From the archives. The guest contestant for this week’s Piano Puzzler is Tim Rogers from Austin, Texas. As weird as the music is, I'd be shocked if one doesn't get the hidden song. As for the composer style, this is one of those who (for me) is always a toss-up between a few people. I took a guess on who struck me as closest -- and was wrong. Still, it's fun to hear arranger Bruce Adolphe describe his choices for what made it this composer.
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On this week’s episode of 3rd and Fairfax, the official podcast of the Writers Guild of America, the guests are the writing team behind the film The Last Duel: Nicole Holofcener, whose credits include Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Enough Said), Ben Affleck (The Town) and Matt Damon (who, with Affleck, won an Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting).
Okay, there's no music here, but it's a lot of fun about the holidays and therefore officially qualifies as part of a Holiday Fest. These are two videos showing the annual holiday pranks that Jimmy Kimmel alternates each year with John Krasinski and Emily Blunt against one another. This first is from Kimmel's 2014 broadcast and includes several earlier efforts. And we'll follow that with what took place the next year, in 2015. Okay, so this isn't particularly unknown, given that it's Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. But what the heck, it's a great, uncommon video that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus made only a few years ago under the baton of Riccardo Muti. (They pretty much never release full videos, but this was funded as a special memorial tribute, which the video explains.) The whole thing is glorious, but If you only want to celebrate the season with the Ode to Joy section, that comes in at the 52:12 mark, and you can just jump directly to it. Every year around this time, there are articles about which recorded version of A Christmas Carol is "the best." Usually it comes down to the films that starred either Alistair Sim or Reginald Owen. But for me, it's this one. It's not a movie, though, or a TV production. It's, of all things, an audio version that was done in 1960 for, I believe, the BBC. It's quite wonderful and as good an adaptation of the story as I've come across. It stars Sir Ralph Richardson as Scrooge, and Oscar-winner Paul Scofield as Dickens, the narrator. Casts don't get much better than that. I first heard this on radio station WFMT in Chicago which has been playing this every Christmas Eve for many decades. Eventually, I found it on audio tape. I've listened to it annually since I was a kidling. Some years I think I won't listen to it this year, but put it on for a few minutes for tradition's sake -- but after the first sentence it sucks me in. There are four reasons why, for me, this is far and away the best version. But one reason leaps out. First, the acting is as good as it gets. Scofield is crisp and emphatic as the narrator, and almost every creak of his voice draws you in to the world, and Richardson as Scrooge is a Christmas pudding joy. Second, being radio, you aren't limited by budgets to create the Dickensian world. Your imagination fills in every lush and poverty-stricken, nook and cranny -- and ghostly spirit, aided by moody sound effects and violins. Third, the adaptation sticks closely to the Dickens tale, and Scrooge comes across more a realistic, rounded-person than as a Mythic Icon. And fourth, and most of all by far, unlike any of the other version, this includes...Dickens. While the story of A Christmas Carol is beloved, it's Dickens' writing that makes it even more vibrant than the story alone is. And that's all lost in the movie versions, even down even to the legendary opening line, "Marley was dead, to begin with." Or any of the other classic narrative lines. (Like my favorite, when Scrooge first comes in contact with a ghost and was "as close to it as I am now to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow.") Or the richness of Dickens setting the mood and tone and description of the gritty and ephemeral and emotional world. All that's gone in movies, good as the productions may be. But all of that is here in this radio adaptation, and Scofield's reading of it is joyously wonderful and memorable. For many, this will be A Christmas Carol unlike any other you're aware of, giving it a meaning and richness you didn't realize was there. The ending of the tale is so much more moving and joyful here, as we listen to Dickens' own words, that begin with "Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more," and it soars from there, to perhaps my favorite extended passage about the new Scrooge and how good he is in the "good old world. Or any other good old world." If you have the time or inclination, do give it a listen. If only for five minutes to at least get the flavor. You might find yourself sticking around. Let it play in the background, if you have other things to do. It runs about 55 minutes. (Side note: speaking of Dickens, if you know the original cast album of Oliver!, the actor here who plays the Ghost of Christmas Present, Willoughby Goddard, was Mr. Bumble on Broadway and also in the original London production.) Normally I would post this later in the evening -- but given the various time zones across the country, I thought that I'd get it embedded earlier to give as many listeners as possible the chance to hear it on Christmas Eve. This might not play immediately, since it's a large file and may have to buffer first. But be patient, it's worth it. Ralph Richardson, left. Paul Scofield, right.
Here's another song from a TV musical I referenced a couple times the past few weeks, The Stingiest Man in Town. It was a 1956 special on the Alcoa Hour based on Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Many of the names involved might no longer be household ones, but for the day it was a respectable cast, with a couple of full-fledged opera stars in it (Patrice Munsel and Robert Weede, who also starred in the Frank Loesser musical, The Most Happy Fella), as well as pop stars, like Vic Damone, Johnny Desmond, and The Four Lads. Also in the cast was one of my favorite character actors, John McGiver, along with Martyn Green, a leading Gilbert & Sullivan interpreter of the time. And above all, one Hollywood legend as Scrooge. That would be none other than Basil Rathbone, famous for playing Sherlock Holmes in the movies from 1936-1946, The score by Fred Spielman and Janice Torre isn't especially memorable, although there are some nice things in it. And I like this one, not just for the song itself, which has a sweet charm to it, but perhaps even more for it being sung by Basil Rathbone. He's no singer at all, but handles the number effectively. I should also note that I like it when songs are written from famous lines in literature, as this is. This number comes from late in the show, after Scrooge has learned his lesson. It takes its title from a line from Dickens when Scrooge has told the Ghost of Jacob Marley that his former partner was always a good man of business, and the specter admonishes him with this line. And so, here, Scrooge has learned that lesson. "Mankind Should Be My Business." I'll toss in a couple of other numbers. We already played the song, "A Christmas Carol" and heard snippets from the title number "The Stingiest Man in Town" done on the Julie Andrews special This first additional tune here is a low-key, sweet piece sung by Martha Cratchit -- who, no, is not Bob's wife but oldest daughter -- performed by Betty Madigan, "Yes, There Is a Santa Claus." Why this minor character got a solo number and not the Mrs., I have no idea. And we'll end things here with a reasonably melodic ballad, "Birthday Party for the King," sung by Johnny Desmond, as Scrooge's nephew Fred. In the Dickens story, Fred is someone who does love Christmas, though tends to be much more fun-loving than the pious character here. But happily, one with a good set of pipes, which ultimately is proper for Christmas.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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