When Warners’ Giant was previewing at cinemas in the US, the unfinished score by Dimitri Tiomkin was temporarily tracked with Max Steiner music, causing a member of the audience to comment on his reaction card: ‘How long has Max Steiner used the nom de plume Dimitri Tiomkin?’ His observation that the two composers are chalk and cheese is confirmed by these issues from Marco Polo. Tiomkin, a composer who never tackled anything by half, went for the big sound, often scoring in excess of his needs on account of his weak concept of orchestration. Steiner, by comparison was fastidious, combining classical skills with unashamedly romantic melodies.

All This, And Heaven Too followed Gone With The Wind, with Steiner in his element again with a romantic costume drama; this one was set in Europe, among the French aristocracy. The music reflects the milieu, the theme of love restrained, and the heroine’s happiness in handling her young charges. The mood is akin in spirit to Richard Strauss’s incidental music to Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and the rewards for the listener are enhanced, as conductor William Stromberg notes, by Steiner’s way of ‘composing through scenes effortlessly with every note perfectly placed’. That’s apparent, too, in the briefer selection from A Stolen Life.

The Moscow Symphony, ‘felt a sense of relief’ playing this music, but I wonder whether this was their reaction after performing Tiomkin’s Red River. The composer at any rate seldom draws a breath: he relentlessly wears his heart on his sleeve and although there are occasional oases to refresh the spirit, the lack of thematic variety would try even a patient soul. In addition, the Russian choral group can only imitate that polished, sophisticated sound that, for example, the Ken Darby Singers gave us in Newman’s How The West Was Won. The musical selections do hang together well, however, and there’s no denying the orchestra’s enthusiasm. Both issues carry exemplary notes.