concert setting). My only idea was an all-Marvel programme, which would probably be the first time I decide to skip the concert.

Nah, I think that batch was simply those remaining units of what they printed for the expo. Pretty sure more is on the way.

This is a wonderful album.
I watched the film last night with the album next to it. And what I like is that on the album there is some music cut out of the film. But they kept it intact for this release. Love that.
 
Other than that, the intro to One Jump Ahead & A Whole New World are both great, although like many I wished the entire film version of latter was on the album.
The extended Cave Of Wonders and To Be Free are a joy,
And newly released cues like Rooftop, Ali Comes Courting, Genie Rescue Aladdin and Jafar In Charge are my favorites
I noticed that last night when I watched the film. It's odd.

I, for one, am intrigued, by this.
I love INSIDE OUT, and, yes, I cried buckets when Bing Bong died.
There were meant to be more than just five emotions, so I'm looking forward to how the girl's story progresses.
 
 
 
 
 
INCREDIBLES 2 doesn't reach the spectacular heights of the original, but that doesn't stop it from being a very, very good film.

In addition to what you pointed out, the ending of "Happy Ending" cue has a brief gap as it transitions to the "A Whole New World reprise".
 
Also worth noting that the original "Intro to Carpet" is incorporated into "Cave of Wonders".
 
"Prince Ali Reprise" is separated at a better point from "Jafar's Hour" and it also no longer cross-fades to the next cue ("Ends of the Earth")
 
Additionally, "Why Me" is a different take compared to the one from "Music Behind the Magic". The vocal performances are completely different.

In addition to what you pointed out, the ending of "Happy Ending" cue has a brief gap as it transitions to the "A Whole New World reprise".
 
Also worth noting that the original "Intro to Carpet" is incorporated into "Cave of Wonders".
 
"Prince Ali Reprise" is separated at a better point from "Jafar's Hour" and it also no longer cross-fades to the next cue ("Ends of the Earth")
 
Additionally, "Why Me" is a different take compared to the one from "Music Behind the Magic". The vocal performances are completely different.

Damm, when I wrote this I hadn't even made my way through the whole score yet.  Eventually when I did I just kept getting more blown away by how good the score is.  The entire ending, even after the back to back to back action extravaganza, is all really good!
 
I wish there was a fifth Powell score I loved as much as this as the three HTTYDs.  For me, these 4 scores are a level above the rest of his film repertoire.  I wonder if he'll ever take on an assignment like this ever again?

Well I do find it endlessly disappointing that nobody here has invented a parallel universe comparison machine where we can run a version of the universe where alternative composer assignments play out. Come on physics people, this is important!

I love Nott's work on Wallace and Gromit but if I'm honest I would never give up the score which Chicken Run ultimately received, which I think is easily among the best work from either composer. I could never love the score less than I do. But I'd love to hear whatever demos Nott wrote... I wonder if that promo reel ever ended up on YouTube or something.

Yavar

The closest thing to these is Call Of The Wild. Or perhaps Pan (but I can't say I return to that very often).
 
Solo and HTTD3 might be his best, but my favourite set of Powell scores are still his mid-00 action scores for Paycheck, Mr. & Mrs. Smith and The Bourne Supremacy. 

... you carefully select a soundtrack for a particular journey
... and feel a strange sense of happiness when something synchronizes perfectly with the music
... you consider it a rite of passage to drive over the Severn Bridge with Khazad-dum playing.
 
... and you can't make it through 15 minutes of an episode of Rings of Power without checking at least 6 times that the music you just heard is on the album. Your evening is temporarily ruined when you find a bit that's not.

...you cringe when people call tracks on scores, "songs"

When you type 'film' on your phone, the next suggested word is 'version'
Acronyms for movies are also suggested
'Matessino' is suggested after 'Mike'

...you have the perfect score in your head for every current situation. (And wish everyone could hear it too)

...you chose movies you watch neither by director, actor or story, but by the composer, who wrote the score.
...you stopped going to the cinema about ten years ago, because you were disapointed by the new movie scores.
...you stay in your movie seat until the end of the end credits.
...you are still buying CDs.
...you know the difference between arranger and orchestrator.
...you have a movie theme as ringtone on your mobile.
...you have no idea, who these people in the top 10 billboard charts are.
...you are hanging around in this forum more than with your friends.
...you have posted something in this thread.

…you can tell the release year of a film because you know the release year of the soundtrack album.

...you get extremely angry when you read Amazon reviews that give a negative rating for various modern soundtrack albums because...  the album consists entirely of the actual score to the film instead of the preexisting pop songs that were used in the film.
 
As if those preexisting pop songs couldn't be obtained anywhere else.  As if the score itself could! 

…you know who scored a movie, but not who directed it.

There is no shortage of older stuff that never received a proper soundtrack album to begin with. Besides, since they also made one of these sets for Toy Story 1, that might mean the rest of Pixar's catalog are also up for consideration as well.
 
Wouldn't surprise me if Mulan or Hercules were up next. Particularly Hercules. Menken titles are the sole focus of this series lately. Perhaps he is pushing for these from behind the scenes. Regrettably, we don't have Jerry for that.
 
 
I'd be very, very surprised if those weren't somewhere on their to-do list. This stuff will sell - and not just to a niche community of "very respectable" folks like us. Though anything like that will most definitely not come under the LC banner. That'd be very weird.
 
I hope they hand these over to Intrada instead. Those guys know how to handle this stuff with care - definitely better than WD's in-house folks. And they are less inclined to casually edit smaller irrelevant pieces together to make longer cues. I mean that approach works well in some cases. But not very often.
 

Idk. I think kids need some darkness. I grew up with the original lyrics on disc and I always thought Radcliffe was such a piece of shit for saying them. Makes a nice difference to Judy Kuhn’s “and whether we are white or copper-skinned.” I don’t think we have to pander to positivity, which is one problem I have with modern kid’s films: they lack bite.
 
We need more Dark Crystals.

It’s Lea Salonga who played Jasmine. She is also the voice of Mulan.
 
Liz Calloway was Anastasia. Not a Disney princess, but close.
 They used the original lyrics in Savages “Their whole disgusting race is like a curse” so maybe.

Lea Salonga did the vocals for the songs for Jasmine.
Linda Larkin did the the voice.
Liz Callaway did both for the 2 direct to video sequels.

https://filmmusicreporter.com/2022/08/25/soundtrack-album-for-disneys-light-and-magic-to-be-released/

i listened to that score yesterday, and it is sooo good. The new themes, the implementation of previous material is fresh and not just cut an paste, the new material variations and the mix of old an new...
 
One of the best MOH scores

JNH will score the next movie by David Yates, which won't be Harry Potter-related but rather a comedy:
 
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg-JrpXOUf3/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=