Field
Of Dreams: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack -
James Horner - 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!
Saving
Private Ryan: Music From The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
[SOUNDTRACK]
- John Williams 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.
Amadeus:
The Complete Original Soundtrack Recording [BOX SET]
- Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart, Neville Marriner, Academy
Of St. Martin-In-The-Fields - 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.
The
English Patient: Original Soundtrack Recording -
Gabriel
Yared - 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.
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.
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.
