Various Artists: Ken Russell The Music Lover - Music And Images - The Art Of Britain's Greatest Filmmaker, 3CD

• Anthology of music from the films of director Ken Russell; the enfant terrible of British cinema. 

• Drawn from his groundbreaking films of the 60s and 70s including the enormously popular Elgar - Portrait Of A Composer. 

• Russell's work is uncompromising and controversial. He directed Tommy for The Who in characteristic bravura style, while the much-banned Devils upset the establishment - 50 years on, the director's cut is still considered too blasphemous for public consumption. 

 

Inspired by Orson Welles, admired by Michael Powell, Ken Russell set British cinema aflame in the 1960s and 70s with his superbly crafted, often highly controversial dramatised documentaries on the lives of classical music composers. 

 

Gravitating to film via the excellent British Monitor and Omnibus art television programmes, his subjects included Elgar, Debussy and Delius, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Liszt. Russell pulled no punches in putting their indulgences and personal demons up on the screen beside their genius. Until then, the immortals had been sacrosanct. Ken's filmmaking was uncompromising, passionate and instinctive, revealing a gift for pairing music with images; resulting in such indelible scenes as the nude male wrestlers in Women In Love. Ken Russell's audacity was much admired. For some, he was regarded as nothing less than the saviour of British cinema, while others saw him as an outlandish "reckless eclectic", out to 
shock. His incendiary tour-de-force, The Devils, sharply divided audiences but is regarded by his disciples to be one of the top ten films of all time. 

 

This edition comprises music from Elgar - Portrait of A Composer (voted by readers of The Sunday Times as the 'Most Memorable Television Programme Ever Made'), The Debussy Film, Delius: Song of Summer, The Music Lovers (Tchaikovsky) and Mahler, alongside Dante's Inferno (Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood), Savage Messiah (Scott Antony's effervescent debut as the sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska) and Russell's breakthrough film, D.H. Lawrence's Women In Love (for which Glenda Jackson won an Oscar for Best Actress).

TRACKLISTING

 

ELGAR - Portrait Of A Composer (1962) 
1. Sinfonia of London with the Allegri String Quartet / Conductor: John Barbirolli - Introduction and Allegro (excerpt) 
2. Sinfonia of London / Conductor: John Barbirolli - Serenade For Strings: Larghetto 
3. W. H. Reed: violin / New Symphony Orchestra / Conductor: Edward Elgar - Salut D'Amour 
4. The London Philharmonic Orchestra / Conductor: Adrian Boult - Symphony 2: Larghetto (excerpt) 
5. Richard Lewis: tenor / Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / Conductor: Malcolm Sargent - Dream Of Gerontius: Sanctus Fortis 
6. Philharmonia Orchestra / Conductor: John Barbirolli - Enigma Variations: Nimrod 
7. Paul Tortelier: cello / BBC Symphony Orchestra / Conductor: Malcolm Sargent - Cello Concerto: Lento - Allegro Molto 
THE DEBUSSY FILM - Impressions Of The French Composer (1965) 
8. Philharmonia Orchestra / Conductor: Guido Cantelli - Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un faune 
9. Philharmonia Orchestra / Conductor: Guido Cantelli - Nocturnes: Fetes 
10. Philharmonia Orchestra / Conductor: Guido Cantelli - Le Martyre de saint Sébastien : La Cour Des Lys 
11. Walter Gieseking: piano - Jardins Sous Le Pluie (Gardens In the Rain) 
12. Paris Conservatoire Orchestra / Conductor: Constantin Silvestri - La Mer: De L'aube à Midi Sur La Mer (From Dawn to Noon on the Sea) 
13. Suzanne Cotelle: harp / Orchestre Lamoureux / Conductor: Igor Markevitch - Danse Profane 
14. Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion française / Conductor: André Cluytens - La Boîte à Joujoux (The Toybox): Le Magasin De Jouets (excerpt) 
15. Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra / Conductor: Eduard van Beinum - Berceuse Héroïque 
16. Severino Gazzelloni: flute - Syrinx for flute sol

 

DANTE'S INFERNO - The Private Life Of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Poet and Painter (1967) 
1. USSR State Symphony Orchestra / Conductor: Gennady Rozhdestvensky - Sergei Prokofiev: Symphony No. 3: Allegro Agitato 
2. Hallé Orchestra / Conductor: John Barbirolli - John Ireland: The Forgotten Rite 
3. Philharmonia Orchestra / Conductor: William Walton - William Walton: Henry V Suite: Touch Her Soft Lips And Part

DELIUS - Song of Summer (1968) 
4. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Conductor: Thomas Beecham - On Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring 
5. Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Conductor: Thomas Beecham - Song of the High Hills - with easy movement - tranquillo 
6. Luton Choral Society and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Conductor: Thomas Beecham - Song Of The High Hills - The Wide, Far Distance 
7. Hallé Orchestra / Conductor: John Barbirolli - Walk To The Paradise Garden 
8. Hallé Orchestra / Conductor: John Barbirolli - A Song of Summer 
SAVAGE MESSIAH (1972) 
9. Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI di Roma / Conductor: Artur Rodzinski - Alexander Scriabin: Symphony No. 3: 'The Divine Poem': Voluptés (excerpt) 
10. Orchestre De L'Opéra National de Paris / Conductor: Manuel Rosenthal - Claude Debussy: Nocturnes: Nuages 
11 Orchestre de l'Opéra National de Paris - Choeurs de Radio France / Manuel Rosenthal - Claude Debussy: Nocturnes: Sirenes 

 

WOMEN IN LOVE (1969) 
1. Albert Campbell And Henry Burr - I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles (1919)
2. The National Radio Orchestra Romania / Conductor: Constantin Silvestri - Theodor Rogalski: Three Romanian Dances: Gaida
3. Philharmonia Orchestra / Conductor: Carlo Maria Giulini - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony 6: Allegro Molto Vivace
THE MUSIC LOVERS (1971) 
4. Philharmonia Orchestra / Conductor: Carlo Maria Giulini - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Romeo & Juliet: Fantasy Overture (excerpt)

5. Sviatoslav Richter: piano / Czech Philharmonic Orchestra / Conductor: Karel Ancerl - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1: Andantino Semplice
MAHLER (1974) 
6. Vienna Symphony Orchestra / Conductor: Charle Adler - Symphony No. 10: Adagio (excerpt)
7. New York Philharmonic / Conductor: Leonard Bernstein - Symphony No. 3: Kräftig Entschieden ("Pan Awakes, Summer Marches In")
8. New York Philharmonic / Conductor: Leonard Bernstein - Symphony No. 3: Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck ("What The Angels Tell Me")
9.  Philharmonie Orchestra / Conductor: Paul Kletzki - Symphony No. 4: Bedächtig, nicht eilen (excerpt)
10. London Philharmonic Orchestra / Conductor: Adrian Boult - Symphony No. 1: Kräftig Bewegt, Doch Nicht Zu Schnell (excerpt)
11. London Philharmonic Orchestra / Conductor: Adrian Boult - Symphony No. 1: Feierlich Und Gemessen, Ohne Zu Schleppen (excerpt)
12. London Symphony Orchestra / Conductor: Rudolf Schwarz - Symphony No. 5: Scherzo (excerpt)
13. London Symphony Orchestra / Conductor: Rudolf Schwarz - Symphony No. 5: Adagietto
14. Southwest German Radio SO / Conductor: Hans Rosbaud - Symphony No. 6: Allegro Energico 
15 Southwest German Radio SO / Conductor: Hans Rosbaud - Symphony No. 6: Andante Moderato (excerpt)
16. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau: tenor / Berlin Philharmonic / Conductor: Rudolf Kempe - Kindertotenlieder: Wenn Dein Mutterlein Tritt Zur Tur Herein
17. Columbia Symphony Orchestra / Conductor: Bruno Walter - Symphony No. 9: Andante Comodo (excerpt)
18 Philharmonia Orchestra / Conductor: Otto Klemperer - Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection": Mit Aufschwung, Aber Nicht Eilen