Press Release from Dragon's Domain:
Dragon’s Domain Records presents WALLENBERG: A HERO’S STORY, featuring music composed and conducted by Ernest Gold (EXODUS, TOM HORN, ON THE BEACH) for the 1985 television film directed by Lamont Johnson, based on the books written by Thurston B. Clarke, Gerald Green and Frederick E. Werbell, starring Richard Chamberlain, Alice Krige, Kenneth Colley, Melanie Mayron, Stuart Wilson, Bibi Andersson, David Robb, Mark Rylance, Ralph Arliss and Keve Hjelm.
WALLENBERG: A HERO’S STORY, broadcast over two evenings in April, 1985 tells the true story of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who was instrumental in saving thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazi Holocaust. The film stars Richard Chamberlain as Raoul Wallenberg, Alice Krige as Baroness Lisl Kemeny, Kenneth Colley as Adolf Eichmann, Melanie Mayron as Sonja Kahn, Stuart Wilson as Baron Gabor Kemeny, and Bibi Andersson as Maj von Dardel. The three-hour, twenty-minute picture won four Emmy Awards and was nominated for five more.
WALLENBERG: A HEROS’ STORY was one of the last major works composed by the great Austrian born composer Ernest Gold, who came to the United States from Vienna in 1938, prompted by Hitler’s invasion of Austria, and started working as a piano accompanist and as a popular songwriter in New York City. Growing disillusioned by songwriting, Gold headed west in 1945, following an interest in writing music for Hollywood films. He was quickly put to work as a composer for Columbia Pictures in 1945. After enduring the assembly-line production of numerous B-movies, Gold achieved acclaim with a number of scores for Stanley Kramer at United Artists. ON THE BEACH was the first of ten films Gold composed for the director, followed by JUDGMENT AT NUREMBURG and IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD. Three of his scores received Academy Award nominations; he won his Oscar for best score for Otto Preminger’s EXODUS.
Dragon’s Domain Records presents WALLENBERG: A HERO’S STORY, featuring music composed and conducted by Ernest Gold, appearing for the very first time on compact disc. The music has been mastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland and the liner notes have been written by author Randall Larson.
