CD Reviews: A Beautiful Mind and Uprising
A Beautiful Mind ***
JAMES HORNER
Decca 440 016 191-2
16 tracks - 71:29
They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but what about the
ear of the listener? While some will consider Horner's latest delivery
to be truly beautiful, for my money it's only mildly attractive. And while
the movie's mathematician "hero" John Forbes Nash Jr. (Russell Crowe) won
the Nobel Prize for his analytical discoveries, James Horner is certainly
undeserving a comparable accolade for his competent but lackluster score
to this Ron Howard biopic. While A Beautiful Mind is a well-written,
well-performed and well-presented score, it's little more than perfunctory.
For those of us looking forward to the return of Bicentennial Man's
joyous opening titles, they make a prodigal return here with "A Kaleidoscope
of Mathematics," a track that wins points for using the wordless vocals
of Welsh teen prodigy Charlotte Church. Five pianos frantically segue between
harmonies, shifting key with wild abandon, making for a glorious opening.
It reappears elsewhere, most significantly in "Creating 'Governing Dynamics'"
and "Cracking Russian Codes" -- this motif representing the inner workings
of Nash's number-crunching mind. There's another theme for his psyche which
appears in "The Car Chase" -- this is Nash's dark side, and is more sinister
in tone -- echoing the impending doom of A Perfect Storm and Deep
Impact. This dark underscore takes up a substantial portion of the
album, replacing Church's vocals with woodwinds, and is less engaging.
"The prize of one's life... The prize of one's mind" is an unashamedly
sentimental pastoral re-working of the opening track, underscoring the
presentation of the Nobel Prize. Coupled with Crowe's powerhouse performance,
this is where the soundtrack grabs the emotional strings and tugs with
vigor. It's also where the composer strays furthest away from his comfort
blanket of Khachaturian and choral synths.
Charlotte Church is used again in the obligatory song, "All Love can
be," penned by Horner's frequent lyricist Will Jennings. But before you
jump over board, fearing a reprise of "My Heart will go on," this song
is good. Instead of an incidental pop ballad, bolted onto the end, this
(albeit brief) track is operatic in approach and blends seamlessly with
the rest of the soundtrack. It's not an obvious chart-topper, but is at
least respectful of the movie it's supporting and is emotional rather than
grandstanding.
There's also "added value" in the form of CD-ROM content, which is worth
clicking on if you want to watch the movie trailer, see a bearded Horner
talking about Church's "amorphous" voice, or read brief transcriptions
of interviews with Howard and Horner. At one point, the composer is quoted
as saying "I try to make all my film scores different from previous work
I've done." Yes, of course you do.
When reviewing a new work by Horner it's becoming such a cliché
to damn him for self-plagiarism, but the guy really doesn't help himself.
Ironically, for a movie that deals with mathematical equations, Horner
has delivered a solution that is strictly by the numbers. -- Nick
Joy
Uprising ***
MAURICE JARRE
Milan 73138-35978-2
9 tracks - 45:17
For his first TV project in 13 years (his last being 1988's The Murder
of Mary Phagan) Maurice Jarre returns with a striking underscore to
John (Fried Green Tomatoes and Up Close and Personal) Avnet's
NBC tele-movie Uprising. Charting a Jewish insurrection within the
Warsaw Ghetto, the movie premiered in November 2001 and immediately won
favorable comparisons to Spielberg's Schindler's List and Saving
Private Ryan. However, it's Spielberg's own WWII small screen stable-mate
Band of Brothers that this laudable venture is best compared to.
Both feature starry casts and a movie composer behind the baton. And while
Kamen might be less well-known for his TV work, Jarre boasts a lengthy
back catalogue of quality assignments that include Jesus of Nazareth,
Shogun and The Survivors.
Jarre was chosen for the project because Avnet's regular collaborator
Thomas Newman was not available, and I think that this was fortuitous.
While one cannot second-guess how Newman would have approached this poignant
drama, Jarre's richly-layered full orchestral approach is accomplished,
with the composer eliciting a powerful performance from the Czech Philharmonic
Orchestra (conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy). He also employs nine(!) grand
pianos to accentuate the beautiful melody that he has composed for the
instrument.
Jarre's Uprising is an earnest score that does not underplay
the gravity of the situation that the Polish collaborators (including Hank
Azaria and David Schwimmer) found themselves in. Unlike Schindler's
List, which portrayed the triumph of the Jewish spirit through the
use of popular traditional polkas, this European music uses an unfamiliar
lilting theme a la Dr Zhivago. By doing this, he side-steps the
"Jews in peril" cliché's that have lazily crept into too many depictions
of the Final Solution, and employs harrowing strained vocals from the Bulgarian
Woman's Choir and the Czech Children's Choir I Bambini di Praga.
In"General Stroop in the Ghetto," the Nazi stormtroopers are symbolized
by crashing symbols and violent percussion, invading the soundtrack with
bombast, but then making way as the triumphant theme blasts in, fighting
the oppressors, and creating a space for the angelic chorales to re-affirm
themselves. It's not easy listening, but it's rewarding in the right climate.
Approach it as a battle between the good (woodwind and string) and the
bad (percussion and brass), with the respective parts of the orchestra
gaining footholds on the musical territory in different tracks. But don't
expect a glorious triumphant denouement -- history told us that the victory
was short-lived, and the score does not indulge in false heroics.
As recently as 1999 Jarre has been tackling Jewish uprisings (in the
Anti-Soviet insurrections in Sunshine), so this is not entirely
new ground for the veteran composer. But in the absence of his soul mate
David Lean, these worthy historical epics might be the only way to keep
Jarre's broad-stroke grandeur alive, albeit on the smaller canvas of the
TV screen. -- Nick Joy
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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