Press Release from Quartet:
Quartet Records presents its fifth newly recorded release of a classic film score, and its third devoted to the music of John Barry, following Séance on a Wet Afternoon and the three television films starring Katharine Hepburn. The unforgettable music of this five-time Oscar-winning composer continues to be celebrated around the world, and the impact of his innovative scores for dozens of films from the 1960s through the ’90s still reverberates today.
THE IPCRESS FILE, directed by Sidney J. Furie in 1965, is an iconic film in British cinema. The first in the series centered on spy Harry Palmer (the anti-Bond), it marked Michael Caine’s first leading role, immediately catapulting him to stardom. The story is set entirely in London, where a small group of mundane civil servants quietly tracks an even smaller band of traitors.
During one of the most prolific and successful periods of his career, when he was producing one masterpiece after another, John Barry composed a memorable score for THE IPCRESS FILE. He sought a unique sound specific to the story and characters, one that would distinguish the humdrum world of real-life British spies from the larger-than-life fantasy of James Bond. The score features an equally iconic main theme, jazz-flavored and highlighted by a cimbalom soloist. For Barry, the Cold War backdrop of the movie provided an ideal showcase for this instrument.
Around the time of the film’s premiere, Barry assembled a lavish album for Decca, though it consisted mainly of wonderful variations, arrangements and jazz improvisations on the main theme. Barry wrote nearly 50 minutes of original music for IPCRESS, of which only 17 minutes were included on the album—edited, rearranged and presented alongside jazz variations for an optimal listening experience. This left around 35 minutes of previously unreleased material—more than enough to justify this new recording.
We haven’t attempted to recreate the various jazz variations because no professional jazz musician would replicate another performer’s improvisations—nor should they. Transcribing them onto paper is ultimately a futile exercise that could never truly capture the spirit of the original performances. Even so, we have always viewed this album as a complement to, not a substitute for, the irreplaceable original release. Each represents a different yet equally fascinating world.
In the bonus section, we have reconstructed—using our own recordings—the versions of the original score presented by Barry on the Decca album, including the edits and alterations he made. We have also included an alternate version of the main theme, featuring a slower tempo that gives our trumpeter, Miroslav Hloucal, the freedom to improvise; a version of “A Man Alone” based on the arrangement Barry created for a 45 rpm single at the time; and the themes from the television series Vendetta and The Persuaders!, both featuring the cimbalom, which conclude the program.
Leigh Phillips has painstakingly reconstructed and orchestrated the score and produced the recording. Performed by the prestigious City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Adam Klemens and recorded at Smecky Studios by Vítek Král, the album has been meticulously mixed and mastered by Chris Malone in the spirit of Barry’s original recording, delivering an authentic “Barry sound” reminiscent of his years at CTS. Elegant design by Nacho B. Govantes, with cover art by Jim Titus, graces a 20-page booklet featuring an in-depth essay by film music journalist, writer and renowned Barry connoisseur Jon Burlingame.
