Press Release from Music Box:
In collaboration with BMG, Music Box Records proudly presents three original motion picture soundtracks composed by Philippe Sarde between 1981 and 1984: Le Choix des armes (Choice of Arms), Garçon ! (Waiter!) and La Garce (The Man Hunt).
The three scores presented here, including the world premiere release of La Garce, pay tribute to the brilliant collaboration between Philippe Sarde and orchestrator Peter Knight, of which Tess and Quest for Fire are among the greatest examples. At that period, Knight will become Sarde’s privileged working partner, one who could match his overflowing creativity.
For Choice of Arms (1981), director Alain Corneau wanted to find a balance between American thrillers and the great tradition of French film noir. Sarde hired two virtuoso Afro-American jazz double basses (Ron Carter and Buster Williams) combined with the opulent and lyrical sound of the London Symphony Orchestra with its Ravelian reflections. The score is presented from a newly mastered high-resolution transfer of the stereo album master, offering superior audio. For Garçon ! (1983), this new release presents the slighty expanded flamboyant score, emphasizing one of his iconic collaborations with director Claude Sautet. For La Garce (directed by Christine Pascal in 1984), the darkly intimate score performed by saxophonist Phil Woods, accordionist Gilbert Roussel and the Chilingirian String Quartet, builds a bridge between the codes of Hollywood film noir and those of French poetic realism.
Supervised by Philippe Sarde, the program has been assembled by Édouard Dubois and fully remastered from the original master tapes. The package includes a 12-page booklet featuring exclusive liner notes by writer Gérard Dastugue discussing the films and the scores. The CD release is limited to 500 units.
