Normally film scores would go into our occasional Soundtracks Feature (of which one is currently overdue), but this one seemed so unusual and important that I wanted to cover it immediately. This is the world premiere of the complete recording of the soundtrack by Shostakovich for the 1929-31 film which had been designed to be the first Soviet sound film.  He had already created a complete score for the earlier film The New Babylon, but it was performed live at its premiere.This one had many technical problems.  Most of the first sound films had the music on discs which were laboriously synchronized with the silent footage on the screen. Results everywhere were very poor, but the Soviets - struggling to demonstrate that their technology was every bit the equal of the West - were the worst of all.  Much of the dialog and the words of the songs included are unintelligible. Shostakovich himself said in l931 that despite the excellence of the orchestra and conductor, the horrible recording quality made it seem that all his work was for nothing.Conductor Fitz-Gerald led a team that reconstructed the original score from published and unpublished sources plus the low-quality soundtrack of the original film. It includes some of the composer's music for the film  which was not used. The CD is the result of co-production with the Hessian Radio of Frankfurt, Germany.  The score is one of the best of the nearly 30 films Shostakovich eventually scored - full of dramatic impact and making use of such unexpected additions as a brass band, barrel-organ, a Tuvan throat-singer, and even a theremin (which had just been invented a few years earlier by Leon Theremin). There are also soprano and mezzo soloists plus a choir.The story is about a just-qualified female teacher from Leningrad who is sent to a backward, superstitious community in Russian Mongolia where she faces great difficulties, alone and separated from her fiancé.  The villagers insist their children tend the sheep rather than go to the school, and they leave the girl to ostensibly die in a snowdrift (but she is rescued by a Soviet airplane).   There are a total of 48 music cues on this jam-packed disc, with descriptions of many of them. There is also an interesting analysis of exactly how overtone-singing works and all of the song texts are printed in the booklet.  Kudos to all who contributed to this unique project!- John Sunier --Audiophile Audition, February 2008