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The New Varese Club CDs are....


Ollie

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North by Northwest (Bernard Herrmann, 3,000 copies) - conducted by Joel McNeely

Neighbors (Bill Conti and Tom Scott, 2,000 copies)

By Love Possessed (Elmer Bernstein, 1,500 copies)

The Tall Men (Victor Young, 1,500 copies)

Magic Fire (Erich Wolfgang Korngold, 1,000 copies)

CDs ship the week of December 3.

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Nothing really to get excited about.

Just ordered the Herrmann cd just to hear McNeely's take on it but I'll stick with Benny's own original recording on Rhino.

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I ordered:

North by Northwest (Bernard Herrmann, 3,000 copies) - conducted by Joel McNeely

By Love Possessed (Elmer Bernstein, 1,500 copies)

The Tall Men (Victor Young, 1,500 copies)

I'm excited about the NBNW, I love McNeely's Herrmann recordings and even though I have the Rhino CD many of the main cues suffered from damage.

I know alot of people wanted a new release or re-recording.

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Yeah the Rhino is not really listenable anymore (it used to bother me less), so that's a very nice surprise.

I don't know the other releases, haven't seen the films, and probably won't buy them.

I just wish they'd stop limiting these releases to 1000/1500 (well except the Conti releases; Varèse would release the worst score ever just if it was written by Conti); because later on (e.g. when I may have seen the films) I may become interested, but it will be too late then. I just can't afford buying all these 'just to be sure'. I see the marketing point of doing this, but then, FSM still releases at 3000 copies...

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Well look at the age of the scores, Varese may figure the demand will be less and they won't have to sit on dead inventory.

Don't forget Varese also releases mainstream soundtracks as well so it may help to have stuff you can move quickly.

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Got Bernstein and Young without a shadow of a doubt.

Got Neighbors, but for the rejected score, actually, as I liked its samples a lot, whereas the final score did not appeal to me.

Wagner: I'd rather have complete recordings or a good compilation than a series of montages, hwoever well-done.

Herrmann: I'll wait for the reviews, and should I miss it, I'll always have the DVD's isolated track.

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Romão should get the Korngold... isn't that a take on Wagner's music?

And I did :lol: I would also have ordered North by Northwest, but I do have the original recording and I really can't afford it at the moment.

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Well look at the age of the scores, Varese may figure the demand will be less and they won't have to sit on dead inventory.

I know, but they're overdoing it. It's purely capitalising on the limited number, it's not about making this available, it's about selling out fast.

It should be a bit of both, look at Intrada, they seem to get the number right more. Well, not with Inchon :lol:

But anyway, this is just nitpicking I suppose. I'm just saying, presumably I'll see a few of those films later on in life, and if I want to have the soundtracks then, I'll have to download them or something, because they're sold out; whereas I'd be more than happy to pay Varèse instead.

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I figure if I buy a limited score that sells out on the first day and end up not liking it I can always re-sell it and maybe make a little extra.

If you look at Intrada's releases you'll notice that alot of their releases are limited to 1200 to 1000 copies. now some of the bigger ones, Like Broughton and Williams, are 3000. But their David Newman, Delerue and Richard Band scores are in the 1200 range.

Sometimes I think people feel that the releases should only cater to the 40/50 and under age group. There are film score fans in the 50 to 80 age range that grew up with these films and alot of these films didn't receive a soundtrack release. So this is great news for them.

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Hmmmm, I might get North by Northwest.

North by Northwest (Bernard Herrmann, 3,000 copies) - conducted by Joel McNeely

Will this CD get cheaper, like as cheap as Psycho and Vertigo were by McNeely, or were those not limited to 3000 copies?

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It's nice to see a new McNeely Herrmann recording, but a bit sad to see he's no longer with the RSNO (though I don't know this orchestra). And it's a bit shocking that they now have to release those as limited editions.

I need more Young, and the Korngold/Wagner also sounds interesting. But I'm afraid none of them are the kind of thing I'd order right now.

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Unfortunately it appears it's no longer financially feasable to record with the RSNO.

http://web1.joelmcneely.com/blog/music/200...y_northwest.php

The soundclips sound fantastic and it appears McNeely got the tempo as close as possible.

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Hope this isn't a dumb question, but with regard to North By Northwest... Is the DVD iso score the complete score as heard in the film? Or are there cues that are left out? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

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Yes the cues that were unused in the film are missing from the iso score (naturally), but it has much better sound than any other release of the original tracks that I've heard.

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I'm sure that if any record company got the rights, they would release it as soon as possible. I emailed several companies, asking them to release it. THe ones that replied all said that they wanted to, but didn't have the rights.

It's a real pity that money is the primary motivating factor in these things. In fact it seems almost criminal that the studios are just sitting on many scores because they know they will probably make money in the future, but can't be bothered to invest the necessary effort at present.

And when a piece of tosh like JNH's Michael Clayton gets a proper CD release... well, speaks for itself doesn't it.

I know a lot of people here still actively buy CDs, but I remain adamant that releasing some of these in good quality digital downloads would work. I mean with storage as cheap as it is, releasing in something like flac/ape lossless cannot be hard, and would allow those who want it to burn a real CD. Yes I know you don't get the artwork or the liner notes, but money is the biggest factor and the music is all that really matters.

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Not better than the new release, I hope? Because the iso sounds very much like the old album.

Which are you calling the "new release" and "old album"? I just meant that the iso score sounds better than the Rhino/Turner album from '95.

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Anyone knows what is the situation with The Man Who Knew Too Much? In A Heart at Fire's Center, it says the score is lost.

Not a single cue has appeared on any album, compilation, or bootleg, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was lost.

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Which are you calling the "new release" and "old album"? I just meant that the iso score sounds better than the Rhino/Turner album from '95.

Whoops, I'm sorry. When I posted that I was mixing up this thread and the Alien one. The NbNW iso does sound good.

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I don't actually remember that much score from the film. I can only remember the main title, the cantata, and 2-3 underscore cues. Is there a lot more?

To be honest I don't remember.

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I've had very positive experience so far. I live in Slovenia, which is just about as far from California as it gets ;), but still of many times that I ordered CDs from VS (I've always ordered their CDs directly from them, never from e. g. Amazon, where I otherwise order lots of other stuff), not even one time was anything out of order. The CDs always arrived in no more than 10 days from the shipping date and were always in perfect condition. I sure hope this doesn't change ... :)

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All of my orders from Varese, as well as Intrada, FSM/Screen Archives and Movie Music.com, have always arrived in great shape.

Every once and awhile there is a crack in the jewel case but they are always well packed.

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Anyone knows what is the situation with The Man Who Knew Too Much? In A Heart at Fire's Center, it says the score is lost.

Not a single cue has appeared on any album, compilation, or bootleg, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was lost.

The City of Prague Philharmonic recorded the Prelude from The Man Who Knew Too Much for Silva Screen's 1995 Herrmann compilation Torn Curtain: The Classic Fim Music of Bernard Herrmann (an album that I have always thought to be one of Silva's better re-recordings). I guess someone must have reconstructed the music, although the liner notes do not shed any light on this issue.

I'm reading A Heart At Fire's Center at the moment - a fascinating book.

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Ordered Herrmann and Wagner/Korngold yesterday.

I would order these two in a heartbeat, but there is, literally, no money right now, so I hope they won't sell out too fast!

It's fantastic to find out what the new Hermann recording is - when I met McNeely in Houston in May he said that something was "on the way" and I was curious if it could be this score! :) The amount of care they put into these rerecordings is enormous, so I very much look forward to hearing it.

Unfortunately it appears it's no longer financially feasable to record with the RSNO.

http://web1.joelmcneely.com/blog/music/200...y_northwest.php

Yeah, it's a shame our dollar is so weak right now. That and also filesharing (!) he said were the main factors that hurt the money situation for the rerecordings.

(Oh BTW, check out his awesome blog post about JW's Hook there! :D

http://web1.joelmcneely.com/blog/music/200...erendipity.php)

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Wow that was fast, my Varese CD's arrived today.

While not 100% perfect the North By Northwest re-recording is just as good as the other McNeely/ Herrmann recordings.

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