They went to record the original scores as composed by Poledouris and orchestrated by Greg McRitchie, not as recorded for the film. Poledouris had to adapt his composition during the recording sessions with the orchestra.

That's why there is some differences. These are not the result of "re-arrangements" (as opposed to previous rerecordings for Silva compilations for example), but a premiere recording of the exact original orchestrations.

That's quite a great thing to know about this new release.

James Fitzpatrick, producer of the rerecording posted the following on FSM's message boards:

"In Rome they could not provide an awful lot of percussion instruments that Basil had requested... We have corrected that error so you hear the scores as composed. Plus there was a lot written for Hungarian Cimbalom that the Italian player obviously could not manage to play."

http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/board/posts.cfm?forumID=1&pageID=10&threadID=73352&archive=0

milio.latimer, November 5, 2010; 4:49 AM

In short: CONAN THE BARBARIAN Composer's Cut :-)

handstand, November 5, 2010; 6:44 AM

I remember reading an interview with Poledouris in one issue of Soundtrack! where he said that a lot of the changes were requested by John Milius during the sessions because the full orchestrations sounded to 'modern' or to 'good'.
I have to see if I can find that particular issue.

But I think not everything can be blamed on the musicians !!

goldsmithsonian, November 5, 2010; 8:06 AM

Yep, true! Poledouris even talked about it during the Ubeda festival, explaining it with some examples of the differences played on the piano.
But, I believe that it was essentially talks that happened during the composing process (that was quite lenghty).

Milius felt that the music evoqued too much the christian era (the Middle Ages and so forth) at first, rather than a pagan and "barbaric" feel he was looking for.
Of course, further changes during the orchestra sessions can have been provided by Poledouris to satisfy the director/producer demands.

That's why it's cool to have the opportunity to listen to both ("the composer's cut" and "the film cut" ;o).
And keep in mind what Roger Feigelson said on Intrada's boards ;o)

milio.latimer, November 5, 2010; 8:29 AM

Now what about the live performance conducted by Basil Poledouris himself in Ubeda? I might be not familiar enough with the previous soundtrack CDs, but I think the Ubeda take was closer to the old soundtrack CDs than to the new Prague recording, wasn't it? If that is true, it would be interesting because you would expect Poledouris to perform it the way he wanted it to sound like, wouldn't we?

Urs

handstand, November 5, 2010; 8:33 AM

In fact, while rehearsing with the orchestra in Úbeda, Poledouris, who was using the original 1981 score sheets, made some changes with the help of Frederik Wiedmann (his assistant during the concert preparation) to make the music sound closer to the original recording for the movie.

Poledouris made his best to offer his fans the music as close as possible to that contained in the movie. I was lucky enough to attend part of the rehearsal sessions. Something I won't forget in all my life.

Regards,
Angel

angeldibujo, November 5, 2010; 2:47 PM

Wow! Thanks a lot for your informative post Angel.

milio.latimer, November 5, 2010; 2:53 PM

Thanks, Angel. Indeed, you addressed precisely my question. :-)
And congratulations for having been there. I am sure, for many years to come, film music fans will still talk about Basil Poledouris final performance in Ubeda.

Urs

handstand, November 6, 2010; 7:31 PM