Customer Reviews

The Age Of Innocence: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This soundtrack features 29 songs composed and conducted by Elmer Bernstein, with the exception of 3 songs. The CD insert features a bio on Elmer and includes a few pictures from the movie. The songs are peaceful and relaxing to listen to. One song not included on the soundtrack is Enya's Marble Halls (played during the scene when the men are holding onto their derbies during the gusty winds). I would highly recommend this soundtrack, especially for anyone who enjoyed the movie. The movie itself helped to capture the quintessence of New York's high society and one can learn quite a bit about the Victorian era, such as its formal dining, fashion, etc., by observing background details. Great movie and a great soundtrack!

This score is Bernstein's best work in years, probably the best since "Magnificent Seven". He fully absorbed the feelings and style of the Age of Innocence and transformed them into a stunning film-score.The best cues are "Ellen at the shore" and the "Main Title". This CD ranks among my favorite Soundtracks of all time, although the film itself was only upper intermediate level!

Why the paucity of reviews for this extraordinary musical achievement in comparison with other, less acomplished OST's? This music is a joy to listen to. It is Victorian or Romantic classical work on par with the best from that era. It deserves much more than 5 stars. I highly recommend it.

Adapting from the styles of men like Johann Strauss Jr. and Charles F. Gounod, Elmer Berenstein has created a fantastic and magical accompaniment to Martin Scorsese's adaptation of Mrs. Edith Wharton's wondrous world. Berenstein's score captures each individual moment in just the right light, making it nearly impossible to envision the film without it. The theme song displays the majesty, sorrow, and rigid propriety of the time period, whereas the most majestic piece in the collection, "The VanDerLuydens," truly exposes the pomp and circumstance of Wharton's settings. Playing the soundtrack also works while reading Mrs. Wharton's book, enhancing the overall enjoyability of it all. I would encourage everyone to both view Mr. Scorsese's amazing film and purchase Mr. Berenstein's fabulous soundtrack.

Surely I can't be the only one who hears Brahms in this masterwork. Itzahk Perlman made a recording of the movie's main theme, and I was actually able to pass it off to a friend of mine as a recently discovered movement from an unfinished Brahms violin concerto. It's a tribute to Bernstein's ability to channel Brahms that my friend actually fell for it for a full five minutes.

Few Hollywood composers have been so consistently eclectic in their musical output. Little known fact: Bernstein's theme for By Love Possessed (one of his best scores) was given lyrics and released by a Doo Wop (early rock and roll genre) group called the Four J's. A more unlikely merger of styles would be hard to imagine.

Thank you, Mr. Bernstein, for bringing so much beauty (To Kill A Mocking Bird), pleasure (Walk On The Wild Side), and excitement (The Magnificent Seven)--just to mention a few--into my life.

As a movie fan, I always considered THE AGE OF INOCENCE as a monument, and definitely Martin Scorsese's masterpeace. In my opinion, Elmer Bernstein's soundtrack deserve every award available: it's a wonderful journey to the carachter's souls, and you can remember every wonderful detail and drama that Newland Archer and Ellen Olenska are implied. When the opera appears in the tracks, it's impossible don't be devastated!

This is an outstanding soundtrack, perhaps even better than the movie itself! I'm not familiar with the work of Elmer Bernstein and I didn't like the movie very much, but the music narrates everything that the film by itself couldn't show. Brilliant!

The late Elmer Bernstein is a true virtuoso of talent and different genres. Here, the period-drama of director Martin Scorsese (Taxi driver, The Departed), Bernstein draws us the picture of love, suffering, denial, and lifelong longing. The music is simply perfect, sensitive, sensual, one of the best of this magnificent composer. A Modern classic.

While watching "The Age of Innocence" it is difficult not to be swept away by the beautiful score. Mozart could not have done better himself than Bernstein in creating fantastic music that captures the entire atmosphere and mood of the film. This soundtrack and movie are treasures and the film should have been nominated for Best Picture in place of the Remains of the Day, but fortunately the academy didn't overlook other incredible aspects of the film like the score and Winona Ryder's impeccable performance.