Naturally, you wouldn't want to listen to
Max Steiner's score for John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre before seeing the movie. Without the powerful performances of Humphrey Bogart, Walter Huston, and Tim Holt, the indelible images of sun-dried Mexico and the relentless drive of the film's narrative in the memory,
Steiner's music could seem overwrought, overlong, and overloud. But after seeing Huston's magnificent study of obsessive greed, the score sounds just right. As restored by John Morgan, performed by the
Moscow Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by
William Stromberg, recorded by Marco Polo in 1999, and released here by Naxos in 2007, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre makes for compulsive listening. Some may find that the Main Theme's blustery March comes around too often and the evocative harmonica playing of
Dino Soldo comes around too rarely, but few would say the music isn't wonderfully atmospheric and dramatically gripping. Those interested in the history of film scores will find this disc very interesting; those fascinated by the music of
Max Steiner will find it essential.