Hamlet: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1996 Film) [Soundtrack]

Patrick Doyle | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 10, 1996)
• Original Release Date: December 10, 1996
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000029V8
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #162,240 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Hamlet Soundtrack

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Patrick Doyle's finest score, June 26, 2000

By 

Mr. Christian Lauliac (Paris France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hamlet: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1996 Film) (Audio CD)

This is certainly one of my top 3 Patrick Doyle scores and a towering achievement. The score unfolds like a great romantic symphony encompassing several moods from serenity and inner peace ("In Pace"), to violence and lush gothic undertones ("The Ghost", "Now, could I drink hot blood"), and a finaly sense of joyous celebration ("Fanfare", "What Players are they?"). After listening constantly to Mr. Doyle's scores for "Henry V", "Much ado about nothing" and "Frankenstein", I thought he could never top such achievements and somehow he did: "Hamlet" is a masterpiece of thematic inventiveness and dramatic power. The playing is wonderful and the engineering is very clear, taking full advantage of Air Lyndhurst's glorious acoustics. If you are a fan of british classical music or a Shakespeare fan (or even better, a fan of Patrick Doyle), don't pass up this CD. Great film music. No: great music. Period!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful score, November 16, 1999

By 

Joshua Saulle (Yonkers, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hamlet: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1996 Film) (Audio CD)

Although not as viscerally powerful as his Henry V score, Hamlet is, appropriately, much more meditative and introspective, making the extroverted sections (Fanfare, the Ghost, My Thoughts be Bloody, etc) that much more impressive. The only weakness I feel is the constant use of only two or three main themes with very little variation in their orchestration. However, that is a tiny quibble with an otherwise masterly score. Doyle's use of 20th century sounds (some atonal canonic writing and Stravinksyesque rhythms) gives this score just the right edge to balance the lush Romanticism of the main themes.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I think this is Doyle's best, June 24, 2008

By 

Stuart Paine (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hamlet: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1996 Film) (Audio CD)

"In Pace", sung by the most artful singer in the world, Placido Domingo, justifies the purchase of this recording. It's operatic and he's an opera singer but... "In Pace" doesn't sound "opera"; it sounds noble and romantic. I love film music and must own over six hundred score recordings. Of those, there are three or four which I regularly and wholeheartedly recommend to my friends and acquaintances who are classical musicians. Doyle's HAMLET is one of them.

There's a LOT of music on this disc - 76:25! - and it's a journey through many moods: reflections of introspective quietude and expressions of pride, tender love, confusion and anger not least among them. It's orchestral, of course, but much of it is almost chamber and intimate. Favorite tracks? All those which include the "In Pace" melody and the thrillingly ominous "Oh, Here They Come".