Max Steiner
Austrian-born film composer Max Steiner was the grandson of the musical impresario who discovered Strauss and brought Offenbach to Vienna. Growing up with a rich heritage of opera and symphony all about him, Steiner developed into a musical prodigy; at the age of thirteen he graduated from the Imperial Academy of Music, completing the course in one year and winning the Gold Medal of the Emperor. Already a composer at 14 and conductor at 16, Steiner moved from Austria to England in 1905, remaining there to conduct at His Majesty's Theatre until 1914. With the outbreak of the war, Steiner emigrated to America, where he kept busy with Broadway musicals and operettas. One of his most beneficial American jobs was to compose the music to be conducted during screenings of the silent film The Bondman (1915); he became a friend of William Fox, the film's producer, giving Steiner early entree into the Hollywood that would so gainfully employ him in later years. In 1929, he was brought to fledgling RKO Radio Studios to orchestrate the film adaptation of Ziegfeld's Rio Rita (1929). Always confident in his talents, Steiner was realistic enough to understand that he was hired by RKO because he cost a tenth of what someone like Stowkowski would charge. While at RKO, Steiner developed his theory that music should be a function of the dramatic content of a film, and not merely background filling. His scores for such films as Symphony of Six Million (1932), The Informer (1935), and, especially, King Kong (1933) are carefully integrated works, commenting upon the visual images, augmenting the action, and heightening the dramatic impact. While Steiner's detractors would characterize his spell-it-out technique as "Mickey Mousing" (in reference to the music heard in animated cartoons), producers, directors, and stars came to rely upon Steiner to make a good film better, and a great film superb. After 111 pictures at RKO, Steiner was hired by David O. Selznick, who assigned the composer to write the score for Gone with the Wind (1939). Virtually 75 percent of this 221-minute epic required music of some sort, and Steiner rose to the occasion with what many consider his finest work. One concept refined in Gone with the Wind was to give each important character his or her own separate musical motif -- quite an undertaking when one realizes how many speaking parts there were in the film. Around that time Steiner began working at Warner Bros, where he penned the studio's famous "opening logo" fanfare and also provided evocative scores for such classics as Now Voyager (1942), Casablanca (1942) and Mildred Pierce (1945). A proud, vain man, Steiner frequently found himself the butt of good-natured practical jokes from his fellow composers, but at Oscar time it was usually Steiner who had the last laugh. Steiner remained active until 1965, contributing scores to The Caine Mutiny (1954), The Searchers (1955), A Summer Place (1959) and many other films. It was only at the very end of his career, with such retrogressive scores as Youngblood Hawke (1964), that Max Steiner's once-revolutionary technique began to sound old hat.
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Adventures of Don Juan (Ost) [1948]
Film Soundtracks - Released by Classic Soundtrack Collector on 24/07/2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gone With the Wind (O.S.T - 1939)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Vintage Music on 20/09/1939
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Ost) [1948]
Film Soundtracks - Released by Classic Soundtrack Collector on 25/07/2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gone with the Wind (Original Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by ViewFinder Music on 14/10/2008
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Parrish (Original Film Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Stage Door on 27/07/2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Max Steiner Conducts Great Film Themes
World - Released by TP4 Music on 6/01/2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
This Is Cinerama
Pop - Released by Compose Records on 10/04/2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vintage Hollywood Classics, Vol. 21: Anastasia & Band of Angels (Original Soundtracks Remastered 2016)
20th Century Fox Studio Orchestra, Ken Darby Chorus, Warner Brothers Studio Orchestra, Alfred Newman, Max Steiner
Classical - Released by Jube Legends on 1/04/2016
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Just at the Turn of the Tide
Miscellaneous - Released by turn of the tide on 21/04/2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Movie Songs
Film Soundtracks - Released by Movie Songs on 19/02/2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Streetcar Named Desire & Great Film Music
Film Soundtracks - Released by Foyer on 1/01/2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Deluxe Edition
Film Soundtracks - Released by deluxer 60's hits on 9/07/2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Hanging Tree (Highlights from the Original Movie Soundtrack)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Disques Cinémusique on 3/01/2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vintage Hollywood Classics, Vol. 16: Gone with the Wind & Pursued (Original Motion Picture Soundtracks)
Classical - Released by Jube Pops on 2/10/2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Helen of Troy ("Helene of Troy" Original Soundtrack Theme)
Film Soundtracks - Released by Soundtrack Records on 27/03/2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Hollywood - Gone With The Wind
Soundtracks - Released by Hollywood on 2/01/2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gone with the Wind
Max Steiner Orchestra, Max Steiner
Classical - Released by Naxos Classical Archives on 1/12/2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo