Press Release from Music Box:
2025 marks the 100th anniversary of Georges Delerue's birth. In collaboration with EMI Music Publishing France and Newen, Music Box Records proudly presents the tenth volume of the collection Great Television Soundtracks dedicated to three original television soundtracks composed and conducted by Georges Delerue: Histoires extraordinaires (Edgar Allan Poe’s Extraordinary Tales, 1981), Les Cousins de la Constance (1970) and Là-haut, les quatre saisons (1973).
For these three mini-series, Georges Delerue's gift for melody and enormous versatility are once again demonstrated with these stunningly colourful scores and intimate writing for nostalgic themes.
In the early 1980s, Maurice Ronet, a great admirer of the works of Edgar Allan Poe, produced a TV series of six Extraordinary Tales. Delerue was commissioned to set two episodes to music (The Fall of the House of Usher and The Purloined Letter), showcasing a wide range of dramatic passages and suspenseful musical cues. For The Purloined Letter, he created an atmosphere of mystery with harpsichord, flute, harp and cello while The Fall of the House of Usher features a beautiful romantic waltz used with several variations for the oboe, flute and piano as well as the guitar.
For Les Cousins de la Constance by Robert Mazoyer (Les Gens de Mogador), Delerue chose the accordion, an essential instrument of Breton musical tradition, to accompany the joys, anxieties and sorrows of the sailors and their families.
Là-haut, les quatre saisons by Guy Lessertisseur is based on the director's childhood memories in the Alps. Throughout the four seasons, a Protestant minister and a young Catholic woman learn to know each other through sharing their conflicting views on life, death and religion. Delerue chose to translate the rural atmosphere through the use of a solo flute, harp arpeggios and strings.
Remastered from the original scoring session elements courtesy of Delerue's archives, this present edition features the world premiere release of these three gorgeous television scores. The CD comes with an 8-page booklet with liner notes by Gilles Loison. The CD release is limited to 500 units.
