Evocative Beauty
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| Audio CD (November 25, 1997); Number of Discs: 1
For the second of 1997's dueling Buddhist epics (the other being Seven Days in Tibet, scored by John Williams), director Martin Scorsese made a wise--if commercially challenging--choice in tapping noted minimalist composer Philip Glass to score Kundun. Glass (who's previously scored the avant garde documentary Koyaanisqatsi trilogy, Mishima, and the strange Candyman horror series), is the perfect choice here; his own Buddhist beliefs play a key role in meshing image and music. Glass's familiar compositional techniques are wedded on Kundun to a sensitive use of ethnic instruments and the voices of the Gyuto Monks, adding an aura of spiritual power missing from most Hollywood fare. --Jerry McCulley Note: To hear a song sample, click on the link with sound image below. |
Sand
Mandala  |
| Audio CD (July 21, 1998); Number of Discs: 1
What appears on screen during the World War II movie Saving Private Ryan suggests that director Steven Spielberg has studied the hyperviolence of Quentin Tarantino, John Woo, and Stanley Kubrick (think Full Metal Jacket). What you hear, however, assures that Spielberg still collects Norman Rockwell paintings. Composed by Spielberg's long-time musical companion, John Williams, Ryan denies the pair's penchant for ebullience in favor of funereal grace. Rather than mirror the visual kinetics, Williams lends the gunfire a tone-poem aura. Oliver Stone's Platoon makes the best comparison; remember how Barber's Adagio for Strings accompanied its most bloody moments? Williams later worked with Stone on JFK and Nixon, providing scores so somber, they qualified as morose. They remain two of his best, and Saving Private Ryan shares their restraint. --Marc Weidenbaum |
[SOUNDTRACK] Gabriel Yared
| Audio CD (November 26, 1996); Number of Discs: 1
Anthony Minghella's Oscar-winning realization of Michael Ondaatje's intricate romance deservedly earned comparisons to David Lean's sweeping screen epics derived from strong literary sources. Like Lean, Minghella sought an equally thoughtful, yet ravishing musical counterpart that fleshes out a sympathetic orchestral score with allusions to the story's cultural milieu. The equation begins with Gabriel Yared's tender, brooding symphonic score, which mingles the film's poles of fate and passion with subtlety and restraint, then adds the exotic, mesmerizing voice of Marta Sebestyen (best known for her work with Muzsikas, the brilliant Hungarian folk revivalists, who also appear here), whose presence provides a literate clue to the title character's true identity. The film's '40s time-frame gains resonance and dramatic irony by pop songs from that era, including Benny Goodman swing classics and two versions of Irving Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek" (by Fred Astaire and Ella Fitzgerald, respectively). Add a pivotal Bach cue and this is a film package that works even if you don't know the film--and that much more powerfully if you do. --Sam Sutherland |
[SOUNDTRACK] - John Williams
| Audio CD (December 7, 1993); Number of Discs: 1
Because he's long been stereotyped by the rousing neo-romantic adventure scores for the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Jurassic Park franchises, it's easy to forget that composer John Williams is hardly idiomatically challenged. When Steven Spielberg gratifyingly used the clout of his enormous commercial success to produce and direct this brave Holocaust drama, his longtime musical collaborator used the opportunity to display both the depth and maturity of his musical gifts and training, producing a score with sad, evocative melodies frequently carried by the violin of the great Itzhak Perlman. Rich with ethnic nuance and showcasing the composer's masterful orchestral/choral subtlety, Williams's emotionally compelling score for Schindler's List also won the Academy Award for Best Dramatic Score. --Jerry McCulley |
[SOUNDTRACK] Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Neville Marriner,
Academy Of St. Martin-In-The-Fields
| Audio CD (April 22, 1991); Number of Discs: 3
Director Milos Forman's rewarding 1984 film adaptation of playwright Peter Shaffer's Tony-winning play won no fewer than 10 Academy Awards (including Best Film, Best Actor, and Best Director); only Wolfgang himself (and his filmic counterpart, Tom Hulce) seemed to get overlooked by the Academy. This expanded three-disc set contains all of Sir Neville Marriner's crisp, accurate readings of the excerpted Mozart symphonies, concertos, serenades, and operas (including marvelous portions of The Abduction of Seraglio, Don Giovanni, and The Magic Flute) used in the film. The success of Amadeus spurred a long-overdue renaissance of interest in classical music, and one would be hard-pressed to find a richer, more concise introduction to the intoxicating music and frustrating bundle of moral contradictions that was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. --Jerry McCulley |
[SOUNDTRACK] - James Horner
| Audio CD (May 2, 1989); Number of Discs: 1
Elmer Bernstein, among the greatest of the golden age film composers, has lamented that there's not enough "artistry" in soundtracks today. He abhors the pop hit collections that pass for movie music albums, and the man's got a point. Perhaps he'd go for Horner's score to Phil Alden Robinson and W. P. Kinsella's fairytale ode to fathers, sons, and baseball. It's as evocative as the film itself, a shimmering corn field or a late-afternoon fly ball in every note. It's warm ("The Cornfield" is sweet, subtle, heartbreaking--like an echo, really), fun ("Old Ball Players" recalls Randy Newman's Ragtime score), and stirring ("The Place Where Dreams Come True" doesn't need a father-and-son game of catch to move you). A gem. No, a diamond! --Robert Wilonsky |
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