La Comédie selon Jean Prodromidès

Release : March 20, 2010

The compilation The Comedy According to Jean Prodromidès reflects the lighter side of the great French composer. The whole content originates from the turn of the sixties. L'Ours (The Bear), a premiere on digital support, is a 16-minute score for big orchestra and six solo mandolins which often recalls the most energetic and humorous passages of Le Voyage en ballon. Incidentally, both soundtracks were recorded the same year by the same orchestra and crew. 

Remastered versions of the best excerpts from four other original soundtrack recordings by Prodomidès complete the program : Archimède le clochard, Le Bateau d'Émile, Maigret et l'affaire Saint-Fiacre and Le Baron de l'écluse. Three of these movies were tailor made for legendary actor Jean Gabin, then at the peak of his popularity. 12-page booklet.

L'Ours (1960)

Orchestra conducting: André Girard   

01 Cirque de Moscou  1:53

02  Tango-Toccata du suicide  2:38

03  Java funèbre pour l'enterrement d'un sous-officier  1:20

04  L'Ours II  2:29 

05  Amoroso I  1:13

06  Charleston  1:56

07  Poursuite  1:17

08  L'Ours I  1:53

09  Amoroso II  1:33

DT  16:32

Archimède le clochard (1959)

10  Thème d'Archimède  1:40

11  Quais de la Seine  2:21

12  Retour à l'abri  2:19

13  Générique (la Mouffe)  2:16

14  Polka des hommes-sandwiches  2:28

15  Charleston d'Archimède  2:54

DT  13:58

Le Bateau d'Émile (1961)

16  Suite : Valse d'Émile et Tristesse d'Émile  3:52

Maigret et l'affaire Saint-Fiacre (1959)

17  Générique et Souvenirs  3:02

18  Final  2:16

19  Cha-cha provincial  2:55

DT  8:13

Le Baron de l'écluse (1960)

20  Valse Deauville  1:56

21  Thème de Maria  2:11

22  Clin d'œil et Final  2:22

23  Bahia meringué  2:15

24  Sous les palmiers  2:03

25  Java des mariniers  1:25

DT  12:12

GT  55:24

Randall D. Larson  Soundtrax Column, USA, March 29th, 2010

La Comédie Selon Jean Prodromidès is a collection of the composer’s comedy works, compiling music from five films from 1959-1960.  This includes the 16-minute hyperactive, carnivalistic score for L’OURS (1960; The Bear), which features six solo mandolins harmonizing amidst the orchestra.  The score’s jaunty main theme is a comic waltz for clarinet and strings; other themes a parodies of Bach and other popular musical forms.  The most striking score in this collection is surely that for Gilles Grangier’s madcap comedy, ARCHIMÈDE, LE CLOCHARD (1959), which featured an especially vibrant and intoxicating main title motif, driven by slappy percussive guitar strums and a festive main theme in triple time for clarinet and strings (I could listen to this track all night).  Other themes, most of which are very different from one another, features an impassioned accordion (“Quais de la Seine”), a splendidly inebriated polka for tuba and orchestra (“Polka des homes-sandwiches”), and lively Charleston for banjos, honky tonk piano, and brass band.  A single short suite supplies music for 1962’s LE BATEAU d’EMILE (Emily’s Boat), a pretty valse for accordion and brass, while Prodromidès contribution to the long running Maigret detective series, SAINT-FIACRE (1959; Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case) is represented by three tracks: a nicely-textured and tuneful score featuring alto saxophone, concluding with a marvelous get-out-of-your-chair cha-cha.  The final film is LE BARON DE L'ÉCLUSE (1960; The Baron of the Locks), represented by six tracks, beginning with a lush, Viennese waltz, a sorrowful accordion melody for the female heroine, a roguish, almost cartoonlike melody for oboe, paired flutes, triangle, and strings; while a trio of dance flavored source cues, featuring marimba and accordion close out the CD. 

Prodromidès is so under-represented by soundtrack albums, especially on CD; many thanks to Disques Cinémusique’s efforts in getting a start on remedying this.

© Disques CinéMusique