Howard Blake: Agatha: Music Inspired By The Motion Picture (CD)

Dragon's Domain Records, presents AGATHA: MUSIC INSPIRED BY THE MOTION PICTURE featuring music composed and conducted by Howard Blake (THE DUELLISTS, THE RIDDLE OF THE SANDS, THE SNOWMAN) but ultimately not used for the 1979 feature film directed by Michael Apted (21 Up series, GORILLAS IN THE MIST, THUNDERHEART, ENIGMA) and starring Vanessa Redgrave, Dustin Hoffman, Timothy Dalton, Helen Morse and Celia Gregory. In 1926, legendary mystery writer Agatha Christie disappeared for 11 days. To this day, no one knows the details of what she did during that period of time. AGATHA presents a fictional account of Christie's time away, showing her as a woman fleeing from her own life following the death of her mother and the announcement from her husband that he's leaving her. Fleeing to a spa in Harrowgate while the whole country is looking for her, American reporter Wally Stanton (Hoffman) finds her and ultimately tries to help her. Howard Blake was born in the London borough of Enfield in 1938. His interest in the cinema led him to a number of outside jobs and he worked as a projectionist at the National Film Theatre. Blake became a piano session player, arranger and orchestrator at Abbey Road and other studios for several composers, including Stanley Myers, Quincy Jones and Bernard Herrmann. It was Herrmann who introduced Blake to Laurie Johnson, staff composer for THE AVENGERS, leading to his first television scoring assignment in 1967. His work in television and advertising music continued and his frequent collaboration with celebrated commercials director Ridley Scott led to his scoring of the director's debut feature THE DUELLISTS in 1977. While his music was ultimately not used in the film, it was composed during one of his most prolific years and worthy of preservation. The booklet contains liner notes written by noted author Randall Larson, including insights by composer Howard Blake on the creation of the score.

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