Buy it... if you are pleased by classical romance music similar to the styles of Philip Glass and Gabriel Yared, led by substantial and elegant piano performances.

Avoid it... especially if you are looking for one of the several prominently featured songs in the film, none of which appear on this album.

Kaczmarek

Unfaithful: (Jan A. P. Kaczmarek) The scenario depicted in director Adrian Lyne's Unfaithful isn't new by any means of the imagination, and it's difficult to fathom how studios can continue to accept the same formula for production so often. Still, Lyne, who helmed Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal, Lolita, and 9 1/2 Weeks, offers yet another tale of marital infidelity, obsession, and mental anguish that once again causes one to wonder about Lyne's bizarre fascination with these topics. The plot of Unfaithful is your typical story of an upper-class, middle-aged couple living the American dream until the day the unhappy, underachieving wife decides to succumb to the mystery, spontaneity, charm, and flat stomach of a younger man she met on the streets. Alas, unholy acts transpire, leading to the obligatory "R" rating for explosive sex and a fair amount of Diane Lane nudity. The ensuing investigation and troubling discovery by the husband is followed by the couple's attempt to reconcile and move on. With a formula so simple, it's difficult to imagine what the music for the topic could accomplish that hasn't been heard before. The film has lengthy moments of silence, during which the score would be required to solely convey the body language of love and guilt. Polish composer Jan A. P. Kaczmarek was tasked with providing another lurid layer to the picture, extending the basic, romantic emotions that dominate the film. Kaczmarek had already proven himself capable of classically inclined works in a handful of films that had gained attention in America since 1999 (this was still a few years before his Academy Award win for Finding Neverland), and he was especially known for the compelling piano performances within his compositions.

For Unfaithful, Kaczmarek offers a conservative, subdued, and mysterious score that sometimes displays passion, but above all presents an orchestrally romantic undertone that remains very consistent throughout the film. As expected, the symbol of contemporary household lifestyles, the piano, is central to Unfaithful, with several outstanding performances backed up by a full string section of the orchestra in numerous cues. The challenge for Kaczmarek would be to produce a passionate score without exploding into open musical representations of orgasms (like Jerry Goldsmith's Basic Instinct) and without either failing to muster any sensuality at all (like Terence Blanchard's Original Sin) or falling into a well of the romantically mundane and repetitious (like Rachel Portman's work for many dramas of similar introversion). To that end, Kaczmarek would aim for something remarkably similar to Gabriel Yared's romance work, whether it be The English Patient or Message in a Bottle. "The entire movie is shot so beautifully, so the imagery was very inspiring at any moment," he stated at the time, "but also extremely difficult to score." He also mentions that Philip Glass' work for The Hours is the kind of classy work to which he aspired, continuing by saying of Glass, "it's such a nice step toward what I'm doing, still keeping his minimalistic engine." Kaczmarek's Unfaithful is likely more accessible to mainstream Western listeners than much of Glass' work (with the exception of The Hours), with an easily recognizable theme, pronounced piano performances, and haunting female vocals. The progressions of his thematic material are extremely harmonious and accessible. The wordless vocals are the wildcard in Unfaithful, sometimes elegant ("The Visit") and sometimes staggered with excitement ("Sudden Turn").

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The employment of a cimbalom and accordion lend a touch of European romanticism to the equation. The score's only tortured cue comes late ("The Obsession"), and yet even in this moment the result of Kaczmarek's effort is a very calm, if not too relaxing of an identity. The level of passion infused into even the score's most rapturous moments never builds beyond a restrained volume of pleasant atmosphere, which will be disappointing for some album listeners seeking a more engaging sense of emotion, but that characteristic of the score also allows it to be a strong background environment for evening occasions. The album does not feature any of the songs in the film (Moby, Radiohead, Nara and Ali Toure, etc), and the score is top-heavy, with the majority of lush romantic cues settled near the beginning (don't forget to give "Burning Pictures" near the conclusion a chance, though). If you are looking for the African blues song heard twice in the movie (once during foreplay and again during the bathtub scene), it is among these titles not included on the product. It is called "Al Du," performed by the aforementioned Ali Farka Toure, and it can be found on an album titled "Talking Timbuktu" with both Toure and Ry Cooder. Other music not contained on the score-only album, including that which you hear during the first lovemaking scene when Diane Lane's stomach is in lusting seizure mode, are two songs ("Devorzhum" and "Dedicace Outo") by "Dead Can Dance" from their "Spiritchaser" album. As for Kaczmarek's underscore, there is significant beauty to be heard throughout its length. If the composer had been able to vary the emotional output of his music to better reach out to the listener in the quieter moments, it could easily have been a four star effort. Even as is, though, Unfaithful is a strong and consistent listening experience on album, recommended for collectors of Yared, Portman, Glass, or other masters of classical or minimalistic romance. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download