For admirers of the music of Debbie Wiseman it was indeed rewarding to hear her first major score for a feature film. Tom and Viv , starring Willem Dafoe and Miranda Richardson, is set in a period much loved by British film and television producers - the early part of the twentieth century. Wiseman's well constructed score employs solo piano, at times blended with a string orchestra.

Although some period-style music is included  - Tom and Viv's Dance and Pianola Rag for example - this is not a lightweight subject, and as the story moves to its dramatic conclusion so the music becomes more introverted, with the solo piano more to the fore.

On the strength of Tom and Viv there seems to be no reason why Debbie Wiseman will not become one of our major screen composers in a very short space of time.

Gramophone
Film music
Good CD Guide
1996