CD Reviews: Home Alone 2 and Ivanhoe

Home Alone 2 - Lost in New York: The Deluxe Edition ****

JOHN WILLIAMS

Varèse Sarabande VCL 1102 1014

Disc One: 17 tracks - 46:48 Disc Two: 16 tracks - 53:17

This album will be of little interest to those who are not Williams completists or big fans of the Home Alone scores, but if you enjoy the festive sound of Williams' Home Alone music, do yourself a favor and pick this one up.

The biggest draws are nearly 40 minutes of previously unreleased material, and much improved sound quality. The original album's excess hiss always bothered me, especially since the score for the first film was recorded digitally. As such, I was not surprised to learn that it didn't use first generation masters. This album corrects that problem, and the result is stunning. Even on the familiar tracks you'll hear subtle John Williams nuances you hadn't noticed before -- a tuba solo here, a woodwind and chime combo there.

Producers Nick Redman and Michael Matessino should be thanked not only for leaving the original track titles intact (why couldn't they have done that for Star Wars?) but for including alternates and bonus tracks (like the source musical score for the fictitious gangster movie that serves as a retread of a gag from the first film, and would sound at home in any Rózsa or Steiner noir score) that other producers might have left out, and for rearranging the score chronologically, which brings a new touch to familiar tracks like "To the Plaza Presto," a wonderful scherzo incorporating Tchaikovsky's "Marzipan" from The Nutcracker, which now has a brand new opening.

"Arrival in New York," "Plaza Hotel" and "Duncan's Toy Store" each nearly doubles in running length, and Williams' newly restored Christmas fanfares are a joy to hear. The previously unreleased "Turtle Doves" is a real highlight, with its wonderful harp and celesta music box sound.

Disc two opens with "Christmas Star -- Preparing the Trap," a long-time favorite of mine. The segue from the carol to the percussion rhythm that kicks off "Preparing the Trap" contains some of the best canonic writing of Williams' career. Disc two also features the comedy pratfalls of Kevin's booby traps in a couple of lengthy tracks, and although Matessino rightfully praises the technical achievement of this very precise music, it is still the weakest part of the score and less interesting to listen to than the Christmas music, which Williams clearly had more fun writing. No one could ever write this type of Mickey-mousing comedy scoring like Carl Stalling or Milt Franklin. The album finishes up with the several emotional cues of the finale, and then the formal Christmas carols that Williams co-wrote with Leslie Bricusse and recorded specifically for album presentation. Of these, "Somewhere in My Memory" is a little weaker compared to the children's choir version from the first film, but the dramatic power of "Star of Bethlehem" is unsurpassed by any other recording.

This album will likely remain in most John Williams fans' CD turntables for much of the holiday season. As always, let's hope it paves the way for more two-disc Williams' restorations, hopefully all to be produced by Redman and Matessino.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Ivanhoe (1952) ****

MIKLÓS RÓZSA

Rhino Handmade RHM2 7772

27 tracks - 59:04

Ivanhoe is a rich score from early in Miklós Rózsa's historical epic period at M-G-M, following closely on the heels of Quo Vadis. Rózsa fans will not want to miss out on this individually numbered limited edition.

Rózsa provides this epic film, based on Sir Walter Scott's novel, with multiple themes and sub-motifs that his fans have come to expect from his writing. In addition to the main Ivanhoe theme, there is a theme for each of the female leads, including the love theme for Ivanhoe and Rowena, a theme for the Saxons, a theme for the Normans, and naturally a theme for the villain.

Rózsa's characteristic brooding strings are present throughout, often passing the main theme from violins to celli and back again. There are also heaps of Rózsa's trademark counterpoint writing, as in "The Rivals," where Rebecca's melancholy theme is played contrapuntally against Ivanhoe's. Other highlights include "Torquilstone's Castle," with its military overtones, and the two exciting and lengthy battle tracks for the film's climax.

The material is based on and inspired by actual music of the period, thoroughly researched by Dr. Rózsa, including a ballad actually attributed to King Richard the Lionheart himself. Sound quality is fine -- the music is crisp and clear, though not quite sonically as strong as other recent Rózsa releases like Lust for Life and King of Kings. Although there are nine more tracks than Bruce Broughton's Intrada rerecording, this release is shorter by about three minutes, and it includes as a bonus tracks a two minute long alternate main title! It seems to have other tracks that the Intrada rerecording doesn't, so Broughton must have taken his orchestra much slower in general (sadly common in rerecordings). And given the digital sound of Broughton's strong work, this release of the original tracks does not render it obsolete, as so often happens. And incidentally, the track listing on the back of the tray card is wrong. There are 27 tracks, not 26, so see the inside of the booklet for the correct track labeling.

Act quickly, because my copy was numbered at 2478/2500! Okay, they probably are not selling them numerically and surely have more than 22 left, but don't delay.
 

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