Alfred Newman Albums (7)
'How to Marry a Millionaire'
Release Date 3/13/2004
Tracks 27
Label Documents
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What The Critics Say
Officially, Alfred Newman was the lead composer as well as music director on How to Marry a Millionaire in collaboration with 20th Century-Fox staff composer Cyril Mockridge. As the research on this soundtrack release revealed, however, Mockridge wrote most of the music for this film, with Edward B. Powell, Alexander Courage, and several others (including a young Nelson Riddle) handling the orchestrations -- Newman's major contribution seems to have been the very ornate rendition of his "Street Scene," which opened the movie as a showcase for stereophonic sound. A significant portion of the score is actually built on relevant and appropriate pop melodies, among them Rodgers & Hart's "Blue Moon," the Lionel Newman/Ken Darby-authored "New York," and "I've Got a Feelin' You're Foolin'" by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown. Whatever the sources, it all works as background music to this frothy romantic comedy, flowing in smooth and sophisticated fashion off the screen. And in this CD incarnation, it does more of the same, and in most impressive fashion. The source tapes have held up remarkably well across over 50 years, and the quality is good enough, the music and playing sufficiently ornate, and the textures and timbres vivid enough to qualify as "bachelor's den"-type 1950s audiophile music, even if some passages are a little tame for that genre. The quality is superb and the production flawless, and the annotation is a match for the audio production as well. This CD is limited to 3,000 copies pressed, and should interest '50s cultists as well as movie and music buffs. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
'David and Bathsheba'
Release Date 1/1/2000
Tracks 22
Label Soundstage
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What The Critics Say
Alfred Newman's score for Henry King's David & Bathsheba (1951) is a somber one, in keeping with the seriousness of the movie's Old Testament drama. The material is highly melodic and well played but it also lacks the memorable nature of Newman's best work, being more of a matter of great orchestrations than great composition. Even a piece called "The Rapture of Love" is more introspective and reflective than rapturous, and this is a good example of a score that works best in association with the movie for which it was written. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
'The Diary of Anne Frank'
Release Date 1/1/1999
Tracks 13
Label Tsunami
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What The Critics Say
Alfred Newman's music for George Stevens' movie The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) has been issued on a good sounding and well-produced CD from Tsunami, containing eight minutes of music that was not previously available -- that material consists principally of the main title, intermission, and exit music, which does isolate some themes associated with specific characters and the Frank family. Given the subject matter, that this is a serious film score is no surprise -- as of 1958, when the movie went into production, some 14 years after the end of World War II, Hollywood had not done too many movies (forget major films) that even referred to the destruction of European Jewry by Nazi Germany, much less dealt with this event as their main subject, and everyone involved with the movie on a creative level, whatever their background, treated it as a rare and special opportunity to say something important through their work. That said, Newman's "Overture," which opens the album, has always seemed appropriately profound, but the rest is far more subtle, introspective, and lyrical, almost counter-intuitive to the moods, settings, and images that one associates with the Holocaust. That's because Newman based his score on the interior emotional life of its characters, rather than the exterior events around them. The result is one of the more beautiful bodies of movie music ever written for a Holocaust-related movie, and one of Newman's better psychologically oriented scores, surprisingly not far removed from his work on How Green Was My Valley. It also contains some of the most beautiful string writing of Newman's career. The CD production gives the decades-old recordings a full, rich sound, and the annotation is extremely thorough. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
'The Greatest Story Ever Told'
Release Date 8/25/1998
Tracks 34
Label Rykodisc
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What The Critics Say
Alfred Newman's score for this Hollywood religious epic is here realized in its complete form for the first time on CD. The first disc offers the original soundtrack album, and then the entire score is played out on the remaining two CDs. This approach, while perhaps too much for the casual listener, should please both fans of the original album and film music buffs alike. Thankfully, the music is lovely, illustrating the artistic heights that commercial film can reach. The reissue is beautifully remastered for remarkable sound clarity. ~ Tim Sheridan, All Music Guide
