# Elizabeth and Essex: The Classic Film Scores of Erich Korngold / Classic Film Scores for Bette Davis Charles Gerhardt, Conductor; The National Philharmonic Orchestra **URL:** **By** Roy A. Childs, Jr. **Published:** February 1, 1974 --- “But the music—vibrantly recorded by RCA’s technicians and wonderfully conducted by Charles Gerhardt—is not all that is great about these albums.” These two albums continue RCA’s beautifully recorded and produced collection of the “classic film scores” of Korngold, Steiner and other composers for the great films of the 1930’s and ’40 s. They are justly conceived as companion volumes to two earlier albums: _Now, Voyager_ (the scores of Max Steiner, who wrote the music for _The Fountainhead_) and _The Sea Hawk_ (Korngold’s classic scores). These albums contain a host of brilliant and exciting music. The music from the Bette Davis-Errol Flynn classic “The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex,” “Anthony Adverse,” “The Prince and the Pauper,” “The Sea Wolf,” “Deception,” “Another Dawn” and “Of Human Bondage” are all contained on _Elizabeth and Essex_. Korngold’s music recalls all of these great films and their great stars: Davis, Flynn, Kay Francis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains and Ida Lupino, to mention only a few. The _Classic Film Scores for Bette Davis_ contains music by Korngold, Steiner, Franz Waxman and Alfred Newman. The films represented include: “Now, Voyager” (the brilliantly effective Bette Davis-Paul Henreid vehicle), “All About Eve,” “All This, and Heaven Too,” “Jezebel” and “Juarez.” But the music—vibrantly recorded by RCA’s technicians and wonderfully conducted by Charles Gerhardt—is not all that is great about these albums. Contained in each album is a four-page booklet with notes and photographs of the films. Both of these recordings are worthy successors to _Now, Voyager_ and _The Sea Hawk_. _Reviewed by R. A. Childs, Jr. / Classical Recording / BFL Price $4.95 each (List $5.95)_