From Amazon.co.uk
Following a highly acclaimed cycle of Benjamin Frankel's symphonies which saw Frankel hailed as one of the great post-war orchestral voices, CPO embarks on a series devoted to the composer's film work.
Battle of the Bulge (1965) was the last of 105 film, theatre and television productions to be graced with a Frankel score, and is his film-music masterpiece. Reflecting a film on the scale of
The Longest Day and
The Great Escape, there are more than 78 minutes of music, and, due to the low level at which the score was mixed in the finished film, much of it is really heard on this release for the first time. Ranging from huge battle sequences filled with thrilling motor rhythms to the terror of a massacre of prisoners, through a moment of peace that interpolates traditional Christmas carols, this is movie music on a vast canvas. The sound is bold and dynamic, while the Queensland Symphony Orchestra who have recorded many discs of Frankel's music under the baton of Werner Andreas Albert, respond with terse, electrifying performances. The full power of Frankel's vision is unleashed in the
Violin Concerto In Memory of the Six Million, Frankel's profoundly personal, rather than Hollywood-inspired, reaction to the horrors of WWII. --
Gary S Dalkin
