Red River.
[a musical CD] Film score by Dimitri Tiomkin. Performed by Moscow Symphony Choir and Orchestra, conducted by William Stromberg. Naxos, 2005. 1 hour, 4 minutes.
Yes, John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, John Ford, and Howard Hawks take the usual credit for this classic 1948 Western movie depicting a cattle drive going north across the Red River up the Chisholm Trail. But earlier decades before, the Russians had their October Revolution, and creative talent crossed the Danube for freedom, as did Ukrainian Dimitri Tiomkin (born 1894). He found himself composing in Europe and America. The movies were attractive to the brash showman, and he became one of the greats of Hollywood’s Golden Age lush musical backgrounds.
Yes, John Wayne, Montgomery Clift, John Ford, and Howard Hawks take the usual credit for this classic 1948 Western movie depicting a cattle drive going north across the Red River up the Chisholm Trail. But earlier decades before, the Russians had their October Revolution, and creative talent crossed the Danube for freedom, as did Ukrainian Dimitri Tiomkin (born 1894). He found himself composing in Europe and America. The movies were attractive to the brash showman, and he became one of the greats of Hollywood’s Golden Age lush musical backgrounds.
Other works included Resurrection (1931), Lost Horizon (1937), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Duel in the Sun (1946), The Big Sky (1952), High Noon (1952), Giant (1956), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), and Rio Bravo (1959). By the 1950’s Tiomkin was the highest paid composed in Hollywood. After the Iron Curtain fell, the Moscow Symphony Choir and Orchestra early chose Tiomkin’s Red River worthy of revival for Russian audiences. This American release is a lesser version, compared to the European, but the Russians must have enjoyed the dynamic sweeps, the cattle runs, and weaving in American folk music. And they must have listened for the echoes of their homeland’s sounds.
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