Looking for the perfect holiday gift or stocking stuffer for that special person who loves film music?
Check out the brand-new recording of Dimitri Tiomkin‘s 1958 Oscar-winning score to The Old Man and the Sea presented by Intrada Records and Volta Music. The album features the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Richard Kaufman, who draws on his vast experience conducting the music of Tiomkin in concert to bring this complex and compelling score to life anew nearly 70 years after the original recording.
Spencer Tracy
The Old Man and the Sea is a film adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s novella, directed by John Sturges and starring Spencer Tracy as the aging Cuban fisherman Santiago.
What composer wouldn’t love to write for a film about a fish that doesn’t talk with long sequences on the water all based on a now-classic novella? Tiomkin rose to the occasion to create an epic large-scale symphonic work that reflects the film’s themes of perseverance, human dignity, and the struggle between man and nature. Inspired by the Hemingway story, Tiomkin crafts a score that supports the drama, in his words, “in the style of a symphonic poem for concert.”
In the nearly 80 minutes of underscore, Tiomkin’s music encompasses a wide range of moods, including passages that reflect the lush seascapes and breathtaking sunsets of James Wong Howe’s cinematography with Impressionistic tone color and rhythm; bold dramatic cues for Santiago’s struggle with the marlin; periodic references to Latin-American rhythms for the film’s Cuban setting and quiet moments of repose to depict the tender relationship between Santiago and Manolin.
Spencer Tracy with Felipe Pazos as Manolin
The CD includes nearly 130 minutes of music—the complete score plus additional arrangements—with cover art by Stéphane Coedel and liner notes by Frank K. DeWald, Warren M. Sherk, and Patrick Russ. The music score was prepared from the original manuscripts in the Dimitri Tiomkin Collection in the Cinematic Arts Library at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and the Warner Bros. Archives, also located on the USC campus.
Dimitri Tiomkin with Academy Award statuette (Oscar), 1959
Spencer Tracy’s performance was widely praised, earning him an Academy nomination.
With the film, Tiomkin would earn his fourth Academy Award statuette.
Conductor Richard Kaufman in concert performances of Tiomkin’s music has been known to gather the four golden statuettes together back stage to then display prominently on stage to the delight and wonderment of audiences who rarely have an opportunity to see that many Oscars together outside of the Academy Museum.
INTRADA INT 7182
Retail Price: $31.99
Bar Code: 7 20258 71820 4
