The complete 1940 English release of Warner Brothers' The Sea Hawk is 126 minutes long. The complete 2005 Naxos recording of
Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score for The Sea Hawk is 114 minutes long, which means that all but 12 minutes of the film was accompanied by music. And if you think for a minute that there's a dull second anywhere in that 114 minutes of music, you are entirely mistaken. If anything,
Korngold's score is almost too exciting: the thrills, the chills, and the virtuoso brilliance never stop. Indeed, the score is nearly more exciting than the movie it accompanies: one almost needs the image of Errol Flynn dueling to reduce the score to merely heroic dimensions. But the color, drama, adventure, exhilaration, and amazing coherence of
Korngold's work stand out as nothing short of amazing. Performed by the
Moscow Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under
William T. Stromberg and coupled with
Korngold's more modernist but no less romantic score for Warner Brothers' 1946 Deception, this two-disc set should appeal to anyone with even a passing interest in film music. It should be added that the sound is rich and warm, and that the liner notes are a fascinating read.