Press Release from Prometheus:Tadlow Music and Prometheus Records proudly announce the next volume in their series of re-recorded classic scores by legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith. QB VII (1974), based on the bestseller of the same name by Leon Uris, was a fictionalized account of the author’s experience when he was sued for libel over a statement he made in his earlier novel Exodus. The award-winning miniseries (the first of its kind made by an American television network) starred Ben Gazzara, Anthony Hopkins, Leslie Caron, Dan O’Herlihy, Anthony Quayle, Robert Stephens, Lee Remick, Juliet Mills, Anthony Andrews, Jack Hawkins and John Gielgud.
Goldsmith’s score is both epic and intimate, with multiple themes representing the story’s diverse characters and settings. It features two love themes, a memorable mixed-meter fanfare, contrasting motifs for the story’s two antagonists, and colorful passages for scenes set in Kuwait. Most remarkable, however, is the overwhelmingly haunting music for choir and orchestra Goldsmith composed to represent the horrors of the Holocaust. The score culminates in the choral/orchestral “A Kaddish for the Six Million” – a lament for the victims of the Holocaust that might well be the most emotional piece Goldsmith ever wrote.
Previously represented only by a disc of highlights conducted by the composer (and a short suite released on Tadlow Records), QB VII appears here in all its glory – nearly 95 minutes of unforgettable Goldsmith. Reconstructed and orchestrated by Aaron Purvis, the complete score is gloriously performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus (165 musicians in all) under the experienced and expressive baton of Maestro Nic Raine. Produced by James Fitzpatrick for Luc Van de Ven’s Prometheus Records, QB VII includes a 16-page booklet with informative notes by Fitzpatrick and Frank K. DeWald.
