Elmer Bernstein's Film Music Collection

Film Score Monthly presents one of the most important series of film score recordings of all time: Elmer Bernstein's Film Music Collection. From 1974 to 1979 legendary composer Elmer Bernstein financed his own series of classic film score LPs which he distributed through a mail order club. Though a few of the albums were reissued on LP—and one on CD—the entire series has long been out-of-print and a "Holy Grail" for film music aficionados.

This 12-disc boxed set is the definitive CD presentation of the Film Music Collection. The series features classic scores by Max Steiner, Franz Waxman, Miklos Rozsa, Bernard Herrmann (including the unused Torn Curtain score), Alfred Newman, Alex North, Dimitri Tiomkin, and Bernstein himself (including the sublime To Kill a Mockingbird).

The albums were all conducted by Bernstein in England, many with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. (For contractual reasons, one of the 14 FMC LPs—Scorpio by Jerry Fielding—is not included, as it was an original soundtrack album and not a Bernstein re-recording.)

The 13 Bernstein-conducted FMC albums are presented on 11 CDs in the box set, with the two Bernstein-composed albums (The Miracle, Toccata for Toy Trains and To Kill a Mockingbird) and two Tiomkin-composed albums (Land of the Pharaohs, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and The High and the Mighty/Search for Paradise) combined. (Most of the FMC recordings are over 40 minutes and could not be further consolidated.)

As a special bonus, the final disc in this box set features Bernstein's never-before-released 2003 Prague re-recording of his score for Kings of the Sun—a 1963 Mayan adventure starring Yul Brynner. The album was meant to be released on Bernstein's Amber Records label, but never came out.

Unfortunately, one of the recording venues Elmer Bernstein used for the Film Music Collection—Olympic Studios in London—subsequently closed its doors and threw out the irreplacable master tapes. For this reason, five albums comprising four CDs in this FMC box set—Wuthering Heights, Viva Zapata!/Death of a Salesman, Madame Bovary, and both Dimitri Tiomkin albums—have been mastered from sealed LPs. FSM has meticulously transferred numerous copies of the vinyl to present high-quality transfers far superior to any home clean-up. (All other discs are mastered from the original 1/4" source tapes.)

The FMC box set is packaged as follows: the 12 discs come in three "butterfly" or "clamshell" cases—the kind which used to be commonplace for 2CD sets—with each case holding four discs. The three "butterfly" cases go into a larger, hard-cardboard box along with a 136-page hardcover book containing all of the original LP liner notes as well as new material: an overview by Jon Burlingame, an essay by Jay Alan Quantrill (one of the original liner note authors), reissue producer's note by Lukas Kendall, and new commentary for Kings of the Sun including a remembrance by Prague orchestra contractor James Fitzpatrick. The book is chock-full of written musical examples as well as archival photographs, many of which have never been seen.

Elmer Bernstein's Film Music Collection is one of the most significant film music album series ever undertaken, with a major film composer conducting his own performances of his and others' works. While some of these scores have since been released from their original soundtracks, several others are lost and will never be released—or exist only in monaural sound, while the entire FMC is in stereo. In the 1970s, these LPs were lights in the darkness for film music fans, and the recordings became treasured entries in film music collections. The historical albums are finally preserved on CD in this loving collection.

For contractual reasons, there are currently no plans to release these albums separately, and some of them may never be otherwise available. The box set is limited to 2,000 copies—first-come, first-served.