25 YEARS OF FRENCH CINEMA MUSIC

Compilation of various composers
Orchestra conducted by Serge Baudo

Release : August 5, 2010

A digital premiere for the complete LP album  25 ans de Musique de cinéma, released in 1956. This 40 minutes anthology produced by Lucien Adès revisits some of the best French scores from the beginning of the thirties to the mid-fifties - the dawn of the New Wave. Serge Baudo conducts with brio and the high fidelity recording, painstakingly restored, shows to advantage these seminal works. A short vocal introduction by Adès himself precedes each track of this survey of an era and a scenery that generate much nostalgia.

We complete the program with additional excerpts from Maurice Leroux’ original soundtrack to Albert Lamorisse's Le Ballon rouge (The Red Balloon), a few dances by Maurice Jaubert from René Clair's Quatorze Juillet (Bastille Day) and four songs by Joseph Kosma and Jaubert. The 16-page fully bilingual booklet includes liner notes from the original album and a new presentation by DCM producer Clément Fontaine.
 

 

MAURICE JAUBERT
01  Quatorze Juillet (Bastille Day) 1:48
02  Le Quai des brumes (Port of Shadows) 2:38
03  L'Atalante 2:55

  

GEORGES AURIC

04  Orpheus 4:58

  

MAURICE JARRE

05  L'Univers d'Utrillo 5:25

 

MAURICE LE ROUX

06  The Red Balloon 5:07

 

JOSEPH KOSMA

07  Les Portes de la nuit (Gates of the Night) 5:20

  

HENRI SAUGUET 
08  Farrebique or The Four Seaasons 6:08

  

 DARIUS MILHAUD

 09  Actualités 6:00

 

Original version

 MAURICE LE ROUX
10  The Red Balloon - Suite 5:38

  

Piano Version

MAURICE JAUBERT
11 Three dances from Quatorze Juillet 4:25
Valse complainte - Java - À Paris dans chaque faubourg
by Yoko Sawai (2009)

  

Movie Songs

MAURICE JAUBERT
12  À Paris dans chaque faubourg, from Quatorze Juillet 3:20
by Lys Gauty (1933), lyrics by René Clair

13  Les Feuilles mortes, from Les Portes de la Nuit 3:17
by Yves Montand (1949), lyrics by Jacques Prévert
14  Les Enfants qui s’aiment, from Les Portes de la Nuit 3:09
by Yves Montand (1948), lyrics by Jacques Prévert
solo guitar: Henri Crolla

  

Bonus Track

MAURICE JAUBERT
15 La Chanson de Tessa 2:25
by Irène Joachim (1951), lyrics by Jean Giraudoux

TT 62:50

 

Randall D. Larson - Soundtrax Column, USA, September 7th, 2010
The original 1956 album tracks, which include Jaubert’s L’ATALANTE, Auric’s ORPHEUS, Le Roux’s RED BALLOON, and Jarre’s L’UNIVERS D’UTRILLO (a short documentary that pre-dated his feature scores for Franju), are verbally introduced by album producer Lucien Adès, but that doesn’t really intrude on the music, which is mostly classically-based. The supplemental tracks are all especially nice, from Le Roux’s extended suite from RED BALLOON to Yoko Sawai’s exquisite piano version of Jaubert’s BASTILLE DAY and the songs, unique in their 1940/’50s French passion.