Charles Gerhardt (conductor)

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Charles Allan Gerhardt (born February 6, 1927 in Detroit , Michigan , † February 22, 1999 in Redding , California ) was an American conductor , arranger , sound engineer and music producer . He is best known for his new recordings of classical symphonic film music from Hollywood's "golden era" of the 1930s and 1940s.

Life

Youth and education

Charles Gerhardt spent his childhood in Little Rock , Arkansas . His musical talent became evident at an early age: at the age of five he was already playing the piano , and at the age of nine he began to compose and orchestrate. Eventually his family moved to Illinois , where he graduated from school. During World War II he served in the United States Navy with the Aleutians as an assistant to a military chaplain . Later, he was a lifelong member of the Veterans Association Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States (VFW). Gerhardt then studied music and engineering at various universities, including the College of William and Mary , the University of Illinois and the University of Southern California . He also studied piano privately and at the Juilliard School , the renowned New York Conservatory .

As a sound engineer at RCA Victor

After Gerhardt had completed his training, he first worked as a salesman for the record dealer The Record Hunter in New York and then as a sound engineer. He oversaw his first sound recordings for Westminister / Sonora. In 1950 he began his long-term collaboration with RCA Victor , first in New York and later in London . His first task was to prepare older 78 / min shellac recordings by Enrico Caruso and Artur Schnabel for publication on the then new long-playing record . Over the next few years, as a sound engineer, he oversaw numerous recordings of some of the most important RCA artists, including Kirsten Flagstad , Vladimir Horowitz , William Kapell , Wanda Landowska and Zinka Milanov . But he also made recordings with Mario Lanza , Eartha Kitt and Pérez Prado . In 1954 he worked with Leopold Stokowski and the NBC Symphony Orchestra on an experimental stereophonic recording of Gian Carlo Menotti's Sebastian and Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet . Most important for Gerhardt's further professional career, however, was the meeting with Arturo Toscanini , whose recordings he supervised at RCA and with whom he worked closely during the last seven years of his life. It was also Toscanini who encouraged Gerhardt to become a conductor himself.

As a music producer

In 1955 Gerhardt left RCA and began working as a music producer for the American Westminster Company in London and Vienna . When the company declared its bankruptcy in 1959, Gerhardt briefly produced recordings of pop singers such as Eddie Fisher at Bell Sound .

Gerhardt's great opportunity as a record producer arose in early 1960 when the head of the RCA Classic Department, George Marek, offered him to produce recordings for RCA and Reader's Digest in England. For this he was given the support of the sound engineer Kenneth Wilkinson - one of the most important representatives of his field. It was the beginning of a partnership that would last over 30 years and include more than 4,000 intake sessions. The first major project was a twelve LP set for Reader's Digest Recordings entitled "A Festival of Light Classical Music". With a budget of 250,000 dollars, Gerhardt had a free hand and was able to sign orchestras in London, Vienna and Paris as well as such important conductors as Sir Adrian Boult , Massimo Freccia , Sir Alexander Gibson , Josef Leo Gruber and René Leibowitz . The album set, which was sold exclusively by mail order in 15 countries in both a monophonic and a stereophonic version, proved to be a resounding success. Within a few years, more than two million copies of these album sets were sold - a total of more than 24 million records. Over the next few years, this hit was followed by dozens of compilations based on a similar concept, including mood and pop music.

Among the more important projects with classical music from this period are the Reader's Digest album set with symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven , published in 1961 , recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of René Leibowitz, and a record set with works by Sergei Rachmaninov for Piano and orchestra, also played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Jascha Horenstein with the pianist Earl Wild . One production that Gerhardt himself valued most was Treasury of Great Music, another twelve-LP set for Reader's Digest , released in 1964. It included recordings by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbirolli , Sir Malcolm Sargent , Antal Doráti , Jascha Horenstein, Rudolf Kempe , Josef Krips , Charles Münch , Georges Prêtre and Fritz Reiner .

Many of these Reader's Digest recordings were later re-released, some on CD .

Conducting

The first time to the baton - it should have been a makeshift pencil - Gerhardt picked up in 1961 when a conductor had to cancel a recording session at the last minute due to illness and he had to jump in to access the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra during the recording in the Walthamstow Assembly Hall conduct . Gerhardt, however, had training in conducting and had received a little guidance from Jascha Horenstein.

Since the projects for Reader's Digest required a huge amount of recordings, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was no longer sufficient and Gerhardt realized that an additional orchestra and conductor in London was required to cope with the volume of recording. Together with Sidney Sax , he put together a body of renowned London orchestral musicians and freelance musicians. With this orchestra, which met exclusively for the recordings ( record orchestra ), he started work in January 1964 and with it conceived more than 600 albums for Reader's Digest within the next twelve years . The orchestra was initially simply called the "RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra" and was officially registered as the National Philharmonic Orchestra in 1970 and lasted for 25 years.

Gerhardt headed it for recordings of classical, contemporary and film music. For the recording of Howard Hanson's Symphony No. 2 “Romantic”, opus 30 , he received a lot of praise from the enthusiastic composer. Gerhardt developed a very broad repertoire of classical music, the performances of which he conducted both for recordings and occasionally in the concert hall. His classical recordings include works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Richard Strauss , William Walton , Maurice Ravel , Claude Debussy and Richard Wagner .

Gerhardt's real importance, however, lies in the fact that it has given classical symphonic film music recognition as a genre of music to be taken seriously and at the same time has reached a broad audience worldwide. He made a significant contribution to the rediscovery of classic Hollywood compositions of the 1930s and 1940s and thus to the fact that almost forgotten composers like Erich Wolfgang Korngold have returned to consciousness and ultimately also to the concert halls. Gerhardt was the first conductor to treat film music in the same way as classical concert music.

Charles Gerhardt, who had always been interested in film music, recorded his first film score records with the title Great Music from the Movies in 1968 . These also contained a 17-minute suite of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's music for the 1942 Hollywood classic Kings Row, arranged by Gerhardt . At that time he also met the composer's son, George Korngold , in London , who had come to RCA in 1966 as a producer and manager. As a result, both campaigned with commitment and a lot of persuasion to be allowed to release a record exclusively with film music by Korngold's father. It wasn't until 1972 that RCA finally gave the green light for a sampler that was released under the title The Sea Hawk: The Classic Film Scores of Erich Wolfgang Korngold . This pilot album unexpectedly turned out to be a bestseller and developed into one of the best-selling classic records of all time within a few years.

This resulted in the RCA series Classic Film Scores , in which 14 further albums had been released by 1983. Gerhardt led the National Philharmonic Orchestra on all of the recordings, while George Korngold took on the role of producer. The technical recording management in the Kingsway Hall, selected for its excellent acoustics, was in the hands of Kenneth Wilkinson. The series' albums were partly dedicated to the composers Max Steiner , Miklós Rózsa , Franz Waxman , Alfred Newman , Dimitri Tiomkin , Bernard Herrmann and later John Williams , but also to the music in films by Bette Davis , Humphrey Bogart and Errol Flynn .

The entire series impressed not only with its technical execution, but above all with Gerhardt's very careful arrangements and interpretation of the film music. Wherever they were missing, he worked out suites himself. To do this, he met with the composers and discussed with them what the arrangements should look like in order to do justice to their intentions. Many of these suites have since remained in use for concert performances. Not only the first record, but also most of the successors, received excellent reviews.

The following records were made in the The Classic Film Scores series :

  • The Sea Hawk: The Classic Film Scores of Erich Wolfgang Korngold , 1972
  • Now Voyager: The Classic Film Scores of Max Steiner , 1973
  • Classic Film Scores for Bette Davis , 1973
  • Captain from Castile: The Classic Film Scores of Alfred Newman , 1973
  • Elizabeth and Essex: The Classic Film Scores of Erich Wolfgang Korngold , 1973
  • Casablanca: Classic Film Scores for Humphrey Bogart , 1974
  • Gone with the Wind , 1974 - contains all important elements of the music Max Steiner soundtrack to Gone with the Wind (1939)
  • Citizen Kane: The Classic Film Scores of Bernard Herrmann , 1974
  • Sunset Boulevard: The Classic Film Scores of Franz Waxman , 1974
  • Spellbound: The Classic Film Scores of Miklós Rózsa , 1975
  • Captain Blood: Classic Film Scores for Errol Flynn , 1975
  • Lost Horizon: The Classic Film Scores of Dimitri Tiomkin , 1976
  • Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind , 1978
  • The Spectacular World of Classic Film Scores , 1978
  • Star Wars: Return of the Jedi , 1983

With the Classic Film Scores series, Gerhardt, Wilkinson and Korngold helped the neglected genre of film music to gain previously unknown popularity and recognition. "The RCA series has proven that symphonic film music in its best examples, detached from the celluloid, is capable of an independent, fully valid life on record (and thus also in the concert hall) - solely obeying musical laws and artistic standards," says Olaf Kiener Wrote in 1988. In addition, the sales success of the RCA series immediately got an entire industry rolling, as other record companies recognized the niche in the market and wanted to fill it with their own film music releases.

Even more important in terms of film history, however, is the fact that the RCA film music records had a tremendous influence on young film directors such as Steven Spielberg , George Lucas and Nicholas Meyer . They recognized the importance of grand orchestral film scores as essential determinants of the success of their fantasy and science fiction films. John Williams developed into a sought-after composer for such film projects and, in turn, provided a revitalization of the symphonic film music of the old Hollywood school. Last but not least, Star Wars owed a lot to Korngold's role model and Gerhardt's photographs. Not surprisingly, it was Gerhardt who in turn made the first recordings of Williams' music for science fiction films. However, these are among his weaker recordings.

From the mid-1980s, RCA (later BMG ) began to re-release the series on CD. When The Sea Hawk was released in 1989 in a CD version that was re-edited by Gerhardt himself, extended by a good 20 minutes and digitally revised, it received excellent reviews and also proved to be a bestseller. Nevertheless, RCA / BMG then decided to leave all further re-releases in their original LP length without Gerhardt's involvement, but to mix them in Dolby Surround . The latter, in particular, aroused a lot of criticism, as this sound process changed the original recordings significantly and the sound ultimately didn't turn out as good as it would have been possible.

Further important film music recordings by Charles Gerhardt were the complete recording of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's famous score for Kings Row (1979) and a compilation of film compositions by Lee Holdridge (1985). The RCA record Gone with the Wind (1974), Kings Row (1979) and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983) also pointed in the direction of the future development of film music recordings: No longer just “bit by bit” excerpts from the To compile the entire score, but rather to present the entire composition if possible.

Gerhardt had another great success as a conductor with the RCA album Annie's Song . The recording with the National Philharmonic Orchestra and flautist James Galway made it to number 3 in the British charts in 1978. The albums Man With The Golden Flute (1982) and The Magic Flute (1992), for which Gerhardt also conducted the National Philharmonic Orchestra, were also created in collaboration with Sir James Galway . He also worked as arranger and conductor for recordings by Leontyne Price , Robert White and Julian Lloyd Webber .

retirement

Even after he retired from RCA in 1986, Gerhardt remained active as a freelance music producer until 1997. However, he no longer performed publicly as a conductor and declined all inquiries in this regard.

In 1991 he moved to Redding , California , where he spent the last years of his life. After he was diagnosed with a brain tumor at the end of November 1998 , Charles Gerhardt underwent brain surgery, the complications of which he died on February 22, 1999 at the age of 72 in Mercy Hospital in Redding. He found his final resting place in the local Catholic St. Joseph Cemetery (St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery).

literature

  • Robert E. Benson: Charles Gerhardt, 1927-1999 . In: Film Score Monthly , Vol. 4, No. 4/1999, p. 48.
  • Jon Burlingame, Doug Galloway: Charles Allan Gerhardt . In: Variety, March 4, 1999.
  • Allan Kozinn : Charles Allan Gerhardt, 72, Record Producer and Conductor. In: New York Times . March 1, 1999, p. 19 ( online ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e Robert E. Benson: Charles Gerhardt, 1927-1999 . In: Film Score Monthly , Vol. 4, No. 4/1999, p. 48
  2. ^ A b c d e Robert E. Benson: A four-decade friendship with Charles Gerhardt ; Retrieved December 15, 2008
  3. ↑ a b c d Colin Butler: Obituary: Charles Gerhardt . In: The Independent , London, April 2, 1999 ; Retrieved December 15, 2008
  4. ↑ a b c d biography at allmusic.com ; Retrieved December 15, 2008
  5. ↑ cf. Information on the National Philharmonic Orchestra ; Retrieved December 15, 2008
  6. ↑ Allan Kozinn : Charles Allan Gerhardt, 72, Record Producer and Conductor. In: New York Times. March 1, 1999, accessed December 15, 2008
  7. ↑ a b c Olaf Kiener: On the death of George Korngold . In: Filmharmonische Blätter , No. 8/1988, p. 37
  8. ↑ a b c d cf. Robert E. Benson: Classic Film Scores ; Retrieved December 14, 2008
  9. ↑ cf. also the reviews in Didier C. Deutsch (Ed.): Soundtracks. The Essential Album Guide to Film, Television and Stage Music . MusicHound. Visible Ink Press / Gale Group, Detroit, San Francisco, London, Boston, Woodbridge 2000, ISBN 1-57859-101-5 , pp. 220, 696 u. a.
  10. ↑ Didier C. Deutsch (Ed.): Soundtracks. The Essential Album Guide to Film, Television and Stage Music . MusicHound. Visible Ink Press / Gale Group, Detroit, San Francisco, London, Boston, Woodbridge 2000, ISBN 1-57859-101-5 , p. 696
  11. ↑ Didier C. Deutsch (Ed.): Soundtracks. The Essential Album Guide to Film, Television and Stage Music . MusicHound. Visible Ink Press / Gale Group, Detroit, San Francisco, London, Boston, Woodbridge 2000, ISBN 1-57859-101-5 , p. 734
personal data
SURNAME Gerhardt, Charles
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gerhardt, Charles Allan (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American conductor, record producer, sound engineer and arranger
DATE OF BIRTH February 6, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Detroit , Michigan
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1999
Place of death Redding , California