AGATHA op.265 (April 1978)

Published by: Highbridge Music Ltd
Commissioned by: First Artists/Casablanca Warner
Instrumentation: orchestra
[Key to Abbreviations]
Duration: 60 mins
First Performance: Recorded 19-21 April 1978 CTS

Notes

The film starred Dustin Hoffmann and Vanessa Redgrave and was directed by Michael Apted. It told the story of Agatha Christie's disappearance and eventual discovery in The Swan Hotel Harrogate, where the film was shot.

Composer's note: ''I was taken on first as musical director for 'Agatha' and recorded a large amount of period music for dance band with arrangements which I scored myself, and for palm court trio in which I played piano, with Sid Sax violin and the great Reginald Kilbey cello. In the aftermath of what was a somewhat troubled shoot I was asked by David Puttnam and Michael Apted to compose and conduct a large-scale symphonic score in the tradition of Max Steiner, since for one reason the film was set in that period and for a second reason it was felt that a big score would add excitement and atmosphere.  I went ahead and scored and recorded the complete picture, completing the mix on May 5th 1978 at CTS Wembl;ey with John Richards as engineer.  However soon after the dubbing of the film was completed David rang me and announced that he had resigned from the picture. The incoming producer Jarvis Astaire decided to stage a preview of  the completed film at BAFTA, with a sample audience of 'staff from Selfridges'. The exit questionaire seemed to suggest that a large percentage liked the music rather more than the film generally and this made me uneasy. Also the music had been dubbed at  too high a level and was sounding over-prominent.  These and other factors resulted in Astaire scrapping the entire score of about 60 minutes of original music recorded for an over 50-piece orchestra. He contacted his Hollywood friend Johnny Mandel who wrote a much simpler score in a modern style to which was added a 1970s-style balled on the end titles. I happened to meet Johnny later that year at Glen Glen in LA and he said: 'You must be crazy writing a huge great orchestral score for a film like that!' I took it as a compliment.'

 In 1995, 17 years later, Carl Davis very kindly asked me to resurrect a suite from it for a BBC concert series called Lost Scores" (see op.472), Losing this score had come as a great disappointment to me. It was a huge opportunity to compose a score, with Hoffman and Redgrave and photographer Vittoria Storaro and I was allowed a large Hollywood-style orchestra of which I took full advantage. Several suggestions have been made to resurrect the score and re-record, notably by Ford Thaxton and by Silva Screen, but it is difficult to arouse enthusiasm for a score that was not used!

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