Quartet Records ENDLESS NIGHT CD Review Bill Wrobel [Film Score Rundowns] After a long delay, Quartet Records (QR) finally announced, on Tuesday, December 8, 2020, the release of their cd new recording of Endless Night (EN), music by Bernard Herrmann. I ordered it immediately upon news of the release. On December 17, I was notified 1 by SAE that my package was finally shipped after a nine-day wait, receiving it Monday, December 21 by 10:30 AM. During the 13-day wait for the cd package, I created two short “Sample Tracks” reviews on my YouTube site, tracks available for public hearing on both the SAE site and largely different tracks on the QR site. Yesterday (Tuesday, December 29) I completed the third & final “official” YouTube (YT) entertainment review. Hence I deleted the now unneeded Sample Tracks reviews. Here below are Parts 1, 2 & 3 of my YouTube (& Vimeo) reviews. Part 2 You Tube version is shorter than the Vimeo because of an issue I had in uploading the complete video, so I suggested at the end of that particular YT video to watch the Vimeo version to watch the complete intended review. https://vimeo.com/494730497 [Part 1] https://vimeo.com/495344512 [Part 2] https://vimeo.com/495532720 [Part 3] https://youtu.be/uvNKmBVP09g [Part 1] https://youtu.be/9OQGpvN0Zjk [Part 2] https://youtu.be/8HUgJ8qk0uk [Part 3] Interestingly, I was alerted that a few public film music discussion forums were in an uproar regarding my initial sample tracks reviews. I investigated out of curiosity and discovered insulting & sarcastic comments spewing from several people that left me shaking my head, with a smile. In fact, many of those comments left me laughing out loud! These “discussion” boards are now just a distorted shadow of what I used to know when I was debating people online in other, more relative, civil times like on Filmus-L). A feature that really struck me in those poorly-moderated film music discussion forums was the utter lack of humor & cleverness. So I decided to create, as a humorous reply to this 2 brouhaha, a new YouTube video: Endless Night Review (Quartet Records) Part A [Film Music Forums] : https://youtu.be/7dS6oejGU-E [QR ENDLESS NIGHT cd Review (Film Music Forums] It is a fun entertainment response to those “Don’t-Ever-Say- Anything-Negative-About” fanboys, inserting tiny clips of scenes from various tv shows & movies where the actors would voice and simulate in (in sanitized representations) the comments & vilifications expressed in the real forums! The second half of the video shows a more balanced viewpoint from the clips about the dynamics behind the vituperations, the claiming of how my intentions were dark & sinister, and so on. Enjoy (unless you have no sense of humor)!  Anyway, let’s now focus in more detail here (“wordy” written format) than the entertainment YouTube reviews all of the 31 non-bonus tracks of Endless Night. I will more briefly focus on the Bonus tracks. Once again, I will state upfront (as I did in all of my reviews) that I recommend that you purchase the QR cd. I support all film music restorations, hoping for the best product possible that we need to pay $$$ to receive. As I wrote yesterday in my Blog #66: [QUOTE “Now: I am just conveying “information” --informed information. I do not have an “agenda” or a “beef” because I really want everybody to succeed in life. I promote constructive value fulfillment. But one has to be realistic & prepared & do things right one step at a time, and learn from past mistakes…If you don’t learn from the past, then expect the consequences (like people not buying your product). But it doesn’t help when people involved towards any cd review state that my informed analysis is “pretty crazy,” because then that means that they will probably not learn from the past. We get what we deserve. After all, how can a cd team or orchestra learn from 3 its mistakes if they can’t even agree on whether they made any mistakes?” END OF QUOTE] ****************** ********************** Track # 1 “Prelude” ***** [5 stars out of 5 rating] Outstanding While there are a few relatively minor “issues” in this track, most people would not even notice them unless they happened to have the written score before them as they listen to the track, or had “good ears” & made a comparison to the original track that Herrmann conducted. So I decided to give this particular track a “best” rating despite a few “quibbles” I have because the orchestra & conductor did a very excellent job on this track that “sounds” terrific to my ears. One error I noticed of a factual (provable) nature is a wrong note in Bar 46 (located at 1:17 or 1:18 played on my desktop computer cd drive). The Moog plays Line 2 C half note down to Line 1 B quarter note. If you looked at the autograph score, this would seem exactly right! The problem, however, is that Herrmann forgot to add the flat sign in front of that B quarter note. Bar 46 is supposed to repeat Bar 45 that played the C half note Bb (B-flat) quarter note. 4 In the image above, ignore the “Organ” in the middle of the instrumentation there. It is supposed to be “Moog” but I had arranged to have a Midi done that substituted the Moog with an organ. Anyway, you can see the Moog consistently playing two-bar repeat cells or pattern starting Bar 43-44, 45-46, 47-48, & 49-50. I inserted the repeat sign for each repeat bar for simplicity & clarity. Usually Herrmann does this but he decided to write out all of the Moog notes. If he had inserted repeat signs for the Moog (like he did for the strings then the typographical error would not have occurred in Bar 46 where he forgot to enter the flat glyph. In his recording, Herrmann did indeed have that Bar 46 repeat the Bb note. https://i.postimg.cc/3xr1NjsW/Prelude-Bars-41-48-organ.jpg 5 In the QR track, however, the conductor did not. He had the orchestra play the B natural quarter note in Bar 46. This is an understandable mistake by QR but the repeat two-bar pattern should have been easily seen & caught if the conductor looked at the facsimile of Herrmann’s autograph score with extra attention. Clarinet I and a horn also play Bb. Strings also play Bb. So that Moog on B natural clashes against the other instruments. Once again, most listeners would pay no attention to it or detect it. It won’t bother them. But I detected it, and so did another reviewer I communicated with (Markus Metzler) whose own review of the QR cd is available on this Film Score Rundowns original site update in mid-January 2021. Even if it was the mistake of the music preparer (who did not “catch” Herrmann’s typographical error) & who then provides the Parts to the orchestra, “the buck stops here” with the conductor. His job is to make sure the right notes are being played that Herrmann really intended, to proof-read whatever the music preparer puts before him, to double-check against the autograph score facsimile and especially also the original recording track. I will talk more about this issue in later cues… Another minor issue is that at times I could not hear certain instruments sufficiently in this track but I could in the Herrmann original track such as the harp in certain locations. Another issue is something that Markus will discuss since he discovered it… Despite these quibbles, they do not affect my overall most excellent-sounding track rating of 5 ***** stars out of 5. Excellent is “Good job!” Most excellent is “Good job! Good job!” ************************* Track # 2 “The Opening” Cue II(1M2)** [Below Average/Poor] https://i.postimg.cc/d1Gr4Dbz/Opening-Bars-1-6-YT-image-1.jpg 6 This is already the first cue where QR failed to include an unused bar of music (Bar 6, see image immediately above). In my opinion, if a cd company advertises on the label that it is a “complete” recording, then make it so. Complete is an adjective meaning “total, to the greatest extent or degree.” This includes the many unused bars in a movie score. Sometimes this is a case where the composer himself decided to cut them out for whatever reason, but in most cases the music was cut because the director or film editor decided to shorten the scene meant for the original length of the music written for. This is quite obvious in Endless Night such as in the “Broken Glass” scene that was so terribly edited. Therefore, it would have been better or truer if QR simply stated “New recording” (not “Complete recording”). QR should realize that throwing in all or most of the unused bars would only make their product more desirable to prospective buyers because now they can enjoy more music by Herrmann not heard before. Certainly including (as QR thankfully did) the unused cues is excellent, and I commend them, but usually in film music scores, there are far more instances of unused bars of music in various used cues in movies than there are instances of unused complete cues. So I object to this QR management arbitrary judgment call. 7 Despite not recording that unused Bar 6, the first 5 bars (21 seconds) sounds excellent, lovely to hear. The real problem is not the unused bar not being recorded but the next two (final) bars that are played poorly. The Moog hits the C# half note too late. Violins at the start of Bar 7 play more a half note value instead of the written dotted quarter note, distorting the way the rest of the bar is played. Moreover, the fermata hold is longer than usual, more like 3 times the value than the standard 2 X. This can be seen as an “interpretation” decision but it rather stuck out to me, giving it too much attention. This cue needed another take due to those final two bars. ****************************** Track # 3 “The Balcony” III (1M3) **** [Excellent] Very nicely performed track. I enjoyed it. 8 https://i.postimg.cc/jqXJ2VtQ/Balcony-paper-image.jpg One tiny quibble is that, just as in Herrmann’s recording, QR did not include the bass clarinets to play in Bars 11-12. This is fine because that was Herrmann’s own final decision on the matter. However, it would’ve been nice if, say, QR created a bonus track that did indeed include those bass clarinets. This would’ve been more interesting to me than some those actual bonus tracks that I consider arbitrary and even unnecessary. I also hear a wrong note but I’ll let Markus discuss that. *************************** Track #4 “Gypsy’s Acre” IV (2M1) *** [Fair/OK/Average] https://i.postimg.cc/hvfgK7KY/Gysy-Acre-paper-image-1.jpg 9 In yet another cue, QR refused to restore unused Bar 8 of this cue. Why not? In certain terms, I felt mildly “gypped” by not having an opportunity to hear it!  There is no Rall in Bar 3 (:10 - :14) that Herrmann indicated, nor in Bar 6 (:23 - :27). *************************** Track #5 “Flashback” V (2M2) *** [Average/OK/Fair] I wondered why the conductor chose to notch up the tempo & loudness in the second half of Bar 3 into Bar 4 (:09 thru :13) since it was not indicated by Herrmann. Interesting “interpretation” issue once again, not “bad” but why do it if Herrmann himself did not direct to do so? Much of “interpretation” is a case T.M.A. – “Too Much Adjustment.” It’s not a “bad” practice, and to each his own, but best to keep with the actual writings of the composer as he intended it to be. The same applies, by the way, to music engravers. If a composer wrote a score in the normally proper transcribed fashion, then the music engraver should not arbitrarily decide to convert to “C” concert pitch engravings. At any rate, regarding “official” cd restorations, one should provide an accurate & authentic representation of what the composer actually wanted. If the conductor strays too far beyond the “fine line,” then many people will notice it. *************************** Track #6 VI (2M3) “The Pictures” ** [Poor/Below Average] There are several issues (in this case, avoidable mistakes) in this officially released track that is IMO “Not Ready For Prime Time.” I will below share several of them graphically: 10