Richard Rodney Bennett – 'Agatha Christie's Murder On The Orient Express' (Original Soundtrack Recording) (1974)

Good British 1st release.

Composed by Richard Rodney Bennett and conducted by Marcus Dods.

Played by the Royal Opera House Orchestra.

The film (1974, dir. Sidney Lumet) featured a star-studded cast led by Albert Finney and Lauren Bacall.

‘It is heartily recommended that you take time to explore this gem of a score’

Condition
VINYL: G+. A few small scuffs but generally very clean on visual inspection. Played just pre-listing and sound clarity is very good but there is mild crackling and light repetitive surface noise persists almost throughout. Some sequences are clean and without this slight surface noise. For example, the album's highlight, ‘The Orient Express’ (track A3), especially is still an enjoyable listen.
OUTER SLEEVE/COVER: F. Cover is intact. Obvious signs of ripples and creases so this was damp at one time. Pink discolouration at bottom of front and back. Bottom edge is badly scuffed but intact. Spine and top edge are unworn. Vein-like creasing in from edges and disc showthrough on both sides; rubbing especially on top and bottom of disc outline. Corner damage is fairly severe on lower portions.  
INNER SLEEVE: G+. Original EMI. Off-white paper with curved corners and black text on lower of one side. Minor folding and creasing. Large crease towards corner on one side. Intact.

Tracklist
A1. Overture And Kidnapping. 5:32
A2. Stamboul Ferry. 1:00
A3. The Orient Express. 11:17
A4. The Body / Remembering Daisy. 3:30

B1. Entr'acte. 3:37
B2. Princess Dragomiroff. 1:01
B3. The Knife. 1:23
B4. Prelude To Murder. 3:50
B5. The Murder. 3:40
B6. Finale. 4:33

Composed by Richard Rodney Bennett
Conductor – Marcus Dods
Orchestra – Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden
Producer – Christopher Bishop

Recorded in England.

(C) 1974 EMI Film Distributors, Ltd.

Printed in U.S.A.
Manufactured by Capitol Records, Inc., a subsidiary of Capitol Industries-EMI, Inc.


Review
Richard Rodney Bennett's score for the Sidney Lumet adaptation of Agatha Christie's whodunit Murder on the Orient Express is a complicated, varied orchestral work reflecting the shifting tones and large cast of characters in the movie.

Things are always changing in the music, just as they do on screen, as viewers try to make sense out of the unusually broad panorama of suspects investigated by master detective Hercule Poirot on a snowbound train in Yugoslavia in the 1930s.

Bennett uses what he calls a "trashy main theme" that sounds like it was borrowed from one of those classically influenced pop songs of the '40s, and he concludes with a sweeping waltz, but in between the music cues respond to the contours of the convoluted plot, which makes this the sort of score that works well while one is watching the movie, but that sounds schizophrenic when listened to simply as an aural work.

Nevertheless, it is full of entertaining juxtapositions and traditional elements twisted just enough to give them an unusual feel, a tone that is true to a movie both steeped in its genre and, ultimately, able to move beyond that.

Despite being written in 1974, this is in reality a classic Golden Age score. Bennett uses his two themes to recreate the lush, sumptuous and refined classical elegance of the 1930s. The support of the murder with a dark, ominous and unsettling soundscape is expertly crafted and well attenuated to the film’s imagery. Richard Rodney Bennett offers a road less travelled and it is heartily recommended that you take time to explore this gem of a score.


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