The Red Violin: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [Soundtrack]

Joshua Bell, John Corigliano | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 18, 1999)
• Original Release Date: June 11, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00000J28V
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,361 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com's Best of 1999

Leave it to composer John Corigliano and violinist Joshua Bell--two of biggest names in classical music--to team up and create one of 1999's best soundtracks. For many, the soundtrack to The Red Violin was just as impressive as the film, a moving blend of gypsy, folk, and classical compositions. --Jason Verlinde

Amazon.com essential recording

Normally we think of a musical instrument as a passive object in the service of a performing artist. But what if that instrument is itself a work of art, containing the secrets of the various owners through whose hands it has passed over the centuries? That's the premise behind this intriguing film by François Girard (director of 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould). It traces the story of a legendary violin (thought to be possessed by an immortal soul) from its birth in 17th-century Italy through Mozart's Vienna, Victorian England, and revolutionary China to its present-day fate on the auction block. The score, in suggesting the violin's unique aura, therefore carries much of the burden of the story, and it brings together some of the most outstanding talents in contemporary classical music. Composer John Corigliano's richly eclectic and poetic score--encompassing classical elegance, gypsy passion, and angst-ridden harmonies--etches vivid portraits of the film's various epochs but also gives an overarching sense of unity to the episodic character of the script. It's essentially a set of remarkably imaginative variations for violin and orchestra on a theme of haunting pathos and is a substantial work of music in its own right. As the soloist, Joshua Bell saturates the eponymous instrument with personality. His combination of virtuoso bravura and soulful phrasing almost seems to lead the violin to the brink of human speech. Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen shapes the exchange between orchestra and violin into tautly dramatic dialogue. The disc also includes a powerful related work on the theme used in the score, the Chaconne for Violin and Orchestra, which confirms Corigliano's status as one of today's leading and most personally communicative American composers. --Thomas May

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

84 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Red Violin, March 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Red Violin: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Audio CD)

A strangely hypnotic soundtrack that travels around the world musically with the movie it portrays. From the beginnings of Red Violin theme in Italy, to its ending in Montreal, the music takes us to each place it travels to. In Italy it is haunting as the Red Violin is created. In Austria the music is graceful (with a unique, lively gypsy tune), in Oxford it is passionate, in China wistful (included in the China section is a piece that has a Chinese song sung by children). At last, in Montreal, where the Red Violin ends its journey through time, the music returns to its roots in Italy, becoming both sad and haunting. The entire soundtrack centers around a single theme; expanding and elaborating it as the Red Violin journeys from one place to another. This is a soundtrack that evokes feelings of a mysterious love, a deep passion, and a haunting power. To truly understand the almost magical grip it has, one must listen to it.

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Four sophisticated strings in five sophisticated stories, June 16, 2003

By 

Bram Janssen (The Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Red Violin: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Audio CD)

Corigliano does not consider himself a film-music composer, not even after winning an Academy Award for this score, and tossing high eyes with his score for "Altered States". He is more the type for 'classical music' such as chamber music and concertos. That is perhaps one reason why he's asked to score such films of this calibre. In particular the tale of the cultural, literary and geographical travails of a small, melancholic fourstring.

Corigliano's approach is awesome and at the same time the only right one. As the violin passes from culture to culture, the music changes with it. However, at the centre of each of the five 'chapters' is one theme: "Anna's theme". And seeing that - in a certain spiritual approach - Anna herself incorporates the violin, her theme is also the Red Violin's theme. This is beautifully illustrated in the soundtrack's first piece (properly named "Anna's theme") - which is first hummed by a woman's voice and then deftly handed over to solo violin.

After departing from the violin's place of birth - Cremona - the listeners relocates it in baroque Vienna. So far the music had been rather ageless (meaning: modern, non?contemporary film-music), yet here it has started to absorb some Zeitgeist. This three?track chapter's most outstanding moment is "Kaspar's etude", which, symbolically and narratively, features a violin-solo and an accelerating metronome that abruptly stops ticking.

Next stop in our time-travail is a group of Gypsy-travellers, who end up with the musical instrument in English Oxford. This chapter features some wonderful Roma music and a truly virtuoso etude by featured violist Joshua Bell (who plays all the solos and leads in the score). These five tracks are the zenith in an already outstanding body of composition.

We journey to Shanghai next, but there is little original composition here, especially in the second track, which features an appearance of the Chinese Red Guard accordion band (still a very famous accordion/children's choir musical piece). Nevertheless, the music adds value to the whole with its oriental folklore and flavour.

And with the fifth chapter we have arrived in more modern times - in Montreal to be exact. What you get here is music with very mysterious quality. "Morritz's theme" is a slightly altered "Anna's Theme", very interesting.

After the "End Titles" - in which "Anna's Theme" is given back to the humming female vocal by the solo violin - we are treated with a 17-minute long orchestral piece. Here, Corigliano used stagnation in the film's production-process to further delve into some of the earlier themes. (Normally, composers are called in only AFTER all the imagery has been shot, but here characters being filmed IN the film had to play a composer's film-music, which is why Corigliano came into the moviemaking early.) This music is much more than "suite" and a living identity of its own.

The music on this album is intelligent and sensitive, varied and literary. And there aren't simply excerpts from it: there is a lot of it. It doesn't break boundaries, and it will not define new standards. But the album's content is great quality all the way, which will move you with deep instrumentations, astounding virtuoso performances and vibrant storytelling, each time you grace it with a listen.

This is worth at least four stars.

Bram Janssen,
The Netherlands

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great! But...go see the movie first, July 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Red Violin: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Audio CD)

Any recording involving Joshua Bell almost guarantees that there will be little to criticize. Let me state, first off, that Bell's playing has nothing to do with why this didn't get five stars. As usual, he gives a wonderful performance, full of the lyricism and passion that make music critics smile in spite of themselves and young Bell fans swoon. The music itself is hauntingly beautiful and "Anna's Theme" is as unforgettable and captivating as her violin in the movie. The big BUT comes here: this is a wonderful score BUT it won't seem to make sense unless you go see the movie first. You have to know the plot; there are about five different subplots that fit together to make the movie as a whole. If you don't know it, the CD just sounds like five different soundtracks from seperate movies. At best, it will make you want to go find out what the movie is about. At worst, it will confuse you and you'll think the movie is weird and badly done, which it isn't. BTW I encourage you to go see this movie! You will never forget it, it is beautiful, a joy to watch. I highly recommend the movie, and I highly recommend you then go to pick up the soundtrack- but in that order, not the other way around.