Benjamin Frankel - Battle of the Bulge (Werner Andreas Albert)

Information

Composer: Benjamin Frankel

1. Prelude
2. Aerial Pursuit (Kiley's plane chases Hessler's car)
3. Back to base - Hessler's arrival
4. The Plan of attack - tank inspection
5. Christmas in Ambleve - the Americans debate
6. 'Panzerlied'
7. Interlude with a Courtesan 1st Class
8. The German tanks emerge and break through
9. First tank battle
10. Massacre at Malmedy (The Massacre of the American Prisoners)
11. The Armaments Train
12. The Siege of Ambleve
13. Night Assault on Ambleve
14. Soldiers in Hiding - the Americans prepare
15. Hessler in high spirits; flight through the fog
16. Final tank battle
17. Attack on the fuel depot fails and Hessler is killed
18. The Panzermen abandon their tanks: Victory and Postlude

Queensland Symphony Orchestra

Werner Andreas Albert, conductor

Date: 2000

Label: cpo

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/Benjamin-Frankel-1906-1973-Filmmusik-The-Battle-Of-The-Bulge-Gesamtaufnahme/hnum/1004979

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Review

One of the many highly successful war films from the 1960s was Battle of the Bulge (1965), an expensive, star-packed reconstruction of the Second World War’s largest land campaign. Presented on the huge Cinerama screen and embellished with a stunning six-track stereophonic soundtrack, it enabled Frankel to round off his significant, and significantly underrated, film career in spectacular style.

He obviously relished working on such a broad canvas, and his muscular, brilliantly orchestrated score, featuring some notable writing for brass and high strings, vividly conveys the sound and fury of the battlefield. Liberated from the contribution of a busy sound effects department, these lengthy and consistently dynamic action sequences can now be fully appreciated, and anyone put off by the terse, often uncompromising atonality of the composer’s symphonies should find this vibrant music far more accessible. While certainly not the archetypal generic score that Ron Goodwin or Elmer Bernstein would have provided (patrons at the time were unlikely to have left the cinema whistling this film’s theme tune), Frankel does employ a number of recognisable motifs (including ironic references to the original ‘Panzerlied’ of 1936) and develops them with characteristic vigour and imagination. The striking ‘Main Title’ is a prime example, with four major ideas introduced in three compelling minutes of orchestral virtuosity.

Throughout this excellently documented CD (which presents the score in its entirety and is double the length of the rare, long-deleted soundtrack album), Albert and the Queensland orchestra tackle the complexities of Frankel’s scoring with tremendous verve and conviction, and are supported by a solid, crisply detailed recording. Highly recommended.

-- Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10 / SOUND QUALITY: 10

https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/orchestral/frankel-1/

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/sept00/frankel.htm

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2000/nov00/frankel.htm

http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/c/cpo99696a.php

https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Bulge-Score-FRANKEL/dp/B00004U932

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Benjamin Frankel (31 January 1906 – 12 February 1973) was a British composer. His best known pieces include a cycle of 5 string quartets, 8 symphonies, and concertos for violin and viola. He was also notable for writing over 100 film scores and working as a big band arranger in the 1930s. During the last 15 years of his life, Frankel also developed his own style of 12-note composition which retained contact with tonality. In the years following his death, Frankel's works were almost completely neglected, until Thea King's landmark recording of the Clarinet Quintet was published, follow by his complete oeuvre on CPO.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Frankel

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Werner Andreas Albert (10 January 1935 – 10 November 2019) was a German and Australian conductor. His conducting teacher included Herbert von Karajan and Hans Rosbaud. Albert regularly conducted in Australia and was principal conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (1983–90). He made over 600 recordings for the Cologne, Bavarian and Northwest German Radio Networks. After recording all of the vast standard repertoire, he began to champion new composers and to research works that had never been recorded. In the process he earned the distinction of the most recorded artist in Germany.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Andreas_Albert

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