Red River

Back in 1948, Howard Hawks' movie Red River set a new standard for epic Westerns as well as a new mark for excellent acting by John Wayne. One of the most striking elements of the production was Dimitri Tiomkin's music -- on his first real Western vehicle (the earlier Duel in the Sun notwithstanding, as it was more about sex than about the West), Tiomkin rose to the occasion with a dense, complex score for orchestra and chorus that was as catchy and memorable as any score ever written for a Hollywood movie up to that time. There was no soundtrack release, however, mostly because the LP had scarcely debuted at the time and soundtracks were just coming into existence as a release genre, and because United Artists wouldn't have a record label for another decade. William Stromberg and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir later made up for that accident of history by offering a state-of-the-art, digital recording of the complete score. They've more than done it justice, performing the music in a manner that is both bold and subtle, capturing the little nuances of the internal details in the score, in tempos that are accurate as well -- they even get the choruses over the title tune (which Tiomkin reused in Rio Bravo, for a song by Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson, a decade later) and the cattle drive music. The 63 minutes of music is worth hearing in all of its Copland-esque glory, many times over, and is supported with beautifully detailed annotation about the movie (which had a highly convoluted production history, only partly delved into here) as well as the score. The result is one of the finest re-recordings of a classic soundtrack that it is possible to buy. ~ Bruce Eder|