Search - Arthur Honegger, Adriano, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra (Bratislava) :: Honegger: Les Misérables

A Great Film Score by a Modern Master

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 03/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Arthur Honegger's music for the 1934 film 'Les Misérables' was previously released, in this same performance, on the Marco Polo label, and it is still available here at Amazon. Furthermore, one can hear snippets of the score at the Marco Polo listing even though they are not yet available (as of this review) here for this Naxos listing. Adriano, the one-named Swiss conductor, has been a leader in recording film scores and he leads the Slovak Radio Symphony in a very nice performance.



Honegger, of course, was a 'legit' composer but he also made any number of film scores for French cinema in the 1920s and 1930s, including the original score for Abel Gance's 'Napoléon,' the silent movie restored some years ago. It was a shame, I thought, that when it was shown all round the US the original score had been replaced by one composed by Francis Ford Coppola's father, Carmine Coppola. I wonder if the Honegger score still exists. But I digress. This recording consists of 17 of the 24 original cues for the movie. We are informed that the cues missing are unimportant bridge passages or 'source music' (music not by Honegger himself). Whatever the case, we are given an hour of fine symphonic music that stands on its own; for me that is a real criterion for issuing film scores on CD. There is little repetition in this score, and what repetition there is is actually use of leitmotivs. There is no mickeymousing but rather the cues are psychologically apt rather than imitative of the action on the screen. Among the really wonderful cues are 'Générique' ('Main Title'), 'Jean Valjean sur la route' ('Jean Valjean on the road'), 'La foire à Montfermeil' ('The Fair at Montfermeil'), 'L'Émeute' ('The Riot'), 'Fuite de Jean Valjean' ('Jean Valjean's Flight'), 'Dans les égouts' ('In the Sewers'), the love theme of 'Cosette et Marius' ('Cosette and Marius') and finally, 'Mort de Jean Valjean' ('The Death of Jean Valjean').



The sound is modern, the performance is all one could ask, and the music itself repays relistening; in fact, it's been in my car CD player for several days and I've continued to be intrigued by it with each hearing.



Scott Morrison"