Reviews Archive

(2009)

The most recent film from acclaimed Italian filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore is a semi-autobiographical one, the story of which spans three generations, from the 1930s to the present day.  The film is set in the town of Bagheria, where Tornatore grew up, and stars Francesco Scianna and Margareth Madè.  The music, of course, is provided by the legendary Ennio Morricone, who has scored all of Tornatore’s films since 1988.  Their collaboration has resulted in some of Morricone’s finest scores, including Cinema Paradiso, The Legend of 1900, and Malèna.

Baarìa, which according to iMDB is Morricone’s 492^nd film as a composer, is yet another superb score from the maestro, who at 81 years old, he shows no sign of slowing down.  The eleven minute “Sinfonia per Baaria” which opens the album, is a wonderful piece, but sadly it’s also the album’s only downside, when the second half of the track is spoilt by sound effects and dialogue from the film.  Fortunately though, it’s a one-off, and the rest of the music that follows is more than enough to make up for it.

Morricone was clearly deeply inspired by this film (as he mentions in his liner notes), and it certainly shows in the music.  The second track on the album, a fantastic march theme, rapidly makes you forget about the upset in the first, whilst the third track, “Baarìa”, introduces the score’s main theme, and wonderfully showcases the composer’s emotional melodic writing, something that is expanded upon in such tracks as “Brindisi” and “Racconto di Una Vita”.  The music becomes more playful in tracks like “Il Corpo e la Terra”, which makes use of guitars and woodwinds to great effect.  There’s action music too, most notably in “Lo zoppo”, which, whilst only a minute long, is superbly effective with its violent string performances. The bagpipes heard in “L’allegro virtuoso di zampogna” are especially entertaining, and a definite album highlight.

To be sure, this score does contain several references to previous scores, something that many will no doubt be critical of.  But when you take into consideration the fact that Morricone has written over 500 scores in a career spanning six decades, and even now seems to have no intention of slowing down, it’s a little unfair to expect anything amazing.  Make no mistake about it though, Baarìa is an outstanding score that is easily worthy of repeated appreciation for the maestro’s work, and is one of the best written during 2009.

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Track Listing

1. Sinfonia per Baaria (10:57)

2. Ribellione (3:33)

3. Baaria (2:28)

4. Il corpo e la terra (2:35)

5. Lo zoppo (:59)

6. Brindisi (3:02)

7. Un guico sereno (2:17)

8. La visita (2:47)

9. Un fiscaletto (1:29)

10. Racconto di una vita (3:30)

11. La terra (1:51)

12. Verdiano (1:48)

13. Baaria (3:12)

14. Oltre (1:14)

15. Prima e dopo (2:25)

16. I Mostri (1:59)

17. L’allegro virtuoso di zampogna (2:22)

18. A passeggio nel corso (2:51)

19. Il vento, il mare, i silenzi (2:27)

Total Time: 53:36

Credits

Music Composed, Orchestrated and Conducted by Ennio Morricone

Performed by Roma Sinfonietta (Orchestra)

Album Produced by Antonella Navarra

Awards

None

Insert Notes

Contains notes from the director and composer, as well as various credits.

All artwork and images are Copyright © Medusa Film SPA

(2011)

Priest tells the story of a… Priest, played by Paul Bettany, whose niece is kidnapped by vampires who he sets off to pursue. The film is set in a universe where humans and vampires have been at war for many centuries, and therefore the Church is where the human race has gathered. The film endured endless production delays both before and after it was finished, in the latter case presumably because the studio realized that Priest is a god-awful film. A failure both critically and commercially, the only positive aspects of the film are the excellent production design and Christopher Young’s superb score.

Young is of course the modern expert of scores for horror films. He has many different ways of scoring them, but scores always work wonderfully no matter which way that may be. It is, however, the Gothic sound of such scores as Hellraiser 2 and Drag Me To Hell that his fans seem to love most, and Priest is perhaps the best entry into that category to date.

As you’d expect, it’s a mammoth score, making great use of a full orchestra and chorus, as well as an organ and various electronic elements. The opening track is an immense piece, full of all the reasons we love Young’s horror scores. The next track, “Eclipsed Heart”, is a beautifully haunting piece and one of the score’s more tender moments.

One of the best tracks on the album is “I Have Sinned”, opening with an immense, epic performance by the chorus and orchestra. At 1:20 the chorus leaves and the piece becomes a superb percussion heavy action cue. Two particular action highlights later in the score are “Sacrosanct Delirium” and “The Vampire Train”, both of which run for over seven minutes and make the album worth buying just for them.

Whilst action music dominates the album, it’s certainly not all it has to offer. Lisa Gerrard provides vocals in several instances, which work wonderfully. There’s a lovely piano theme that’s introduced in “Never One For Love”, as well as the wonderfully majestic music of “Faith, Work, Security” and “Fanfare for a Resurrected Priest”. Gerrard’s vocals appear in both the former and latter tracks, and compliments the music beautifully.

The album’s conclusion is the track “A World Without End”, an epic eight minute long piece which saves the best until last, with Gerrard’s vocals merged with the brilliant theme from “ Cathedral City Blue”, to superb effect.

The understandable failure of the film unfortunately kills the score’s chances at any major awards. Make no mistake though, it’s probably the best score that 2011 has seen so far, and one that is highly recommend to all film music fans.

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Track Listing

1. Priest (3:26)

2. Eclipsed Heart (3:34)

3. I Have Sinned (5:07)

4. Blood Framed Hell (3:52)

5. Sacrosanct Delirium (7:44)

6. Never One for Love (2:38)

7. Faith, Work, Security (2:14)

8. The Vampire Train (7:00)

9. Fanfare for a Resurrected Priestess (2:39)

10. Cathedral City Blue (6:44)

11. Detuned Towne (2:33)

12. A World Without End (7:38)

Total Time: 55:09

Credits

Composed by Christopher Young

Orchestrations by Christopher Young, David Shephard, Peter Bateman, Richard Bronskill, Sean McMahon, Benoit Grey, & Jorgen Lauritson

Conducted by Allan Wilson

Performed by The Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, Lucnica Chorus, & Lisa Gerrard

Produced by Christopher Young & Max Blomgren

Awards

None

Insert Notes

The CD edition of the score contains a note from the film’s director about the score. The download contains no digital liner notes.

All artwork and images are Copyright © Madison Gate Records

(1965)

David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago made more money than all his other films put together.  At the time of its release however, it was thoroughly thrashed by critics, something that Lean took very personally, despite the film’s success with the public, and swore at the time to never make another film (he would ultimately make two more).  The film would ultimately win five Academy Awards, though the Oscars for Best Picture and Director went to The Sound of Music (yes, well…).  One of those five awards went to composer Maurice Jarre; his second success after winning for his masterpiece of a score to Lean’s previous film Lawrence of Arabia.  He would win his third award in 1985 for his work on Lean’s final film: A Passage to India.

MGM’s initial reaction to Lean’s desire to hire Jarre to compose the score to Doctor Zhivago was “Maurice is very good on sand, but I’m sure we have someone better on snow.”  Fortunately, he was able to get Jarre the job, and the composer wrote what remains, apart from Lawrence of Arabia, probably the best score of his career, and certainly his most successful, particularly with his “Lara’s Theme”, which became one of the most famous ever written.  It took several attempts to write, with Jarre finally coming up with the piece when Lean suggested that he go to the mountains with his girlfriend and write a piece of music for her.  Paul Francis Webster wrote lyrics to accompany the theme, which resulted in the song “Somewhere My Love”.  Though there is not actually a track on the soundtrack album titled “Lara’s Theme”, the piece appears in numerous tracks, something that Jarre was initially angered at, since he felt that over-reliance on the piece would spoil the soundtrack.  Fortunately, that couldn’t be further from being the case.

Not including the jazz, Rock ‘n’ Roll and Swing versions of Lara’s theme that appear at the end of the CD, the soundtrack album for Doctor Zhivago contains an hour of some of the best film music ever written.  The Overture opens with Jarre’s trademark percussion heavy style, and then proceeds to introduce three of the score’s main themes, including Lara’s.  The album then launches into the stunningly beautiful main title, performed by the full orchestra along with several balalaika players to give the Russian sound to the piece.

The story of the balalaika players is a somewhat amusing one.  The MGM Studio Orchestra didn’t have any, and obviously going to Russia to find them wasn’t an option.  Jarre eventually found a balalaika player at a Russian church in Hollywood, who, along with several of his friends, arrived at the recording stage one day.  The problem was, however, that they all played by ear, and weren’t able to read music, so Jarre had to mime to the players as he conducted the orchestra, the sixteen bars of the piece they had to play.

“Lara is Charming” introduces the delightful waltz theme into the score, played on strings accompanied by piano flourishes throughout.  The theme returns in a varied form in “Lara and Komarovsky Dancing Up A Storm”, and again in “Sventitsky’s Waltz”, with the same theme but different orchestration.

“Military Parade” is another of the score’s themes, and was the first to be introduced in the overture.  In this track and the next, “They Begin To Go Home”, it’s performed by a male voice choir, in the latter track with a greater orchestral accompaniment than before.  The theme also appears in the first few seconds of “After Deserters Killed The Colonel”, which also features a brief rendition of Lara’s theme towards the end.

Lara’s theme isn’t used extensively until the track “Lara Says Goodbye To Yuri”, which features a mournful version of the piece, making heavy use of balalaika and violins.  “Flags Flying Over The Train” introduces the first fully orchestral rendition of the aforementioned military theme, and is definitely one of the score’s highlights.  The theme is also heard in this way in the “Intermission”, which, though only lasting for forty five seconds, is the best treatment of the theme.

“Yuri Follows The Sound Of The Waterfall” is another brief, but beautifully ethereal piece, starting out with very light strings and balalaika accompaniment.  Towards the end, we get yet another treatment of Lara’s theme, and then, in the next track, “Tonya And Yuri Arrive At Varykino”, another theme is introduced, and the one that’s probably my favourite, a beautiful playful theme on strings as the three characters travel through the snow in a sleigh.  Later in the track, Jarre increases the orchestral palette, introducing both percussion and horns into the piece, to great effect.  The theme returns, though more subtly, in the next track, “They Didn’t Lock The Cottage”.

Lara’s theme returns again in “Yuri And The Daffodils”, a piece accompanying a truly beautiful scene of nature, and again in the next track, “On A Yuriatin Street”.  The theme is then put through some lovely variations in “Lara And Yuri Arriving At Varykino”.  The score concludes with a rendition of Lara’s theme in “Then It’s a Gift”.  Also featured are a jazz, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and swing version of Lara’s theme that were recorded between takes by the orchestra.  Whilst inferior to the original theme, they certainly aren’t as bad as some of the remixes you hear.

In a simple summary, this score is a masterpiece, brimming with wonderful themes and written for, regardless of what David Lean’s detractors may say, one of the greatest films ever made.  Likewise, the score is one of the best ever written, and stands alongside Lawrence of Arabia as Jarre’s best writing for the cinema.  It’s desirable at any price, but when it’s available on Amazon for £6 / $9, it can’t be missed.  I cannot recommend it more highly.

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Track Listing

1. Overture (2:24)

2. Main Title (2:41)

3. Kontakion/Funeral Song (3:17)

4. Lara Is Charming (1:15)

5. The Internationale (1:11)

6. Lara and Komarovsky Dancing Up A Storm (0:43)

7. Komarovsky and Lara In The Hotel (3:54)

8. Interior Student Café (outtake) (1:36)

9. Sventitsky’s Waltz/After The Shooting (2:18)

10. Military Parade (2:10)

11. They Began To Go Home (2:05)

12. After Deserters Killed The Colonel (1:04)

13. At The Hospital (0:58)

14. Lara Says Goodbye To Yuri (1:28)

15. Tonya Greets Yuri (outtake) (0:44)

16. The Stove’s Out (outtake) (1:29)

17. Yevgrav Snaps His Fingers (outtake) (3:11)

18. Evening Bells/Moscow Station (1:03)

19. Flags Flying Over The Train (1:06)

20. Yuri Gazing Through A Tiny Open Hatch (outtake) (0:36)

21. The Door Is Banged Open (1:51)

22. Intermission (0:45)

23. Yuri Follows The Sound Of The Waterfall (0:43)

24. Tonya And Yuri Arrive At Varykino (2:54)

25. They Didn’t Lock The Cottage (1:34)

26. Varykino Cottage, Winter Snow (0:56)

27. Yuri And The Daffodils (1:17)

28. On A Yuriatin Street (1:34)

29. In Lara’s Bedroom (0:32)

30. Yuri Rides To Yuriatin (0:23)

31. Yuri Is Taken Prisoner By The Red Partisans (0:48)

32. For As Long As We Need You (0:41)

33. Yuri Is Escaping (2:19)

34. Yuri Approaches Lara’s Apartment (0:50)

35. Yuri Looks Into The Mirror (0:31)

36. Lara And Yuri Arriving At Varykino (1:41)

37. Yuri Is Trying To Write (1:21)

38. Yuri Frightens The Wolves Away, part 1 (0:48)

39. Lara Reads Her Poem (0:39)

40. Yuri Frightens The Wolves Away, part 2 (1:54)

41. Yuri Works On (outtake) (0:53)

42. Then It’s A Gift (End Title) (1:46)

43. Lara’s Theme – Jazz Version (1:58)

44. Lara’s Theme – Rock ‘n’ Roll Version (2:39)

45. Lara’s Theme – Swing Version (1:15)

Credits

Music Composed and Conducted by Maurice Jarre

Orchestrated by Maurice Jarre & Leo Arnaud

Performed by The MGM Studio Orchestra

Recorded in Culver City, CA

Album Produced by Marilee Bradford & Bradley Flanagan

Awards

Academy Award for Best Original Score (Won)

Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score (Won)

Grammy Award for Best Score for a Motion Picture (Won)

Insert Notes

Contains extensive information about the film and the score, as well as a lengthy note from Jarre about his experiences working on the film.

All artwork and images are Copyright © Turner Entertainment / MGM