Intrada Soundtrack Forum

INTRADA Announces:



THE HEROES OF TELEMARK
Composed and Conducted by MALCOLM ARNOLD

STAGECOACH
Composed by JERRY GOLDSMITH
Conducted by ALEXANDER COURAGE

INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 333


Intrada's latest release from the Mainstream catalog features two entire albums that were originally released on vinyl in the mid-60s. Stagecoach makes its first appearance on CD from the first-generation multi-channel album masters and The Heroes of Telemark makes its world premiere release on CD.

Arnold’s main theme for The Heroes of Telemark is characteristically broad and exuberant. Part fanfare and part processional, the theme presses forward with a majestic sweep. It is the score’s keystone, appearing in settings both grandiose and subdued, shifting from major to minor when appropriate, and surfacing in various guises within the pulse-pounding action and suspense sequences. The score was recorded at Cine-Tele Sound Studios in London under Malcolm Arnold’s baton and featured a pinched audio quality. The stereo imaging is minimal and the recording was originally locked down with an abundance of reverb, giving the overall album a very “wet” sound with limited clarity. Intrada located both the original stereo and mono album masters and determined the same audio limitations existed on the mono masters, though without the benefit of any stereo separation at all, so Intrada elected to use the stereo master.

The Heroes are nine Norwegian saboteurs -- Resistance Fighters who stopped the Nazis from gaining a vital ingredient for making the atomic bomb. Their lonely acts of courage succeeded where gliders full of crack British Commandos failed and a massive bombing raid by more than a hundred American Flying Fortresses could not knock out a fortress-like factory hidden ina distant Norwegian valley.

Moving from WW II Europe to the old west, Stagecoach was a remake of the famous John Wayne western and also featured an all-star cast, : Ann-Margret, Red Buttons, Michael Connors, Alex Cord, Bing Crosby, Bob Cummings, Van Heflin, Slim Pickens, Stefanie Powers and Keenan Wynn. Jerry Goldsmith was along for the ride as well, providing a score with more subtlety and depth than the usual genre fare. Goldsmith avoids spending much time on action scenes, which are largely unscored and does not squander his time on a plethora of themes or motifs for the overflowing cast. Instead he delivers a spare and spirited score of unexpected beauty. The featured musical colors are harmonica, mouth harp, guitar and accordion, evoking the intimacy of a lonely campfire while pulling against the scale of the screen and the bumpy ride in store for its occupants.

For the album re-recording session, Jerry Goldsmith newly recorded virtually every sequence from his brief film score save the closing bars of the final song, “Stagecoach To Cheyenne” by Lee Pockriss and Paul Vance, sung in the picture by Wayne Newton but on the album by The Bill Brown Singers. All previous CD releases were drawn either from vinyl or from 2-track mixes that omitted much of the orchestral detail in the score. Even the original LP was prepared from watered-down mixes. With this CD release of the score, every orchestral detail is at last available, newly mixed from the 1˝ masters made at the recording sessions in January 1966.


INTRADA Special Collection Vol. 333
Retail Price: $19.99
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For track listing and sound samples, please visit:
http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.9838/.f

Very nice, an Arnold I'm not at all familiar with, and a new 'Coach!

I swear I was just groaning I had to keep that Mainstream "thing" on my shelf for
that title, after you guys knocked it out of the part with it's sister score, The Trouble
With Angels. Now, some sucker in my local used record store will get this one, muahahaha!

-Sean

I mentioned my disappointment in the sound of the Stagecoach album recording a couple of years back on this forum, but little did I know that it could sound considerably fuller and much more detailed (no exaggeration) as it does on these samples. It's still sort of weird to see all of these Mainstream albums getting definitive CDs.

Ordered, as they lovingly say.

Edit: The first post says that the album recording was conducted by Goldsmith; I recall the notes stating that it was conducted by Alexander Courage.

Thanks Intrada for releasing The Heroes of Telemark. I didn't think this would make ever make it to CD. Another of my favourites is Cockleshell Heroes. Does this John Addison score still exist? Anyway, great work Intrada, as always.

A nice little anniversary package from Intrada.
60's War & Western, what's not to like.
Thank you Doug & Co for this little gem & wish you all the very best on your 30th year celebrations.

This Stagecoach recording is now easily my go-to for listening to one of my favorite Goldsmith western scores. Its highly detailed, focused qualities very much eclipses the film recording's muffled sound that has become expected of Fox elements preserved from this period in time.

As for The Heroes of Telemark, with all due respect to the recording engineers, it's a wonder as to what the heck happened here. I can still appreciate the musicianship, but its shrill high-end and odd sound field makes it a bit of a rough listen.