All in on Vladimir Cosma
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Vladimir Cosma is a composer who I knew early on, from way back when I started to collect film music, but until recently, I had exactly only one(!) score by him in my collection. I don’t even seem to have compilations that feature any tracks by Cosma.
So now it’s rectified… I went from 1 score to 92! At least that’s what the two super-deal box sets say: 40 Films – 40 Bandes Originales and 51 Films – 51 Bandes Originales Volume 2. So that should be 91+1 now. Talk about a lot of bang for your buck, these sets feature 17 Discs each, and lots of Cosma soundtracks. And the one I did have isn’t even in either box-set, so I haven’t even doubled up on anything.
Huge boxes! I am not totally familar with all Cosma but a lot. Louis De Funes and Asterix and a few others. I have two LPs since forever:
– THE MAN FROM SUEZ which I loved backt then in TV. Bought the LP 2nd since it was not available at that time otherwise.
– The Belmondo score L’AS DES ASSES.A “typical” European composer for me: Very melody centric and “smaller” than US scores.
I brought up Cosma in the “Consistent Versatility” thread, because he is an arch example of just that — someone who goes from jazz to pop to electronic to orchestral to avantgarde in the blink of an eye, all with apparent ease. So while I have bits and bobs from him, including a generous 2CD compilation, and of course the LES MONDES ENGLOUTIS score (huge nostalgic favourite, that animated series), there is still plenty I need to check out.
I’ve been eyeing that box for many years, and although it’s affordable, I haven’t been able to prioritize it. Congrats on securing it, Nick. You have many great hours of listening in front of you. May I ask what you paid?
Did Cosma ever do avantgarde? Interesting. I always considered him, like Malte said, very melody centric, smaller scores, pleasant, no doubt, but nothing I ever sought out apparently. He did a lot of lighter movies and comedies as well. One thing I remember all the way back from childhood days is the TV miniseries “Kidnapped/The Adventures of David Balfour”. Cosma’s title theme became very famous because the Kelly Family picked it up and made a song (“David’s Song”) out of “David’s Theme”. I paid less than 100€ for BOTH boxes.
Did Cosma ever do avantgarde?
Yes, but don’t ask me to give any titles. I had a fairly big Cosma sampling session about 10 years ago, where I listened to whatever I could find on YouTube and Spotify and other streaming services. I do remember running into some totally weird tonalities here and there, but since I was on the lookout for his tuneful style, I quickly moved on without really registering the titles. Hopefully, some of it is in those sets you just bought.
Would love it if you posted some updates now and then, if you encounter some highlights while going through the sets. Will probably take you years…
He is very versatile but avantgarde is nothing that I would link to him. I just read that in early years he was Sarde’s orchestrator!
One thing I remember all the way back from childhood days is the TV miniseries “Kidnapped/The Adventures of David Balfour”. Cosma’s title theme became very famous because the Kelly Family picked it up and made a song (“David’s Song”) out of “David’s Theme”.
Ah, yes, I have such a far memory…
I paid less than 100€ for BOTH boxes.
Those were always rather inexpensive for their size I think? I was tempted at some time but other things on the list got always in the way. I think lots of his scores are available digitally, too.
Well, I’m off to a good start. Picked “Le Jaquar” as a starting point… instead of charming nice melodies I got big sweeping nice melodies. Bigger sound than I expected from Cosma. Turns out, as I check the booklet, it’s the London Symphony Orchestra… OK, they’re good, I’ve heard (of) them before. Melody and orchestration, if I compare to other composers, a bit Silvestri, a bit Barry mix, which isn’t the worst. Good start. Excellent sound quality. Wow, if the rest is as good as what I’m listening to now as my first pick on a whim (Disc 6 from Volume 1), it’s pretty good. Nothing groundbreaking or disturbing the force, but solid, well composed adventure film music.
These boxes are available digitally
I wasn’t very familiar with Cosma’s work when the first box set was released.
I don’t know if Amazon had made an error at the time but I bought the volume 1 box as a digital release for the price of 1 digital album. A bargain!!
They didn’t make the same mistake with volume 2.
I love his score L’Affaire Crazy Capo, which no one ever, ever, ever talks about. And that’s weird, becuase CAM released it on both LP and CD. It reminds me of Morricone, not to say that Vlad is aping Enny, but rather because of how it slowly envelops the listener.
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