Newman: THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME / BEAU GESTE (Inc. Betta International/ Moscow Symphony Chorus/ Moscow Symphony Orchestra/ William Stromberg) (Naxos: 8.570187)

---

---

Shipping time: Usually ships within 1-3 days

---

Though Newman was one of the great Hollywood composers, he was very much a scene painter, as opposed to the 'symphonic' scores of Korngold and Herrmann. More famous was his score for the 'Hunchback of Notre Dame', written for the RKO 1939 film and starring Charles Laughton as the Hunchback. It is the grotesque aspects which find Newman at his most imaginative, and it was the music that is often attributed as causing that terror in the film. From the complete score John Morgan has taken 17 extracts to form this extended suite of music lasting almost 39 minutes, using the full string section of a symphony orchestra. 'Beau Geste' dates from 1939, and managed to capture the grim life in the Foreign Legion with the back-drop of the empty Sahara Desert. In this suite Stromberg has brought together eight sections, the opening Prelude setting the scene for a film of danger and excitement.