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Dragon's Domain Records, to be distributed through buysoundtrax.com, presents THE LEE HOLDRIDGE COLLECTION, VOLUME 1 featuring music composed and conducted by Lee Holdridge (JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL, SPLASH, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST) for two television films, THE PILOT'S WIFE and THE TENTH MAN.
Lee Holdridge has scored a wide range of feature films, TV movies, television series and documentaries over the last four decades, with more than 220 projects, brimming with memorable and affecting music. Holdridge is particularly known for his lyrical, harmonic orchestral music but he's also highly adept at dramatizing action and adventure. Equally striking and memorable are the scores for some 118 TV movies that Holdridge has scored within those same four decades – these films have actually dominated over his film music career. Some have been largely forgotten as films but many contain outstanding scores that are richly dramatic and melodic. Dragon's Domain Records celebrates two of them in this collection; neither of them has been released commercially until now. Both films are mysteries, each with a predominant air of romance, and they benefit greatly from superior scores that accentuate each of those dramatic properties.
THE PILOT'S WIFE was made into a TV-movie in 2002, based on the 1998 novel by Anita Shreve, directed by TV veteran Robert Markowitz. Holdridge had also worked with Markowitz previously, on THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN (1995) and INTO THIN AIR: DEATH ON EVEREST (1997). The film stars Christine Lahti as Kathryn Lyons, a woman who's just lost her husband, an airline pilot killed in a plane crash off the coast of Ireland. Kathryn and her daughter Mattie try to cope with the sudden loss while determined to find what happened in the crash, only to be led into a deeper world in which she finds her husband had not only been involved in smuggling but had lived a whole other life she never knew about. The score's main theme is an especially evocative melody for piano over strings and winds, while a piercing electronic flute sound adds enough of a visceral sense of misterioso to add a touch of tension to the music. The score has an overall romantic element, provided by that main theme, but it also captures a recurring feeling of unanswered questions.
THE TENTH MAN is a wartime drama was based on the 1985 short novel by British novelist Graham Greene (no relation to the 1913 play by W. Somerset Maugham, which had been filmed under the same title in 1936). The Hallmark Hall Of Fame film was helmed by veteran British film and television director Jack Gold (ACES HIGH, THE MEDUSA TOUCH, ESCAPE FROM SOBIBOR). The story takes place during World War II and is about a French lawyer named Chavel (Anthony Hopkins), imprisoned during the Nazi occupation of Paris, who is condemned to die in the Nazi reprisals to sabotage committed against them by the French resistance. Chavel manages to trade places with another prisoner in exchange for all his possessions, which the other man will leave to his sister, Therese (Kristin Scott Thomas), thus insuring her comfort and financial stability after his execution. Chavel survives the war and, posing as one of the other prisoners, visits Therese at the house. She is bitterly hateful of the man who has indirectly caused the death of her brother, but unaware that Chavel is responsible, she invites him to stay on as a caretaker, and eventually the two fall in love. When a stranger arrives, claiming to be Chavel himself, the true Chavel risks discovery and the eventuality of Therese finding out the truth. Performed by an orchestra of 50 – 55 players, the score for THE TENTH MAN is big and lush, as the producers requested, with a slight French feeling as the film begins in occupied Paris.
Lee Holdridge was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 1944. He spent his early years in Costa Rica, beginning music studies on the violin at the age of ten with Hugo Mariani, then the conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica. Later, Holdridge moved to New York to continue his music studies and begin his professional career as a composer. Holdridge's successes in New York came to the attention of Neil Diamond who brought Holdridge to Los Angeles to write arrangements for his forthcoming albums. A string of Gold and Platinum hits followed, which led to Diamond and Holdridge collaborating on the film score for JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL. Since that time, Holdridge has scored numerous film such as SPLASH, BIG BUSINESS, MR. MOM, MICKI & MAUDE, 16 DAYS OF GLORY, SYLVESTER, A TIGER'S TALE, EL PUEBLO DEL SOL, OLD GRINGO, PASTIME and BROTHERS AT WAR. His television work include MOONLIGHTING, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, the complete eight hour remake of EAST OF EDEN, DREAMER OF OZ, Hallmark Hall Of Fame's ONE AGAINST THE WIND and THE STORY LADY. Lee also began a very successful collaboration with Moriah Films, the film division of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, with the Academy Award winning documentary feature film THE LONG WAY HOME. In addition to his film career, Mr. Holdridge has had an extensive repertoire of concert works performed and recorded. He has also worked with many major recording artists having written, arranged and conducted for Placido Domingo, Barbra Streisand, Brian May of Queen, Stevie Wonder, Neil Diamond, John Denver, Neil Sedaka, Daniel Rodriguez, Al Jarreau, Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Natalie Cole, Jane Oliver and many others.
Dragon's Domain Records is excited to bring THE PILOT'S WIFE and THE TENTH MAN to compact disc for the first time as part of the LEE HOLDRIDGE COLLECTION, VOLUME 1, Mastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland under the composer's supervision. The booklet includes exclusive liner notes written by author Randall Larson with the participation of the composer.
- BSX
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