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Debbie Wiseman's
sumptuous score for Wilde is certainly the finest of her career
to date. Wiseman has always been noted for her wonderful gift for
melody. Her themes for various television shows have always been
immediately catchy, but also enduring. Although this certainly extended
to her scores for such films as Tom & Viv and Haunted,
Wilde is by far the most successful example of her gifts.
It seems almost clichéd to say so, but Wilde
is a 'truly' beautiful score. AIl of Wiseman's music is enthused with so
much energy and vitality that it is almost impossible to dislike it.
It's up-front and melodramatic; literally bathed in passion, but somehow
never overblown. Wilde is a 'traditional' orchestral score, with notable
oboe solos by Dick Morgan, solo piano by Andrew Bottrill and the composer
and cello solos and string co-ordination by Justin Pearson.
An overture, suitably entitled 'Wilde', opens the score
in dramatic fashion and presents the first of many `themes'. Principally
driven by strings it is a stirring and quite masculine theme evoking the
conflicts that shaped the life of Oscar Wilde. It's a turbulent rather
than violent piece, housed by a certain flair and sophistication. The
next track, intriguingly entitled 'Wild West', is just that, a broad and
richly textured hoe-down. 'I Do Need An Audience' presents a picture of
all things 'English', with bright brass fanfares amidst thick Elgar-like
strings.
it is In the fourth track 'Almost As Beautiful As His
Mother' that Wiseman plays her trump card. It is no exaggeration to say
that the theme introduced in this cue is one of the finest I have ever
heard in a film score. In John Willams' excellent booklet notes Wiseman
states, "Oscar Wilde was obsessed with beauty and one of my aims
was for the score to be beautiful - using melody as a vital ingredient
throughout." The theme heard here, whist still quite masculine, has
an emotional depth and beauty that is impossible to put into words: you
can't fail to be moved by it.
In the seventeen tracks that
follow, Wiseman explores
and develops these principal themes with great skill and eloquence
before the nine minute finale 'An Age of Silver' brings the score to a
heartbreaking conclusion.
Wilde is one of those rare scores that is so well
written that each track plays like a piece of music in its own right and
also joins the other tracks to form a cohesive whole. Indeed to be
crude, the CD plays like a series of main titles. l can't remember the
last score I heard that was so listenable and I can't recommend it highly enough.
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Paul Place
Music From The Movies
Music: 5
Presentation: 5
Sound: 5
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This
new film has attracted a great deal of publicity, but I have
not yet had the opportunity to see it. Therefore I have listened
to the music in isolation, as it were, without witnessing how
well it fits the action on-screen. But since most people enjoy
soundtrack albums for many years after they have seen the film,
the music itself is obviously important in the long term. Debbie
Wiseman has already received many plaudits for her previous
work, and this new score will only add lustre to her impressive
career (as she is still very young!). She has been given a large
orchestra which she employs to perfection, weaving rich melodies
to emphasise the anguish Wilde must have endured when his public
adulation quickly evaporated.