Anyway the last item up is this score from a British (?) TV mini-series for Doctor Zhivago. The composer I don't know of - Ludovico Einaudi. He plays the piano solos and conducts the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Soloists include vocals from Sergey Starostin and Natalyia Milyaeva, Djivan Gasparian's soulful duduk and some stunning string solos from a quintet. Special notice especially goes out to the cellist and bassist. Some awe-inspiring work there.

This is a world away from Jarre's score to the David Lean film, and I imagine that comes from the tone of the adaptation, whose images remind me of Martha Fiennes wonderful film Onegin. I can imagine angry disenfranchised BBC devotees complaining about the desecration of the Lean/Jarre collaboration, but to do so would be to pass up a really wonderful work from Einaudi. He has a beautifully unique voice as a writer.

The influences on his score for this drama are many. There's the catalena-like theme for Zhivago ('Zhivago','White Night', 'Talking to You','Yuri's Lullabye'), a lullaby for piano that is wholely adorable. The latter track adds the curious effect of Sergey Starostin's plaintive vocal. You might say it lies somewhere on that delicate melodic ground between 'Monica's Theme' from AI and 'Metamorphosis V' from Glass' Solo Piano. Very compelling, and a beautiful suggestion of the perspective of Zhivago's daughter, learning years after her father's death of his true identity. Actually, it's occurred to me what this reminds me of - 'Lolita' by Morricone - it has that same delicateness.

Then there's the piano-led flowing tones of 'Journey to the Past'. Einaudi's hands play the piano over a bed of strings in the flowing style of Nyman's 'The Heart Asks Pleasure First'. And if you liked where Nyman went in that score (more in terms of the piano material than the Scottish influences), you'll eat this track for breakfast lunch and dinner.

Then there's the love motif, which doesn't jump out in as obvious a fashion as the other two at first. It first appears in 'Love is a Mystery'. I don't know if it meets the musical definition of the term, but it starts out in the form of a nocturne - unpretentious and beguiling. Then comes the rhapsody, as the piano builds to a rapturous cresendo.

Jarre's score is often remembered for its incorporation of ethnic influences. In fact that seems something of a have in hindsight, as the only real bit of Russian orchestration is the balalaika. Perhaps in something of a reaction, or maybe to dispel comparison with Jarre's efforts altogether, Einaudi (like Magnus Fiennes in Onegin) bars the balalaika from his ensemble of soloists. So it is in 'Kolechko', a vocalist intones wordlessly while strings, and there's no doubt among the jury - this cue is achingly authentic. It feels like winter in Siberia with the sound a woman singing in the distance. A male vocal suggests the open space of 'The Journey', supported by some fine base playing.

The most obvious ethnic device is the duduk, used to great effect for the story's hard-to-avoid subjects of war and revolution appears in the track. In 'Evil Days', it leads the sombre orchestral dirge. In 'Still So Early in the World', Einaudi places it against a background that owes a little either to Zimmer's 'Journey to the Line' or Jon Brion's 'I've got a surprise for you today'. The performance here is more striking than in either of those tracks because of the mixing of the string soloists with the orchestra. Having said that, the cue ends too quickly for Einaudi's track to achieve the same extraordinary climax as either Zimmer or Brion's efforts. (I remember playing that cue of Zimmer's and that cue alone for weeks after buying the Thin Red Line soundtrack.)

The source cue 'We Praise Thee' by Chesnokov is a what would come to mind if I was asked to musically define gravity. Alternatively, I can see this kind of music would greenlight a thousand submarine films. Very heavy stuff. Extremely Russian in a sense that Jarre's score never was.

Another piano theme for Zhivago's poetry writing appears in 'The Earth' and is reprised in 'Writing Poetry','Eyes Closed'. To those who've heard Dale Cornelius' score for Till Human Voices Wake Us, it's very much in that style. Nyman comes to minds again... Wonderland, The Piano, another recommendation of this score to fans of those.

Look, this could go on forever, but I think you get my point. This is a great album IF you go for low-key music with an emphasis on piano solo work. It's probably the best score in that style since Kaczmarek's Unfaithful or Glass' The Hours. If you are very much into that type of music - find this and keep it. I found it for what is equivalently $6.50 US, so evidently someone made too many and they're trying to offload inventories in Australia.

Just on some technical details. Running time is 56 minutes. Liner notes have several pictures of Hans Matheson and Keira Knightley and a brief description of Einaudi's career. Track titles and times are as follows:

1. Zhivago (3:39)
2. Farewell to the Past (5:00)
3. Love is a Mystery (3:02)
4. Kolechko (3:02)
5. The Earth (2:40)
6. Evil Days (2:30)
7. Talking to You (5:24)
8. Still so early in the World (3:38)
9. The Journey (2:37)
10. Writing Poems (4:10)
11. Eyes Closed (2:52)
12. We Praise Thee (3:33)
13. White Night (3:13)
14. Fairytale (3:59)
15. The Ringlet (3:51)
16. Yuri's Lullaby (1:32)

Is it as good as Jarre? Probably not, but so much of whether you love Jarre's score depends on whether you can stand Lara's Theme, and as I write this review I don't miss the swelling statements of it a great deal. There's nothing here that is quite as beguiling as Jarre's own theme for Zhivago. That theme is heaven... (and should have been the Lean film's main theme)...

I like this as much as Jarre's score, though I've actually listened to Einaudi's score more often.

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Originally posted by metaphor123:
I've been looking forward to seeing this miniseries - if it airs in Australia.

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Yeah... no sign that it will do so far. In Britain it showed about the same time as Daniel Deronda, which showed here months ago. The ABC might put it on if it ever runs out of episodes of the Forsyte Saga!

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Originally posted by metaphor123:
I love Jarre's score for the film (and was never able to understand people's objection to 'Lara's Theme) and I've been looking forward to seeing this miniseries - if it airs in Australia.

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