Search - Elmer Bernstein :: Elmer Bernstein: The Magnificent Seven

A Magnificent Recording

Michael E. Fine | Lake Ariel, PA United States | 04/20/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have to be honest: I don't like all the recordings I've produced. This - James Sedares' performance of The Magnificent Seven - is superb. Even the composer, a conductor himself, called this recording definitive. The complete score stands as a compelling and memorable tone poem of the Western and despite the fact that all was recorded in a too brief four hours, the results are nothing short of spectacular. After finishing the sessions, my wife and I did the obvious thing and went horseback riding in the Arizona desert."

"The Magnificent Seven" Magnificently Recorded

Erik North | San Gabriel, CA USA | 04/16/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Elmer Bernstein has been one of Hollywood's greatest film score composers, with dozens of films to his credit. His best-known score was the one he composed for director John Sturges' classic 1960 western THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. Although its main theme has gotten most of the attention (primarily as the background music for the Marlboro Man commercials), the full score itself is making its first-ever appearance on CD here on this excellent recording made by the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra and its conductor James Sedares. All the wide open spaces Americana sounds and the rustic Mexican flavoring (owing to the fact that the film was filmed and set in Mexico) are totally in evidence here. Sedares and the orchestra masterfully maneuver through Bernstein's appropriately dramatic score.As an added bonus, there is the overture for chorus and orchestra that Bernstein wrote for Sturges' far lesser known 1965 comic western THE HALLELUJAH TRAIL, which starred Burt Lancaster and Lee Remick in a bawdy story of a whisky garrison and the temperance union's involvement in its transportation across Indian country. Again the orchestra brilliantly captures Bernstein's Americana sound, and is helped out by the Arizona State University Concert Choir.This recording comes highly recommended for film score fans in general, and western movie afficionados in particular."

Definitive Recording of this Noble Score

gobirds2 | New England | 03/05/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Of all the recordings I have listened to of the score to THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN I must say that this is my favorite. Maestro James Sedares' interpretation of Elmer Bernstein's original goes above and beyond my expectations. This recording touched me emotionally. Sedares through Bernstein's music seemed to have reached somewhere deep into my past making me relive the saga of the seven noble gunfighters who fulfill their destiny through a violent catharsis for redemption. The "Showdown and Finale" is full of energy, passion and optimism that the deeds of these noble seven will never be forgotten. This is an unforgettable recording."