Buy it... if you want to experience a short-lived, but shining international hit consisting of a competent blend of classical chamber music and authentic Spanish flavor.

Avoid it... if relatively obscure scores that whisper their intents in subtly constrained fashion don't engage you regardless of their effective, multicultural constructs.

Iglesias

Talk to Her: (Alberto Iglesias) Considered one of 2002's most engrossing dramas, Talk to Her is Pedro Almodóvar's twisted story of love, obsession, and loss. These are typical topics for the writer and director, but this film in particular is delivered with such strong character development that even its most seemingly innocuous conversational scenes can merge both suspense and romance into singular moments. Two men form a bond when the women they love, both in comatose states, are housed next to each other at a hospital. In the process of exploring the relationships both men had with their hopeless partners, Talk to Her suggests a tone of homoerotic tension between the men and conflicts with other family members. It's a rare "talking head" film of deep sexuality that involves men at its core, and it received outstanding marks from critics during the awards season of early 2003. Neither Almodóvar nor composer Alberto Iglesias may have been household names for American film score collectors, but their collaborations were gaining notice in Europe and Latin areas of the planet at such a rate that they eventually reached relative international fame. Their work together dates back to 1995's The Flower of My Secret and includes the subsequent Live Flesh and All About My Mother (the latter of which also highly praised). Iglesias' career in film composition began in the early 1980's and he has won several international awards for his music since that time (along with Oscar nominations). He is also known for his concert arrangements and chamber music, as well as symphonic compositions for large ballet productions. The film Talk to Her was one of those enigmas that successfully bridged the oceanic gap between different cultural audiences, and one result of that success was an unceasing popularity for Iglesias' Talk to Her score on album at the start of 2003. In its soundscape, the film exhibits some very obvious and memorable uses of score and song, too, further heightening the popularity of the music on album. In the effectiveness of his stately and occasionally warm writing for these dramatic stories, Iglesias continued to impress.

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Iglesias's music for Talk to Her is consistent with his previously established style of string-dominated chamber music. Many of the most memorable moments of the score are those in which the London Session Orchestra is seemingly constrained in size to a tense, yet still lyrical quartet of strings. Several cues, including "El Amante Menguante," "Trincheras/Decadence," and "A Portagayola" feature tight and pointed performances for these strings, with an aggressive choppiness and scattered personality hailing back to the personality of Bernard Herrmann's edgier dramatic suspense. At times almost inaudible in its volume, the composer's handling of solo woodwinds and strings is smoothly harmonic in most of their applications, despite a mid-section in the work that does espouse a somewhat uncomfortable personality. A slight thematic identity is immediately established for low strings in early cues, though while Iglesias may shy away from obvious statements of this identity, he compensates with his subtle Spanish influence on a classical genre that does not lend itself regularly to such a Latin sound. For most mainstream viewers of the film who are interested in the album, the enticement will come in the form of the songs and specialty performances on the product. The more spirited and flourishing Spanish guitar and vocal performances of "Hable con Ella," "Raquel," and "Cucurrucucu Paloma" (including contributions by Brazilian vocalist Caetano Veloso) are easily the highlights of the album. The last mentioned cue is an internationally renowned song, performed here with an appropriately creepy simplicity and haunting mood. Likewise, "Por Toda a Minha Vida" and the finale, "The Plaint: O Let Me Weep" (coordinated for the film at the last moment), infuse the film with an operatic beauty that crosses all lines of nationality. The best combination of Iglesias' proper score and the Latin flair exists in "Hable con Ella," which is a remarkably relaxing five minute rendition of the composer's primary theme (over clapping effects) followed by vocals of a nearly mourning tone. The overall product, while probably too restrained for many veteran, American film score collectors, serves as perhaps a glimpse of Spanish classical music for the 21st Century, with elements of traditional chamber music merged seamlessly with Latin flavor. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download