Christmas Gifts (II): John Williams's Jane Eyre reissue

Quartet Records has released a new revised version of the John Williams soundtrack for Jane Eyre 1970. It's a double CD which also includes the score of Heidi (1968).

Quartet Records, in collaboration with Capitol Records and Universal Music Entertainment, present a 2-CD set with a revised, remastered, slightly expanded edition of scores for two landmark made-for-television films composed by John Williams (Star Wars, E.T., Jurassic Park,  Hook) between 1968 and 1970.

Both of these adaptations of classic stories were presented by Omnibus Productions and directed by Delbert Mann, and both also earned Emmy® Awards for John Williams’ original music. Through these scores, the composer shaped the destinies of two classic literary characters as well as his own.

Every effort was made to locate surviving audio elements for both Heidi and Jane Eyre The discovery of the original ½″ four-track masters from Heidi containing all of the cues selected for the 1968 narrated story album facilitated an attentive new mix of the music and a presentation in narrative order. The narration record was newly transferred by Universal Music Group and is presented after the musical score.

For Jane Eyre, a new high-resolution transfer of the 1971 ¼″ stereo album master was provided by Universal Music Group, with audio then fully restored. This is followed by four tracks of additional material, including a short segment of source music that is heard in the film but was not on the album. The other three tracks are alternate performances of three selections recorded for the album, “To Thornfield,” “Restoration” and the “Love Theme.” This material was sourced from two ½″ 3-track tapes that were discovered at Twentieth Century Fox in early 2019. While no additional
score cues could be located, the recovery of any new material from this enduring and highly regarded John Williams work is most welcome.

The entire collection has been painstakingly remixed, restored, assembled and mastered by Mike Matessino, preserving all the freshness of the original recording. The package includes a 28-page full-color booklet with in-depth liner notes by film music writer John Takis and classy art direction by Jim Titus.

The tracklist contains four extra tracks: 

12. More Festivity :44

13. To Thornfield (Alternate) 1:54

14. Restoration (Alternate) 3:56

15. The Love Theme From ‘Jane Eyre' (Alternate) 3:19