Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you appreciate Patrick Doyle's (or any contemporary composer's) sense of weighty classicism and, in particular, you enjoy explosively frenetic piano performances over a full orchestral ensemble. Avoid it... if you require that your scores form a fluid, cohesive whole no matter how brilliant their individual parts. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
East-West (Est-Ouest): (Patrick Doyle) Under its French title, Est-Ouest was the country's foreign language nominee for a 1999 Academy Award. Director Regis Wargnier's examination of post-World War II life in France and Russia was widely acclaimed and eventually picked up by Sony for international distribution the following year. Immediately after the end of the war, a French woman and her Russian husband relocate to his homeland and quickly discover that Soviet rule is not as advertised. Their efforts to move back to Paris are thwarted by the government, and they are forced to rely on the help of a young swimmer who complicates matters by forming a love triangle due to the faltering wife's affections. The location and romantic appeal inspired composer Patrick Doyle to return from his battle with leukemia to write one of the most passionate scores of his career. Doyle had collaborated with Wargnier for Indochine and Une Femme Francais in the 1990's, two powerfully dramatic scores of classical weight, and the composer would take that sound a few steps further for East-West. It had been almost two years since Doyle's last widespread score, Great Expectations, hinted at some of the themes that you hear in East-West, with The Quest for Camelot an enigma in between. Doyle's emotionally complex and grand orchestral style for this score is expressed in three very distinct elements that he brings to the table. First, he continues his habit of writing extremely heavy, dramatic themes and integrating them very well into a harmonic backdrop with mainly layers of strings. He composes three separate themes for East-West, one each for the swimmer, the French woman, and the oppressive circumstances in which they all find themselves caught. The second major aspect of the score is Doyle's dabbling into the Slavic choral tradition, suggesting even more power to Soviet control. Lastly, the swimmer's scenes in the water are provided with a rolling identity by pianist Emmanuel Ax, and it this collection of four cues that truly elevates East-West to Oscar-worthy material. Ironically, it's the lack of integration of these three sides of the score's personality into one smooth whole that is its only significant weakness. The general theme for oppression is immediately explored in "Opening Titles" and eventually passes most of its airtime to the similarly rendered theme for the French woman as the story focuses more on her hardships. The oppression theme is much like Indochine in character and construct, both serious and gorgeous in its string performances over brass counterpoint. The theme for the French woman does take significant inspiration from the dramatic classicism of Great Expectations, including several similar shifts in progression. Doyle's subtle references to this theme early in the score, starting with "Arrival in Kiev," are well masked, though salvation with this theme eventually comes unhindered in "Freedom." The performances of traditional hymns by the Ukrainian Army Choir, led once by an impressive baritone voice, exist in three cues spread throughout the score's album presentation. Doyle makes the most from his time spent on location in Kiev and Sofia during filming by adapting his own title theme into an even fuller vocal performance in "The Land" (featuring Anatoly Fokonov and the Bulgarian Mixed Choir) that has echoes of "Non Nobis Domine" from Henry V in several aspects. Doyle's theatre talents offered him the chance to not only compose the material, but also write the lyrics. These choral sequences provide the most poignant and, perhaps, pivotal examples of ethnic influence on the score. Stealing the show, however, is Ax's piano wizardry in the scenes of swimming. The frenetic movements of this theme, accompanied by the full ensemble, are among the most impressive single expressions of a grand piano in film music history. Ax's extraordinary performances starting in "The River" are infectiously rapturous and, when combined with a snare drum and Doyle's typical string-heavy orchestra, are undeniably engaging. Even with much of the fan-based and critical attention focused on "The Land" and the other choral moments of the East-West score, the piano solos are still those that will remain at the forefront of your memory. Such explosive usage of the instrument is something so rarely employed in the Digital Age of film music (a sound that unfortunately died off to a large extent at the end of the Golden Age) that you have to admire Doyle's ambitious writing for it here. The outstanding recording mix of the ensemble and Ax's performances produce a resounding sound that also extends to the choral portions, which often exude an ambience consistent with a magnificent cathedral recording. Overall, the score's only weakness is the same which afflicted Great Expectations, and that is the lack of fluid movement between the choral moments and the remainder of the material. The piano cues are a better match for the surrounding score (the instrument is also present in a lesser role in those extended cues). Without consistency, some of the elegance of the whole is lost on album, though there is no doubt that individual highlights within East-West are among the best of Doyle's career. The score was released by Sony in Europe in 1999 under its French title, and was distributed in America a year later (with identical contents) under the English name. No matter how you acquire this score, you will be impressed by its stunning parts even if the entirety may not hold together. **** Track Listings (All Albums):
Total Time: 53:37
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1999 European