Among the most nostalgic and wistful film scores of all time, Michel Legrand’s beautiful music for Summer of ’42 captured the hearts of moviegoers in 1971 as well as members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, who honored it with the 1971 Academy Award for “Best Original Score.” Warner Bros. Records issued a bestselling soundtrack album for the movie, ironically including just two cues totaling five minutes from the admittedly brief but still richly moving 17-minute original score. To fill out their record, Warner Bros. turned to Legrand’s magnificent music for the rarely screened 1969 film The Picasso Summer. In this instance, the composer edited his 55-minute score down to a 30-minute “Picasso Suite.” The album packaging noted that the score required considerable orchestration and described it as quite possibly Legrand’s finest work.
For Summer of ’42, Legrand wrote an unusually flexible theme that played both in melancholy-flavored minor keys as well as sunnier major keys. Scored for strings, woodwinds, two pianos, two French horns and harp (plus—in the opening sequence—a warm solo harmonica), the music remains transparent throughout, even when played by the entire ensemble. The omission of the 5+ minute opening music from the 1971 soundtrack album remains probably the most baffling anomaly of that recording, for it is with the gentle harmonica, heard only during this cue, that Legrand manages his most Americana-flavored sound, a timbre so integral to the film itself.
Those familiar with the magnificent score for The Picasso Summer only through the “The Picasso Suite” will delight in finding out how different the listening experience is when the score plays for nearly twice the length and unfolds in the original sequence of the film. The music’s architecture becomes completely different, following the movie’s San Francisco couple on their quest through Europe to find Picasso, at one point even being illuminated by Picasso’s paintings come to animated life.
To ready both of these scores for their first-ever complete presentations, Intrada was given access to the session masters for both films, recorded respectively in 1971 and 1969 on 1″ 15 ips eight-channel tape. This 2-CD set features the complete score to Summer of ’42, the complete score to The Picasso Summer as well as the “Picasso Suite” prepared for the LP back in 1971.
World premiere expanded release of two legendary Michel Legrand soundtracks, one an Oscar-winner no less, the other amongst his most impressive achievements. Summer Of ’42 (1971), directed by Richard Mulligan, starring Jennifer O’Neill, Gary Grimes, received the Academy Award for “Best Original Score”, yet found the admittedly beautiful original 1971 LP offering just two tracks from the score. While the complete work runs just a brief 17 minutes, all of them feature preciously beautiful, wistfully nostalgic music, amongst the most attractive in film score history. To fill the original Warner Bros. album, 30 minutes of his powerful score for the 1969 Robert Sallin adventure The Picasso Summer, with Albert Finney, Yvette Mimieux, entitled “The Picasso Suite”, were included on the record. Intrada proudly premieres the entire 55-minute score on CD 2, almost doubling it’s length, including several previously unreleased cues showcasing Legrand at his most stunning! Flavorful music trades between sweeping main love theme for two San Francisco tourists searching for Pablo Picasso throughout France, Spain and impressive music for actual gorgeous locales, shot by famed Vilmos Zsigmond. French aspects of score are delightful, lilting. Spanish aspects take command, offer powerhouse music for large orchestra. In between are intense, aggressive orchestral outbursts for animated sequences of twisted Picasso images. Composer’s original assembly of his “Picasso Suite” also plays intact on CD 1, following Summer Of ’42. Magnificent 2-CD set offers both complete scores newly mixed from original 1″ 8-channel stereo scoring session masters preserved in pristine condition in Warner Bros. vaults. Michel Legrand conducts both scores.
TRACKLIST
CD 1 Summer of ’42
(Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
01. Summer Of ’42 – Part 1 (5:17)
02. Summer Of ’42 – Part 2 (0:52)
03. Summer Of ’42 – Parts 3 & 4 (1:39)
04. Summer Of ’42 – Parts 5 & 6 (2:10)
05. Theme From Summer Of ’42 (3:57)
06. The Summer Knows (End Title) Theme From Summer Of ’42 (1:49)
07. Summer Of ’42 (0:56)
Total Time: 16:55
The Picasso Summer (The Picasso Suite)
08. Summer Song (4:21)
09. The Bacchanal (1:47)
10. Lonely Two (2:04)
11. The Dancer (2:15)
12. Montage: But Not Picasso – Full Awakening (3:32)
13. High I.Q. (2:12)
14. The Entrance To Reality (3:06)
15. La Guerre (3:15)
16. Los Manos De Muerto (3:28)
17. Awakening Awareness (2:26)
18. And All The Time (1:41)
Total Time: 30:34
CD 1 Total Time: 47:34
CD 2 The Picasso Summer
(Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
01. Summer Song (4:21)
02. High I.Q. (2:41)
03. Revellusion (4:57)
04. Chemin De Fer (1:15)
05. The Road To Vallauris (1:49)
06. La Paix (2:36)
07. La Guerre (3:15)
08. Guernica (1:46)
09. Petanque (1:09)
10. To The Gates (2:13)
11. The Preface (2:32)
12. Nymph & Satyr (1:08)
13. The Bacchanal (1:47)
14. The Climax (0:41)
15. Lonely Two (2:04)
16. Apart (3:08)
17. Los Manos De Muerto (3:28)
18. The Before Time (1:09)
19. The Cape & The Gore (2:00)
20. The Dancer (2:14)
21. The Entrance To Reality (Revised Coda) (2:19)
22. Not Picasso (1:12)
23. Head For Home (3:21)
CD 2 Total Time: 54:45
