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I prefer the McNeely. A bit of track editing would have been welcome, so that there aren't as many individual indexes on the disc. But the performances are detailed and exciting.
I hate the editing on Preamble's "Opera Montage". The "dying tape" at the end of the track sounds cheap and processed. But I had this version of Kane for several years and generally enjoyed it.
I agree the Gerhardt has the most energy behind the performance. Also the instrument clarity is fantastic.
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Gerhardt... I can't stomach either of the other recordings.
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Jonathan, what's so unstomachable about the two longer score recordings? I mean, it's not like we're talking Leroy Holmes, here. Seriously, please elaborate on your opinion so that we can learn something from it besides "John doesn't like them."
Incidentally, the original Norman Rockwell ad art for KANE and AMBERSONS on the Bremner albums is a definite plus for us Welles fans...
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Not that I want to pull a Thor here...but I did recall writing about this awhile back. Here it is:
http://fsm.rciwebhosting.net/board/posts.cfm?threadID=20941&forumID=1&archive=1
The Gehardt is the best peformance...it's just too damn short.
Here was my review from my now defunct weekly column back when the McNeely version was released. I was probably a bit more dramatic in this review than I would be if I wrote it today:
I promised you last week that I would give you an evaluation of the new
CITIZEN KANE on Varese to essentially answer the question: if I were to
purchase just one KANE recording, which one should it be? The answer,
hands down, is the Tony Bremner recording. It's a strange
recommendation, because I'm not a big fan of Bremner's conducting, and
his recording of KANE does have its drawbacks. But not as many as the
Varese release.
KANE is one of those scores that contains so much detail, you really
want to hear it all. It's a score more suited to the recording style of
London Phase 4 or the close-miking of JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS. With
the Varese recording, as you'd expect by now, the detail is lost in the
mushy, reverby concert-hall sound that has been part of their creative
signature. With the Bremner recording, you can hear the bassons,
clarinents, and oboes so crisply. They all contribute to such a
Herrmann trademark sound. They're sort of melted into the overall sound
on the Varese CD without any particular distinction.
Next comes the assembly. Or lack there of on the Varese recording. All
they did was record and present the cues, with no assembly. Not only
that, each cue is separated by a 3-second pause. Now, the assembly of
an album is part of the creative process. Each cue should naturally
come out of the one before. It should follow from the rhythm...there
needs to be some musical sense to the pause between cues. Sometimes no
pause is perfect. Sometimes 1 second or 2 seconds or something in
between. There was no thought put into creating a musical experience
out of the recorded cues. Not true of the Bremner recording that
creatively grouped together the shorter cues into larger suites which
gives the music a more coherent and artistic flow.
The most remarkable part of the Varese recording is the opening of the
Scherzo, which eliminates many of the trumpet notes...as if it was too
hard to perform. This dumbed-down version is just wrong, and can be
heard properly on the Bremner recording and on the Phase 4 recording.
What's strange is this same trumpet part is played correctly later in a
similar cue.
As for the Aria, the soprano is much more in your face on the Bremner
version, while as the piece progresses on the Varese she seems to get
somewhat lost in the orchestra. Finally, the extra music on the Varese
release (10 minutes worth) is pure padding.
Not to beat up too heavily on the Varese album, it has one thing hands
down better than the Bremner: the tempos seem very accurate. The tempos
on the Bremner recording are all over the map, some parts too slow, some
too fast.
Neither recording is really a definitive presentation, but if you had to
chose one, go with the Bremner. And the most attractive part is it's
available for only $5.99!
A strange omission from both albums is the end title or exit music.
Perhaps there's a story here I'm missing. This is a piece that was on
the original 2-lp set of the original soundtrack and was also recorded
by Elmer Bernstein for Milan a few years back (that album with the suite
from BRIDE WORE BLACK). Since the style is so dramatically different
from the rest of the music, I can't imagine it's really part of the KANE
score, but where did it come from? And to be honest, it would have
weakened the ending of the album.
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I'm fond enough of my LeRoy Holmes CITIZEN KANE LP, to have had it converted to CD.
(Hasty exit now before I'm lynched!)
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If memory serves, the end title montage of KANE is scored by Conrad Salinger, using of course the Kane campaign song which was by -- who? Harry Warren?
Say what you will about the Leroy Holmes, at least he made the effort to include the "News on the March" pastiche which really is a part of KANE that helps set the tone of the film.
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I've always felt that the end title version of "There is a Man" should have been included on the recordings. It is integrated into the score, after all.
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I've got both versions and I actually prefer the Bremner.
Cheers
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I'll say this, every post has convinced me to grab them for a to and from work listen and compare. I haven't listened to the Bremmer version since about 1994; the Varese since maybe 2001.
They sounded like CITIZEN KANE when I listened to them both, though.
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