January 30, 2007

• The Painted Veil

  My first comments about this Alexandre Desplat score were a couple of weeks ago (1/16, with link to purchase) when it received the Golden Globe.  Desplat's score for The Queen is up for an Oscar as well.  I finally had a chance though to hear The Painted Veil this week. 

  There is a lot to like in this classically restrained score.  The title track only hints at some of the ideas to come and sounds a lot like a John Adams post-minimalist score at times.  Desplat's music demonstrates that he is a fine composer at any rate.  The "River Waltz" (which appears in a piano solo and piano with ensemble version) is a delightful miniature.  More interesting though is that it forms a nice parallel to the Satie piano piece included on the disc, the "Gnossienne no. 1."  There are some melodic and extramusical similarities between the two pieces that made me wonder if Desplat was asked to write something to match it.  He manages to do that brilliantly here.  "Kitty's Theme" stands out less than other purely thematic tracks from other Desplat scores (expecially "Griet's Theme" in the gorgeous A Girl With A Pearl Earing).

  The longest track, "The Water Wheel," is the highlight of the album.  It is filled with a wonderful forward propulsion that makes use of thematic elements as well as a delightful piano filligree that is orchetrated to accompany along the primary melodic line.  At times, this particular track reminded me of John Williams' music for last year's Memoirs of a Geisha.  As the energy is handed over to a battery of various percussion instruments the track builds to a brief climax before folding back onto itself with some creepy string echoes.  Desplat's use of the piano in this score has a kind of E.T. sound as well that gives him a chance to inherit William's musical sound while carving out his own unique orchestration approach. 
  
  I think what is striking is how Desplat has also incorporated an orchestral style that takes a little from French music in the 1920s.  The opening of "The Lovers" sounds like something from the pen of Debussy, and the piano and orchestral combinations seem at times to take their inspiration from Ravel.  Helping the score as a listening experience is the recurrence of Desplat's engaging thematic writing.  We hear these themes in their entirety enough to be able to discern them when they are later deconstructed, to magical effect in "Promenade." 

  The Deutsche Grammaphon cover art is attractive as well and the sound is wonderful. 

  This disc makes a fine companion to Dario Marianelli's superb music for 2005's Pride and Prejudice.  That score illustrates a more Classical approach a la Beethoven.  But they are two great examples of updating previous historical music periods into present film music.

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