While researching for the musical roots of the genre, Badelt
grasped onto Russian classicism as a means of aiding the authenticity of the film's
semi-true plot. The desire to create an intelligent fit for both the genre and the
submarine's crew carried Badelt to a study of modern Russian composers as well,
leading to a sufficiently true cultural environment that suits the setting of the
film better than the typical, run of the mill submarine action score. With the
extremely melodramatic and tragic tone of the story at heart, Badelt went overboard
in his emulation of an appropriately stoic Russian sound. The brooding, moody,
string-heavy result for
K-19 is remarkable in that it exhibits Badelt's
talent for working in a mould, setting an exact style and expanding upon that sound
for a lengthy amount of introspection. He even went so far as to write a
considerable concert arrangement of his own (and others') music for the project.
The album release is highlighted at its start by a complete "Suite for Orchestra
and Chorus in G Minor," in four movements ("Fear," "Fate," "War," "Soul"), and
the climax of the album's presentation (in "Reactor") features an extensive adaptation
of Richard Einhorn's "Voices of Light" piece. The overarching spirit of Badelt's
efforts is convincingly Russian in tone and carries the stern weight you'd expect
to accompany the deadly scenario amid cold war tensions. The interesting aspect of
the
K-19 score as a sum, however, is the seeming fact that, despite its
remarkable effort to be genuine, it doesn't always function as an effectively
engaging score. Badelt blessed
K-19 with an equally heavy theme, a typical
Media Ventures, minor-key idea of origin in
The Peacemaker that is burdened
with a similarly dramatic, Holstian power. But even as such, the theme is not
dynamic enough to service a wider range of emotions; thus, it is repeated too often
in its same form, causing the score (by its final cue) to be highly repetitious.
There's a slight hint of jovial warmth to the theme on solo woodwinds at the outset
of "Home" and it's hard not to be stirred by the heroic choral rendition of the
idea throughout "Journey," but outside of these cues (and a few ultra-tragic,
slower tempo performances in late cues), the theme is stagnant in its development.
The action material, heard best in "War - Allegro III," is extremely reminiscent
of
Gladiator, too, but at least without the obvious and controversial
references to classical composers.
The most memorable aspect of Badelt's work for
K-19 is its
extremely oppressive style of morbid contemplation. The lengthy cues of meandering
underscore (for mostly strings) not only exist to accentuate the burden of the
crew, but that of the listener as well, yielding an almost immediate squashing of
any initial enthusiasm that many first time listeners will have due to the concert
arrangements. The score's lengthy conclusion in "Reunion," for which Badelt really
cranks up the melodrama in the final statement of the theme, outstays its welcome
to the same extent that the entire scene seems tacked on unnecessarily to the end
of the film. On album, the soprano vocals in Einhorn's material are another
unneeded distraction from the previously cohesive material. Overall, when you place
the score for
K-19 next to its peers, it is clearly an attempt to
authenticate its genre, and thus is not what most casual listeners will expect to
hear. It is by no means a score of high adventure; in fact, it could be safely
classified as a depressing and somber abnormality in its genre. If Badelt had been
better able to express his naturally dynamic inclinations while maintaining the
heavy, classical Russian foundation necessary for the topic,
K-19 could have
been an outstanding score. It is difficult to say, also, whether or not the
extremely solemn performances by the Kirov Orchestra and Chorus contribute to the
same flaws (though it should be noted that parts of the score were recorded in both
St. Petersburg, Russia, and Washington, D.C.). The performances by the Russians are
accurate and certainly convey the authenticity of the music as it was written, but
at the same time, they exhibit a weakness in their inability to match the emotional
ranges required by almost any film score. In other words, the performance have an
extended sense of fluidity that lends itself well to a concert or album setting,
but doesn't always function like a tight fit in the film itself. Without judging it
on the merits of mere functionality, comments can still be made about its
accessibility for an extended listening audience. The classical nature and lack of
dynamic action in the music will cause disappointment for the majority of film
score enthusiasts unless they are prepared for the length to which Badelt journeyed
to authenticate his tone for this topic. The album becomes repetitious at over an
hour in length, and despite its occasionally gripping power and true Russian heart,
the product stands a few steps behind the great submarine scores of times past.
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