Mysterious Island poster
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A New Tribute Film Classics Record Label Announced
By: Randall LarsonDate: Friday, January 26, 2007
John Morgan, known for his many reconstructions of classic Golden Age film scores, including King Kong, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Curse of the Werewolf and many others for the Marco Polo/Naxos label, has joined with conductor William Stromberg and his wife, musician/businessperson Anna Bonn to form a new record label called Tribute Film Classics. This new label will continue recording great film music from the Golden Age through the Silver Age, and beyond.
“For those who are familiar with our Marco Polo (Naxos) rerecordings, we hope to continue recording deserved scores that have been either ignored or survive in less than pristine condition,” Morgan said. “We plan on continuing our mantra of complete renditions – including music that may have been omitted or edited in the final film. We will record both music from famous films and composers, as well as the more esoteric repertoire.
“Although we still plan on continuing with Naxos, we feel there are so many wonderful scores that need and deserve restoration and recording, that by creating our own label would help get more recordings to the public. For those who have followed our recordings, we started with Marco Polo back in 1994. The first several years, we averaged 4 albums per year, but in recent times, we have been averaging only one CD per year.” So far, Morgan and Stromberg have recorded something 35 CDs of classic film music, but there are still hundreds of scores worthy of recording, Morgan noted, and they felt the time is right to launch the new label while we all are still alive and possess most of our faculties.”
“We plan on doing our first two albums early in 2007, and we hope they can be ready by summer. We will be working with Screen Archives, who will produce the actual CDs.”
The new label will start out with a (musical) bang. “Our first recording will be Bernard Herrmann's complete score for Mysterious Island, including music and portions of cues that didn't make the final cut of the film” (or previous recordings of the score). The label will also record Herrmann’s complete score to Fahrenheit 451, previously available only via excerpts, along with Morgan’s arrangement of Walking Distance for large string orchestra. “We felt that this latter piece would be ideal for a string orchestra in the manner of Barber's Adagio adaptation for string orchestra.”
Morgan and Stromberg also announced their latest recording plans for the Naxos label: “In the can is the complete recording of Korngold's The Sea Hawk and Deception (including the film version of the Cello Concerto),” Morgan said. “This will be our first double disc. It should be released later next year, maybe March. Also on tap for Naxos, to be recorded early next year, will be Max Steiner's complete score for the 1935 production of She, which is one of the most adventurous scores of the thirties. On that trip, we will also be recording an Americana Bernard Herrmann CD that will include the complete The Kentuckian and the complete Williamsburg-The Story Of A Patriot.
A web site for the new label has not yet been announced.
