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CD Reviews Two Brothers and Sound Theater
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| Posted By: Stephen Armstrong, Cary Wong on November 14, 2004 - 10:00 PM |
CD Reviews Two Brothers and Sound Theater
Two Brothers *** 1/2
STEPHEN WARBECK
Decca B0002556-02
19 tracks - 59:32
It should be a prerequisite for film composers to work on at least one
nature film. This genre (and all those films to which it loosely
relates) usually cries out for full, lush orchestral scoring. So even
if certain composers are used to more minimalist, atonal or more
synthesizer-based styles, they should be forced to do a National Geographic-type special
just to remind them about the grandeur of the art of movie-making and
the important role film music is to the emotional core of a movie. The
romantic style may be a cliché, but some of the most memorable
music has been composed for these movies: John Barry's Born Free, Mark Isham's A River Runs Through It," Elmer
Bernstein's National Geographic
Presents, Jerry Goldsmith's "Soarin'," Thomas Newman's The Horse Whisperer and Hans
Zimmer's The Lion King.
Oscar-winning composer Stephen Warbeck gets a crack at the genre with Two Brothers, and the result is his
most musically rich score.
Director Jean-Jacques Annaud has traveled down this road before; The Bear had virtually no dialogue.
This time Annaud has upped the ante with more speaking, a 1920s
setting, and the splitting of the film's focus between two brother
tigers, raised apart after one is kidnapped. Whatever criticism you may
have for the picture (simplistic plot, scenes of animal cruelty being
too much for little children), none should be directed towards
Warbeck's wonderful score.
From the first cue on the CD, the gentle "The Two Brothers," to the
emotional final "Goodbye," Warbeck takes us on a musical journey
peppered with huge orchestral sweep, quiet Asian interludes and
memorable melodies. I especially like the beautiful "Recognition," as
well as "Chasing the Truck," which is as intense as anything I've ever
heard Warbeck write. And if your eyes don't tear up just a little
during "Return to the River," you may want to check with a cardiologist
about the state of your heart.
This score has a life of its own on CD, and you'll likely enjoy it
without having to see the movie. It has a nice flow, with only an opera
cue and a jarring whistling cue out of place but easily edited out for
your listening pleasure. It's nice to savor such an ambitious score by
Warbeck, since his next major assignment is the small family drama, Proof. --
Cary Wong
Sound Theater *** 1/2
MASARU SATO
Ark Enterprise Co. AGCS-5001/02
35 tracks - 2:16:19
Masaru Sato's name may not be well known to Western audiences, but his
music has appeared in several famous Japanese films, including The Bad Sleep Well, Sanjuro and Throne of Blood. A prolific
composer, he worked on over 300 pictures before his death in 1999, and
this retrospective two-disc collection features some of the best
material from his lengthy career.
Long associated with Toho, the island nation's largest studio, Sato
specialized in writing for genre pictures. His first big assignment
came in 1955, when he was hired to score Gigantis the Fire Monster, the
second film in the Godzilla
series. Featured as the album's lead track, the theme from this
radioactive monster movie is a showcase for timpani: set amidst an
onslaught of brass flourishes, the drums thump along menacingly,
simulating the footsteps of Godzilla and his friends. Several tracks
from Sato's action movie scores show up as well. The catchiest of them
may be his theme for Yojimbo,
a samurai film directed by Akira Kurosawa. In it, the composer
establishes a spare, two-beat rhythm with a snare drum, which he then
adorns with soft strings and hard horns, creating a relentless pattern
that is simultaneously simple and schizophrenic. "When the Sun Rises in
the Sky," a waltzing march from Band
Of Assassins, in contrast, produces a rich and sentimental sound
by balancing the soaring french horn with the tartness of the trumpet.
The CD's second disc, a compendium of musical obscurities, opens with a
pair of songs that feature an unnamed female singer, whose voice sounds
like its been damaged by too much whiskey -- or sake. Self-consciously
traditional, these compositions embrace the syncopated, staccato sound
that many of us have heard pouring out of the ceiling speakers in
Japanese restaurants. The other pieces, however, betray Sato's
affection for Western music, both serious and popular. Recorded live at
the 1988 Itami Film Festival, these tracks include an interpretation of
Ravel's Bolero, for example,
and a "dance" version of "When the Sun Rises in the Sky," which echoes
with the influence of American soul and Europop.
Comprehensive, but hardly exhaustive, Sound
Theater works well as an introduction to this interesting and
unfortunately overlooked composer's work. Still, it would be nice to
have complete versions of his scores, rather than just the samples that
we find here. Let's hope that Ark, or some other label, gets around to
releasing these charismatic soundtracks soon.
-- Stephen B. Armstrong
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
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Today in Film Score History:
December 2 |
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| Aaron Copland died (1990) |
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| Artie Butler born (1942) |
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| Cyril Ornadel born (1924) |
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| Eddie Sauter born (1914) |
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| Francois-Eudes Chanfrault born (1974) |
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| Gerald Fried's score to the Star Trek episode "Shore Leave" is recorded (1966) |
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| Harry Sukman born (1912) |
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| John Williams begins recording his score for Midway (1975) |
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| Lennie Hayton records his score for the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode “The Monster from Outer Space” (1965) |
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| Michael Whalen born (1965) |
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| Milton Delugg born (1918) |
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| Richard Markowitz begins recording his music for the three-part Mission: Impossible episode “The Falcon,” his final scores for the series (1969) |
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