Gone With the Wind: The Essential Max Steiner Film Music Collection

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Review by William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

When he arrived in Hollywood on Christmas Day, 1929, Max Steiner was already 41 years old, but the former Broadway conductor and orchestrator quickly established himself as a major film composer, leading the RKO music department and later moving to Warner Bros. His bravura style did much to define the way music was used in the movies during the first few decades of the sound era. His approach was not subtle; he liked big effects that underlined the dramatic moments in a plot, emphasizing them to the point of melodrama. Influenced by Richard Wagner, he sometimes even wrote leitmotifs for each of the major characters, as he did in his best-known score, for Gone With the Wind. There have been many albums beyond just soundtrack LPs devoted to Steiner's music -- in particular, the Tony Thomas and Citadel labels devoted several discs to his work in the 1970s and 1980s, in addition to such major-label efforts as Music by Max Steiner (Capitol, 1953), Max Steiner -- Great Love Themes From Motion Pictures (RCA Victor, 1955), and Now Voyager: The Classic Film Scores of Max Steiner (RCA Victor, 1973). But this newly recorded collection, spanning two hours and two CDs, is the most extensive set of treatments of his music. It is especially attractive because of its modern high fidelity, which reminds the listener how often it has been necessary to hear Steiner's full-bodied work coming out of a tinny television speaker. Here, his grand themes are given the aural size they deserve. The composer can be playful ("The Adventures of Mark Twain") or intimate ("The Searchers"), but he prefers a large scale. Some of his most successful music is missing here (nothing from the Oscar winners The Informer or Since You Went Away), but much of his best is included.