As promised, here are our two new Kritzerland releases for your early eyes - you know the drill - they're each 19.98 and 3.75 shipping covers both. Paid directly to paypal.com using our paypal address, which is kritzerland at adelphia dot net.
Kritzerland is proud to present two new limited edition soundtracks – one great soundtrack and one great show:
UNTIL SEPTEMBER
Music Composed and Conducted by John Barry
An American In Paris named Mo misses her flight with her tour group and has become stranded in the City of Light. She meets a debonair French banker named Xavier. Pretty quickly he informs her he’d like to sleep with her despite the fact that he is married. And therein lies the tale of an affair to remember and love conquers all. Directed by Richard Marquand (fresh from directing Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi), the film stars Karen Allen as the spunky Mo Alexander, and Thierry Lhermitte as Xavier, the cocky, suave, rich, and good-looking Frenchman. As the Gershwins wrote, who could ask for anything more? Well, the audiences and critics of 1984, because they just weren’t buying Until September. But eventually, on cable and video, the film found fans, fans that found the love story appealing, and the scenery irresistible. But making the whole thing doubly appealing and irresistible is the gorgeous score by John Barry.
No one did this kind of score better than John Barry. He’d already given the world the hyper-romantic score to Somewhere In Time, and would soon do Out Of Africa, both of which spawned best-selling soundtracks. Barry, of course, was already a legend for his James Bond scores, and had also provided classic music for any number of great films, including Séance On A Wet Afternoon, The Ipcress File, The Knack…And How To Get It, The Wrong Box, Born Free, The Whisperers, Mary, Queen of Scots, Midnight Cowboy, The Lion In Winter, Walkabout, Robin and Marian, King Kong, Body Heat, and that list doesn’t even scratch the surface. Every cue in Until September drips with exquisite Barry melody and invention. There is no use fighting it – just surrender, close your eyes, and let the music wash over you, its very own City Of Light.
The soundtrack to Until September has had several releases – an LP on Varese Sarabande, a CD of that album presentation on Silva Screen, and a limited edition release of the almost complete score by Intrada – the latter was an instant sellout, and many people missed out on that release. And so we decided to make it available again in another edition of 1000 units, so that the people who missed out would have another chance to get it, and because we wanted to honor the memory of the great John Barry with one of his most romantic and beautiful scores. The Intrada release presented the score in film order. To that, we decided to include the original LP sequencing, which was done by Mr. Barry, because it’s a whole different listening experience. We have done our own remastering for this release.
This release is limited to 1000 copies only. The price of the CD is $19.98, plus shipping. Additionally, we are offering a special deal with the purchase of this release. Go to the item page and click on the link to find out about it.
CD will ship the second week of May – however, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit
www.kritzerland.com.
CAMELOT Original London Cast Recording
Book and Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner Music by Frederick Loewe
Adapted from T.H. White’s The Once And Future King, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s Camelot was one of the most highly anticipated shows imaginable. After all, their previous show had been one of the biggest Broadway success stories in history – the huge smash hit My Fair Lady. And they’d had the big success of Gigi on the screen. Add to that a stunning cast of Richard Burton, Julie Andrews, Roddy McDowell, and Robert Goulet making his Broadway debut. Then Moss Hart as director, Oliver Smith for sets, costumes by Adrian (who died before the show went into rehearsals) and Tony Duquette, and with an advance sale that was the largest in musical theatre history, well, what could possibly go wrong? As it turned out, the road was rocky to Camelot, but despite the travails on the road to Broadway, the show had a healthy 873 performance run, and had several tours, several revivals, a film version, and lots of other productions since.
The show won four Tony Awards, the original Broadway cast album spent sixty weeks at the top of the Billboard chart, and the score spawned several standards. And, in 1964, the show made its London debut. Opening at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on August 19th, producer Jack Hylton’s production of Camelot sported a stellar cast, including film star Laurence Harvey as Arthur, Elizabeth Larner as Guenevere) and Barry Kent as Lancelot. Critic Harold Hobson said of Harvey’s Arthur, “I count this performance as amongst the big theatrical experiences of my life.” The production was directed and choreographed by Robert Helpmann, with scenery and costumes by John Truscott and lighting by Richard Pilbrow. The show ran 518 performances.
What becomes clear in every revival or presentation of the show is that the score by Lerner and Loewe is one of the most glorious in all musical theater. Whatever deficiencies the book may or may not have, the score just overpowers them.
The London cast album is a treasure. It feels quite different than its Broadway counterpart and includes “The Jousts” that wasn’t on the original Broadway cast album. Harvey is a great King Arthur, and Larner is a wonderful Guenevere. Their performances are reason enough to cherish the London recording, but the whole thing has a vibrancy and sheen that is terrific, and that score – one great song after another – I think it’s safe use the old saw that they don’t write ‘em like this anymore.
The CD was mastered from the original tapes from the EMI vaults in the UK.
This release is limited to 1000 copies only. The price of the CD is $19.98, plus shipping. Additionally, we are offering a special deal with the purchase of this release. Go to the item page and click on the link to find out about it.
CD will ship the second week of May – however, preorders placed directly through Kritzerland usually ship one to five weeks earlier (we’ve been averaging four weeks early). To place an order, see the cover, or hear audio samples, just visit
www.kritzerland.com.
