The 2001 Silva album is a regular international release. The 1998 Tickertape album is difficult to find, and is only available on the secondary auction market.
Buy it... if you want to hear an extension of Barry's dramatic, choral
and orchestral approach to The Lion in Winter.
Avoid it... if you are already satisfied with the Tickertape album
featuring the original score and don't need to hear an equally rendered
re-recording.
Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Barry
The Last Valley: (John Barry) Despite being at the
height of his popularity in the James Bond franchise by 1970, composer John
Barry was building an impressive list of dark, dramatic scores for which he
was receiving equal attention in the industry. Having recently won the
Academy Award for the eerie, powerful score for The Lion in Winter,
and also having worked with director James Clavell on King Rat, Barry
was hired to provide a score for the heavily dramatic tale of The Last
Valley. The film was heralded as a magnificent piece of visual and aural
storytelling, but the depressingly bleak and sometimes horrifying treatment
of its characters kept audiences away. Set during the Thirty Years' War, the
film offers the struggles of a unravaged village (filmed in Austria) that
deals with an occupation by forces of a foreign army, and in so doing, the
story blurs the lines of good and evil in its characters. Lead actor Michael
Caine asserts that it is among his favorite personal works, although he,
like the others involved with the project, recognize that its blatant
violence made it a difficult film to stomach. As in The Lion in
Winter, John Barry's music for The Last Valley would present both
the ethereal, religious nature of purity, as well as the chilling chants of
war. In order to provide the best score possible, Clavell's filming schedule
allowed Barry an outstanding six months to score the film. The result is a
deeply rendered, thoughtful score that makes use of a large orchestral
ensemble and the same Voices of The Accademia Monteverdiana that he had
utilized in The Lion in Winter. Given so much time to complete the
score, Barry inserted six original, basic instrumental and choral songs into
the film, sometimes utilizing lyrics from Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century
German poets and folk songs. The score for The Last Valley, as often
is the case with Barry's scores, is surprisingly simple in construction, but
depends upon the brute force of emotion to accomplish its goals.
The same approach of simplicity in his scores had often
worked for Barry, with a strong sense of harmony leading the way in place of
complex instrumentation, tempi, or layers. This plainness is effective for
half of the score for The Last Valley, but presents difficulty for
the other half. Barry's writing works very well to communicate the
unsophisticated lifestyles of the village and the last valley itself,
representing its people with a kind, uncomplicated touch that will dazzle
your ears during the vast cinematography within the valley. The songs for
the villagers are also handled well, with the appropriate religious
influence provided for the heavily religious people of the village. On the
other hand, Barry's score loses a step when it comes to the driving cues for
battle, as heard additionally over the titles. The elements are all in place
for these cues: the timpani, the tolling bell, the ripping snare, the deep
male chorus, and brutal brass. But Barry's own jazzy themes betray him here,
with his title theme for The Last Valley losing power because of its
poor rhythm for the genre. That title theme, despite being performed by all
the right elements, sounds a tad out of place, as though it was adapted from
a jazzy theme of Barry's previous compositions and inserted at a slower pace
to suffice as a war theme here. This slight swing to the theme causes it to
lack the same kind of primordial power and effectiveness that was realized
with The Lion in Winter. Even as such, however, the theme still has
its moments when bracketed by the excruciating theme for the valley, and the
overall package is serviceable, if not slightly suspicious during the battle
sequences. The authenticity of the work in the film is established through
the choral elements, which, needless to say, offer a dreamy atmosphere to
the horrors of the story.
The original score was released on LP at the time of the
film's release, and a CD of this material was pressed by Luxembourg's
Tickertape label in 1998. As part of its trilogy of Barry period recordings
in 2001 (including The Lion in Winter and Robin & Marian), the
City of Prague Philharmonic performed the same music, and twenty minutes
more, under the careful reconstruction and conducting of Barry associate Nic
Raine. The original performance features more raw energy than the
re-recording, although the production team for the 2001 Silva release made
sure to accentuate the choral elements of their version (since, after all,
there was no dialogue in the film to contend with). They also took some
artistic liberty with different tempi for a few of the cues. As with The
Lion in Winter, Barry's original recording team for The Last
Valley very well captured the resounding performance with a wet,
echoing, and sometimes booming sound quality. Unfortunately, being on the
Luxembourg label, the recommended Tickertape album is difficult to find and
usually shows up only at soundtrack specialty outlets. The Silva
re-recording is widely available in the commercial sector, and fans of John
Barry and The Last Valley should consider purchasing both albums in
order to best compare the original to Raine's interpretation. With the
original sheet music lost in some cases, the extra material on the Silva
album had to be reconstructed by listening to the music as it appears on the
DVD of the film. That fact alone makes a statement about the relative
simplicity of Barry's music for the film; had his music taken a more complex
avenue, then such a reconstruction would have been more difficult. Overall,
The Last Valley isn't Barry's strongest work in the genre, but it
features several superb thematic performances for the valley's beauty, and
you won't go wrong with either of the albums available. ****
• 1. Main Title Theme (3:09)
• 2. The Last Valley (2:57)
• 3. The Shrine (1:50)
• 4. An Evening Song (2:02)
• 5. The Plague Pit (2:26)
• 6. The Village Attack (2:54)
• 7. A Children's Song (1:50)
• 8. Attack at Rheinfelden (1:15)
• 9. Main Title Theme (Part II) (3:40)
• 10. The Last Valley (Part II) (2:41)
• 11. A Christmas Song (2:28)
• 12. Witch Burning (1:44)
• 13. An Offertory Chant (2:41)
• 14. Vogel Leaves the Valley (1:22)
• 15. Death of the Captain/End Title (4:53)
Track Listings (2001 Silva Screen Re-Recording):
Total Time: 56:51
• 1. The Last Valley - Main Titles (part 1) (3:07)
• 2. The Rape of Khutai* (0:52)
• 3. The Plague Pit (2:10)
• 4. Entry into the Last Valley (3:00)
• 5. "Why not Winter in the Valley?"*/The Death of Eskesen (4:37)
• 6. An Evening Song (2:07)
• 7. Captain Meets Erica*/Winning Erica* (2:18)
• 8. The Villagers Fight for the Shrine* (2:59)
• 9. The Priest Prays for Guidance*/The Shrine (3:13)
• 10. Vogel's Dream The Last Valley (2:45)
• 11. The Giving Away of the Women An Offertory Chant (2:36)
• 12. Hansen Tries to Murder Captain* (1:19)
• 13. A Children's Song (1:46)
• 14. Graf Returns*/Mountain Skirmish The Village Attack (3:16)
• 15. Departure for Rhinefelden* (2:55)
• 16. A Christmas Song (2:51)
• 17. Witchcraft*/Erica is Burned at the Stake (3:34)
• 18. Vogel Leaves the Valley* (1:44)
• 19. Night Battle at Rhinefelden (1:13)
• 20. Death of Captain/End Title (5:02)
• 21. The Last Valley Main Titles (part 2) (3:29)
* previously unrecorded
Notes and Quotes:
Both albums contain an extensive amount of information about the score and film.
