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Filmtracks Recommends:
Buy it... if you seek a charming souvenir from the film, with consistently pleasant tones that competently mirror the enthusiastic and lightweight drama on screen. Avoid it... if you expect to hear more than two performances of the score's famous, bubbly title theme, which, along with the other themes, is poorly developed and ultimately unsatisfying in its brevity. Filmtracks Editorial Review:
Warbeck's music for Shakespeare in Love works in the film and is nothing less than an undemanding and pleasant listening experience on album, but it by no means deserves the hype that it received at the time. His handling of his own themes is the work's greatest weakness. Warbeck offers three themes in Shakespeare in Love, and the most memorable is actually the least explored. The most vibrant and enthusiastic theme is the title piece, heard in full only in "The Beginning of the Partnership" and "The Brawl." This purely fluffy affair is most commonly considered the score's main theme, though it more accurately represents the Rose Theater and its crew. It's a lovely theme that very well establishes the tone of the film immediately, and it's an absolute shame that it only receives two major treatments in the film itself. Mixed within the bouncing rhythms of this theme are hints of the score's other two ideas. One is used as a slightly more tense representation of nerves and rebellion. Heard in "Viola's Audition," this interlude to the previous theme sometimes moves with the same excitement as the theatre's theme, but it is also called upon for moments of anxiety throughout the score (and especially in the preparations for the final, pivotal performance). The love theme for Will and Viola is fleeting throughout the score, but is a more dramatically fluid idea that is only hinted at throughout the score before its monumental ensemble performance in "The End." Most of the time, these themes are conveyed by string layers, but are occasionally accented by solo trumpet or woodwind. The style of the period is addressed by occasional wooden flute and harpsichord contributions, though acoustic guitar and tapping percussion provide warmth to some of the score's more intimate moments. Overall, the work can be quite drab in its attempt to address the somber elements of the story; only a faint soprano voice in "The Play and the Marriage" provides colorful relief from the absolute consistency in the score's tone. Listeners will gravitate back to the two delightful performances of the title theme. Ultimately, this is a film for which Rachel Portman could have written a more additive score in her sleep, and for which George Fenton could have penned a classic. ****
* soprano solo by Catherine Bott
The insert includes no extra information about the score or film. The music was recorded at CTS Studios in London between October 6th and 9th, 1998. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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