Customer Reviews

Shutter Island (Music From The Motion Picture)(2 CD)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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This pair of discs contains a wonderful collection of contemporary classical music. In most cases Amazon's tracklisting only provides the names of the performers, so I took the liberty to list the composers for the various tracks.
Ligeti's 'Lontano', an old favourite of mine, is also used to great effect in Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining', a movie that evoked similar emotions with me (although I consider 'The Shining' a truly great movie).

CD 1
1. Ingram Marshall - Fog Tropes
2. Krysztof Penderecki - Symphony No. 3 - IV. Passacaglia - Allegro moderato
3. John Cage - Music for Marcel Duchamp
4. Nam June Paik - Hommage à John Cage
5. György Ligeti - Lontano
6. Morton Feldman - Rothko Chapel 2
7. Johnnie Ray - Cry
8. Max Richter - On the Nature of Daylight
9. Giacinto Scelsi - Uaxuctum - III. [untitled]
10. Gustav Mahler - Quartet in A minor for piano and strings

CD 2
1. John Adams - Christian Zeal and Activity
2. Lou Harrison - Suite for Symphonic Strings - IX. Nocturne
3. Brian Eno - Lizard Point
4. Alfred Schnittke - Four Hymns - II. For Cello and Double Bass
5. John Cage - Root of an Unfocus
6. Ingram Marshall - Alctraz - I. Prelude: The Bay
7. Lonnie Johnson - Tomorrow Night
8. Max Richter/Dinah Washington - On the Nature of Daylight/This Bitter Earth

One of the great joys of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey was the extraordinary soundtrack. Not satisfied with Alex North's original score, Kubrick went with a selection of classical pieces, some familiar like Strauss's The Blue Danube and others less well-known such as Ligeti's Atmospheres. That soundtrack became a classic and Shutter Island is easily in the same league. Like 2001, the music for Shutter Island comes from a number of classical composers and none of the pieces used was written specially for the film. In my opinion, the Shutter Island soundtrack is superior to 2001 in that the music sounds like a coherent score, quite like Bernard Hermann's work for Hitchcock in places.

For anyone interested in contemporary classical music, some of the composers represented here will be familiar names, for instance, John Cage, Krzysztof Penderecki and Alfred Schnittke. Others, like Max Richter, were unknown to me. Richter's On The Nature Of Daylight is a haunting piece and features twice on the soundtrack, the second time in a memorable mash-up with Dinah Washington's This Bitter Earth. A real bonus is a complete performance at the end of CD 1 of Gustav Mahler's only chamber piece, his Piano Quartet in A minor written when he was only sixteen.

The music on this double CD was clearly chosen with great care and intelligence by Robbie Robertson. He has created a collection that will appeal on several levels. Those who have seen the film can acquire a musical memento of Martin Scorsese's extraordinary achievement. For anyone who would like to expand their horizons and hear some of the best music composed in the latter part of the 20th century, this is an excellent starting point. Or if you would simply like some superior mood music, then just programme out the two or three songs on the set and play the rest on repeat.

I can't praise these CDs highly enough.

What's interesting about the score to Shutter Island is that none of it was composed exclusively for the film, but there's plenty of orchestrated music that fits the movie beautifully. Scorsese actually had Robbie Robertson, who worked on the music for The Departed and Gangs of New York, to find existing songs to use for the film. And to his credit, Robertson did a great job.

Songs that are alone worth the price of the CD include the utterly gorgeous and hope-inspiring composition On the Nature of Daylight by composer Max Richter. Lontano and Symphony #3 are beautifully composed works that lend to the sinister feel of the film.

Some of the songs (Music for Marcel Duchamp) are incredibly stark with almost no instrumentation, but still add to the foreboding feel of the movie. Songs like Lizard Point and Prelude - The Bay add a floating, atmospheric element to the score. And a few tracks aren't even what you'd consider music, such as the sound-effect driven Hommage a John Cage. Robertson does effectively keep with the time period for the movie, with 1952 tracks like Cry (crooner Johnnie Ray) and 1948 blues ballad Tomorrow Night (Lonnie Johnson).

These aren't CDs that you would necessarily play from start to finish like those of a movie with an entirely orchestral score, but the music is still haunting and beautiful. It's a must have for anyone that's a fan of movie scores.

Reviewing "This Bitter Earth" only here: I've listened to over a dozen arrangements of this song, and I can truly say - this is beyond reproach. This is permeating, it will penetrate all that was come to pass and surpass all that is yet to come. Magnificent - to say the least.

Movie was ok but the music is what I remembered.So great to have a CD to listen to anytime.
Moving and unusal music!

When I was watching 'Shutter Island' -and I didn't knew a thing about the soundtrack then- the music caught my attention every time (in a very positive way). Marvellous orchestral sounds producing very exciting and illustrative sound scapes.
It really struck me when I read the end titles: these impressive pieces were composed by contemporary composers: Penderecki, Ligeti, Adams, Cage and the weirdest but best of all the Italian Giacinto Scelsi, amongst others.
This 2 cd-set is an impressive collection of late twenty century classical music and its composers. That makes this soundtrack, brought together by musical supervisor Robbie Robertson, not only an excellent underscore but also a kind of a very interesting 'introduction to contemporay classical music'.
LH/The Netherlands

... was the music. (And I liked the movie a lot)

I don't normally enjoy compliation soundtracks - I'm more interested in movie scores or hearing classical pieces in their original context.

What makes this special is:

1. the quality of the music chosen. Nearly every piece is outstanding: challenging in the way much "modern classical" can be, but not off-putting. Many reviews have focussed on the re-arrangement of "This Bitter Earth", and I can understand why: it's exquisite. But there's plenty more here to enjoy;

2. the fact that it has been "curated" by an outstanding musician, Robbie Robertson of The Band - one of THE great rock guitarists and writers. Robbie brings a musician's sense to his selections and the sequencing on disc, making the experience of playing these through an extremely moving one.

It doesn't matter if you have seen the movie or not - these discs are outstanding listening and open the door to a wide range of thrilling material.

Movie Soundtrack recordings are both curious and frustrating. In the case of the soundtrack for the film SHUTTER ISLAND there is another mission: musical 'curator' Robbie Robertson (in conjunction with Director Martin Scorsese) have created a smorgasbord of musical excerpts form luminous composers that will serve (hopefully) as a sort of introduction to contemporary music for the general audience. Ingram Marshall ('his acoustic music frequently incorporates tape delay, and later, digital delay. Many of tape parts of his pieces include the composer's own keening falsetto and gambuh playing such as "Fog Tropes" and "Gradual Requiem") opens the mood of the film with 'Fog Tropes' and later is represented by portions his 'Alcatraz'. Robertson likes to confuse his audience by including works by famous composer's lesser known pieces such as the importance he places on the commentary and sound atmosphere of Mahler's 'Quartet in A minor for strings and piano'. And if we only are allowed miniscule portions of Penderecki's 'Symphony No. 3', Morton Feldman's 'Rothko Chapel 2', Lou Harrison's 'Suite for Symphonic Strings', and Ligeti's 'Lontano', then credit this pair of CDs for offering the sources of the recordings of every work on the discs as reference for the listener to purchase the complete works of the samples.

One other mention should be made and that is the enormously successful piece entitled 'This Bitter Earth' by Max Richter as performed by Dinah Washington. This final piece is delivered in its entirety as the background for the closing credits. If ever a soundtrack lived up to the film for which it was designed, this one does. It is a great introduction to some composers the casual music devotee may not have yet discovered. Grady Harp, June 10

This is a great soundtrack featuring music that is a wonderful accompaniment to the drama amd that is strong as a stand alone work. Ususally when a play soundtracks, I am transported back to my viewing experience. Which would not be a good thing here since I am a bit of a chicken and found this movie more than a little creepy. This music was diverse, powerful and moving enough to transcend what was for me the original source material. Fantastic.

Sitting in the movie theater the main musical theme slammed through my body like a sledge hammer. I knew this piece! I couldn't have chosen a more disturbing, gut wrenching movement of music that would fit better than the Penderecki here for this soundtrack.

Great music used throughout this movie and on this soundtrack.