 Ce disque rassemble quelques-uns des compositeurs, venus à l’ouest à partir des différents états américains aussi bien que de l’Europe où monte alors le fascisme, qui marquent l’histoire des bandes son du cinéma hollywoodien à son apogée, des années 1920 aux années 1960, l’ère des grands studios, des productions en nombre (parfois ambitieuses ou grandioses), des innovations techniques et de la naissance du star system. Ce ne sont toutefois pas leurs musiques de films qu’on entend ici, mais des œuvres destinées à la salle de concert, à l’époque même où ces grands noms, souvent lauréats aux Oscars, écrivent pour Hollywood : un défi pour ces musiciens snobés par le monde de la musique sérieuse, qui conçoit difficilement qu’on mange en même temps au râtelier du divertissement de masse. Trois des enregistrements présentés sont des créations mondiales – Pastoral (Twilight) de Bernard Herrmann (1911-1975), collaborateur régulier d’Alfred Hitchcock ; la charmante Sonatine de Heinz Roemheld (1901-1985) et le Récitatif et Air pour violon et piano de Jerome Moross (1913- 1983), illustrateur sonore de plusieurs westerns, nombreux sont ceux qu’on entend rarement. (Bernard Vincken) A remarkable album of concert works by legendary composers of Hollywood’s Golden Age will be released on the Quartz label on 5 April, 2024. The recording features music for violin and piano by Erich Korngold, Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, Miklo´s Ro´zsa, Robert Russell Bennett, Jerome Moross and Heinz Roemheld. Much of the music is rarely heard and the album features three world premiere recordings. Australian-born violinist Patrick Savage researched and compiled the program during COVID lockdowns and performs the works alongside pianist Martin Cousin. Formerly Principal First Violin for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and first violin in the Tippett Quartet, Patrick is now a free-lance concertmaster, soloist, studio session player and West End musician. He is also a composer for feature film, theatre and video games, and his film scores include the cult horror THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE and the forthcoming puppet horror, ABRUPTIO. Each of the composers represented on this album were Academy Award-winners or nominees and made an extraordinary contribution to the art of film scoring during Hollywood’s Golden Age – the heady years of frenetic film production from the 1920s to the 1960s. Between them they composed scores for some of the most famous cinema of the era. the golden age of hollywood: concert works for violin and piano Extraordinary music-makers were drawn to Los Angeles from across the United States and around the world, including those forced to flee the rise of Nazism in Europe. But even the most gifted of composers that made their name in cinema often faced an uphill battle for acceptance in the classical world. Professional jealousy may have been a factor, as well as snobbery: how could a composer for popular entertainment be taken seriously as an artist? This prejudice led to music of great value remaining in obscurity, but despite a resurgence of interest in film composers of those years, the works by Herrmann, Roemheld and Moross are recorded here for the first time. “For each of the exceptional composers represented on this recording, a gift for film scoring was just one aspect of their creative powers. Though these artists were united by a dedication to lyricism and a rejection of atonality, their backgrounds and influences were markedly diverse. We have aspired to present a program that represents the extraordinary richness, colour and imagination of their musical offerings for the concert hall, and it is a great honour to be granted the opportunity to record several of these works for the very first time”. (Patrick Savage)
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