Continuing his labor of recovery of Alex North's works, and after his impressive recordings of the rejected score of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and of the revolutionary A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Goldsmith offers us the complete version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), whose original record edition included part of North's material together with the dialogues of the film. In a movie inevitably centered in a dialogues torrent, North's music served as anchor and support of the psychological drawing of the personages and the situations that they faced; supported in a pseudo-baroque style, but of color and personal essence, North preferred an approximation to the heart of the history more than to serve as support to the brutal diatribes of the protagonists. The succeeded use of a classic proportions orchestra, centered in a balanced use of the strings and the winds -with the nostalgic use of the guitar for the central theme of the film (Main Title)-, and the absence of disgustingly strident passages are perfectly working in the new version directed by Goldsmith, of excellent sound and presentation, covering an important hollow in the discography of one of the basic authors in the History of the Film Music.

WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966) - 39:26
National Philharmonic Orchestra - Conductor: Jerry Goldsmith
VARESE SARABANDE VSD-5800 / 40'

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