Korngold: The Adventures of Robin Hood.(Sound Recording Review)

Korngold: The Adventures of Robin Hood. William Stromberg, Moscow Symphony Orchestra. Marco Polo 8.225268.

There is little doubt that Warner Brothers' 1938 production of The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn is one of the screen's classic adventures, nor that Erich Wolfgang Korngold's epic music helps the movie immeasurably. What's surprising is that up until now we have never had a recording of the complete score, only a few minutes worth of the famous "March of the Merry Men" or at best a fifteen-minute suite. Fortunately, composer and restorer John Morgan, conductor William Stromberg, and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra rectify this situation with their recording of every shred of music in the movie, over seventy-eight minutes worth.

Fortunately, too, Stromberg and company, by now old hands at this sort of thing, play the music with verve and commitment. The music is so vivid and so engaging, and the playing is so enthusiastic, listening to it is like watching the movie all over again. Stromberg and Marco Polo have given us a whole string of reconstructed film scores over the past few years, and this one joins the very best of them, if not surpassing my favorite, Max Steiner's Treasure of the Sierra Madre, then at least coming close.

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