Not bad. Big orchestral music is alive and well overseas! Probably an okay film as well.

Morgan/Stromberg records many of their classic American film music recordings with a Russian orchestra. The cost of doing so in the US would make it an impossibility.

victoravalentine, February 18, 2008; 12:37 PM

George and the Dragon is indeed suprisingly good. The film was not, unfortunately.

Bought the Stromberg/Morgan promo cd with a compilation of their own music from screenarchives for a few bucks last year. Also a nice surprise.



erikvantholt, February 18, 2008; 4:17 PM

John Morgan does an exceptional job on his score reconstructions. Love the old Universal horror scores he and Stromberg recorded.

Quick story... Went to a flea market in Venice, California a couple of years ago. Bought a copy of the 10" vinyl of "Music By Max Steiner" for $2.00. The guy I bought it from had an old van loaded with odds and ends and a table set out in front of it with tons of weird items for sale. Old wooden ski poles, old coins, antique tools. He looks at the recording and tells me that he went to high school with Max Steiner's son who commited suicide years ago. Said he was a grade up and didn't know him well.

I asked on another forum if anyone knew of such a thing. John Morgan replies and tells the story of the composers son who indeed killed himself while in a military academy. I guess it really did a number on Max Steiner.


victoravalentine, February 18, 2008; 4:54 PM

I have The Sea Hawk/Deception rerecording (Naxos). Really like it, so maybe I'll check out those Universal horror score reconstructions as well.

Meanwhile, another great modern-day filmmusic surpise seems to be Island of the Lost Souls (Cornisch). Read some very positive reviews and the samples sounded great. Ordered it last week, so I hope it's really as good as they say.

erikvantholt, February 19, 2008; 6:35 PM

Yes! George and the Dragon is really wonderfull. One of the best scores I have heard in recent years.

jari.bjorklov, February 20, 2008; 8:18 AM