On some of the quieter string pieces, the original seems to have a bit more air around the music than the new edition. For example, I prefer how the reissue handles the vocal / choral pieces over the original pressing. I’m not going to say if its better or worse. Going back to my earlier comment about the reissue being “almost” as nice, I have to acknowledge that it does have a slightly different feel. The three LPs that came in my set are generally well centered and mostly dead quiet. The new vinyl is thick and dark, 180-grams and all that. It is also entirely possible that my old pressing could have been played during one too many a randy wine tasting party! Nonetheless, the vinyl on my old copy looks and plays quite well, offering a warm, clean tonality. Or perhaps this is a situation unique to my admittedly used LP pressing. This could have been for any number of reasons, not the least being that the label was caught off guard with a run away smash hit and had to push the pressing plants to churn out product to meet the demand back in the day. So the vinyl is pretty thin on the original the pressing, featuring a generally very natural sounding recording, seems to have some little non-fill type “pfffft” type sounds happening periodically. Setting the way back machine to the mid 1980s, Fantasy Records was not really renowned for its album pressing quality by the time of Amadeus (at least among record collectors like me). There are some trade offs and your own ear will have to decide which it prefers. To do this review some justice, I went out and picked up a used copy of the original two-LP soundtrack (which itself sounded quite nice) and this version sounds almost as nice. While you don’t get any Ginsu Knives with this set, you do get is a very respectable reissue that pays homage to a fan favorite in a grand manner.Īnd it sounds respectable… I was pleased to find that the fellow who did the mastering on the original hit album, George Horn, was also at the helm of this reissue’s remastering. You also get a suitable-for-framing 24-inch by 36-inch theatrical poster! The three 180-gram LPs are each housed in individual sleeves specially designed for the package.Īll K-Tel TV music marketing jokes aside, the set is genuinely deluxe in the old school tradition of classical box sets, including a 16-page booklet with rare and previously unpublished photos from the film as well as new liner notes by Conductor Sir Neville Marriner as well as commentary by music historian Grover Sales. Previously only available in two separate volumes, fans of the movie will be thrilled to know that this set marks the first time the entire Grammy Award-winning score is available in one package, pressed on spiffy long playing black vinyl records. So here we are roughly 30 years later and Concord Music Group has issued, as part of its new Original Soundtrack Classics series, a new super duper, uber-deluxe edition of the Amadeus original soundtrack recordings. pop charts with his craftily timed release “Rock Me Amadeus.” Heck, German pop sensation Falco had a number one single on the U.S. The post-Woodstock generation perhaps breathed a sigh of cultural relief in a movie which - main storyline aside - depicted a legendary classical and opera composer living a life not all that far removed from their recent wild pasts.Īnd surprise surprise, like Tommy and Jesus Christ Superstar before him, Amadeus rose to attain pop star status all over again. Many were getting more serious about their adult jobs, raising kids, responsibility and such. My semi-outsider viewpoint - in that I wasn’t one of the initial fans of the film, having heard (and liked) Mozart’s music before - is that a somewhat culture-starved baby-booming generation or two had just reached the breaking point with Punk/New Wave drawing a big generational line in the sand. According to the wiki: “ The original soundtrack to Amadeus reached #56 on Billboard’s album charts, making it one of the most popular recordings of classical music ever. Twitter Facebook Email Print LinkedIn Pinterest SMS WhatsAppĪs if 1984 wasn’t a strange enough time period, something curious happened in the music world that was kind of unprecedented: a classically-oriented recording featuring music by a composer from the 1700s entered the Billboard album charts! The movie Amadeus won eight Oscars that year including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Costume Design, Adapted Screenplay and more.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |