Youth Without Youth [Soundtrack]

Osvaldo Golijov (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Composer: Osvaldo Golijov
• Audio CD (December 11, 2007)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Deutsche Grammophon
• ASIN: B000WVPXD6
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #153,801 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

While Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov has become the darling of classical venues over the world with the evening-length works Ainadamar and La Pasión según San Marcos, this rich score clearly indicates that he’s also going to give Philip Glass a run for his money in the classy-soundtrack department. For starters, Youth Without Youth offers a lot more variety than Glass usually comes up with. Since Francis Ford Coppola's movie is based on a novella by Romania's Mircea Eliade and is set in the 1930s, Golijov superbly suggests a moody, mysterious, highly dramatic Mitteleuropa--at times you feel like you're listening to a classic Hollywood score from the 1940s or 1950s, as if Max Steiner had hooked up with some gypsies. (Weirdly, "Malta," co-written with Arturo Castro, also brings to mind "Maybe This Time" from Cabaret.) Crucial to Golijov's sonic palette here are the dulcimer-like cimbalom (played by Kálmán Balogh) and the fiddle-like kamänche (played by Kayhan Kalhor). Balogh and Michael Ward-Bergeman, on accordion, face off fiercely on "Refugee," for instance. A couple of crackly songs, "O Alba Tigareta Parfumata" and "Noapte Buna Mimi," round off the CD, as if emerging from a jukebox lost in the rubble of old Bucharest. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

Product Description

Music composed by OSVALDO GOLIJOV This is the first soundtrack created by Osvaldo Golijov, "the composer of the moment" (Boston Globe). His artistic partner is one of the legendary masters of cinema, Academy Award® winning director, Francis Ford Coppola. Their film, YOUTH WITHOUT YOUTH, starring British actor Tim Roth, Romanian actress Alexandra Maria Lara and Swiss actor Bruno Ganz, was written, produced and directed by Coppola, marking his return to personal filmmaking. The screenplay is adapted from a novella by the controversial Romanian fiction writer, philosopher and religious historian Mircea Eliade. Academy Award® nominee Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Rob Roy) plays Dominic Matei, a professor whose life changes after a cataclysmic incident during the dark years prior to World War II. Becoming a fugitive, he is pursued through far-flung locations including Romania, Switzerland, Malta and India. "I was excited to discover in this tale by Eliade," Coppola has said, "the key themes that I would hope to understand better: time, consciousness and the dream-like nature of reality. For me this is indeed a return to the ambitions I had for my work in cinema as a student." Featuring a beautiful, nostalgic melody that permeates the entire film, Golijov's score, recorded in Bucharest by the Bucharest Metropolitan Orchestra and conducted by Radu Popa, displays all the characteristics for which he has been praised ("...thoughtful and instinctive, esoteric and accessible, unfailingly haunting and stimulating" --Gramophone) while also revealing a new facet of his art

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Exquisite Soundtrack Second to None!!, December 10, 2007

By 

Ballerina - See all my reviews

This review is from: Youth Without Youth (Audio CD)

Beautiful as poetry. This is the original soundtrack of the latest and most defining film of Francis Ford Coppola, Award-winning Director of the "Godfather" fame. Written, produced and directed by Coppola, this is his first feature film in almost ten years. The film which is based on Mircea Eliade's novella, sets in the pre World War II era and tells the story of an ageing professor coming to the end of the line, whose mysterious regeneration and rejuvenation make him a target for hunting down by the Nazis. This fine production is a thriller, love story and Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu)'s philosophy of "Butterfly Dream"- the dream-like nature of reality - all wrapped into one.

The richness of music as the story moves through different countries and cultures from Romania, Switzerland, Malta to India comes through as hauntingly beautiful and nostalgic. The outstanding score which is composed by Osvaldo Golijov and recorded in Bucharest by the Bucharest Metropolitan Orchestra and conducted by Radu Popa, creates the perfect mood for an exquisite film which is second to none. Don't miss it!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Musical Journey of Love and Loss, August 4, 2008

By 

Blue Pilgrim "Tony" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Youth Without Youth (Audio CD)

An absolutely beautiful score. It feels as if it were composed in another time. Haunting, melancholic and at times, other-worldly, this score is a must for anyone looking to experience something both refreshingly new and classically beautiful. Highly recommended for the film score enthusiast or as a gift for anyone with an appreciation for music.

4.0 out of 5 stars What do we expect from music?, August 6, 2010

By 

Wyote (Seoul) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Youth Without Youth (Audio CD)

When I heard that a story by Mircea Eliade (whose work on religion once influenced me decisively: see my rather-too-gushing review of Patterns in Comparative Religion) was being made into a movie by Francis Ford Coppola (whose work I consider generally underrated, despite his fame; for instance, his "Bram Stoker's Dracula" taught me almost everything I needed to know about intertextuality) with a soundtrack by Osvaldo Golijov, well, my money was all but spent.

The film was ok. The soundtrack is very good.

Golijov became known to me, fortunately, through The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, which, frankly, I have come to love. To me, it far outshines his evidently more famous work, such as Osvaldo Golijov: Ainadamar. And the Kronos Quartet have never played a finer piece of music, though I have plenty of respect for the likes of Gorecki and Glass.

Different kinds of music - I suppose this should be obvious - have different ends and means. In my opinion, the first duty of a soundtrack is to create moods. Still, there is plenty of room for creativity. The music need not reduce itself to something that Richard Strauss would've been ashamed of. And Golijov, I believe, has not done so. Some tracks, especially "Dominic's Nightmare," are rather interesting rhythmically, and there are some interesting harmonies throughout. That said, this won't rewrite the history of contemporary music, but it is worth listening to closely, especially if you are the kind of "romantic listener" who cares far more about the feeling of music than its forms.

I will continue to follow Golijov's work with enthusiasm, and I see that the most recent recording of his work is another soundtrack: Tetro, which I haven't heard. I understand that he's got to make a living; however, I hope he returns to absolute music, and in particular to explorations based on traditional/folk musical forms such as tango and klezmer, for I feel that is his true genius, Ainadamar's success notwithstanding.

As a Golijov fan, I'm very happy to own and repeatedly hear this music, and I think anyone interested in soundtracks, or music typical of the ECM or Nonesuch albums, or even new-age music, would be. But if you're new to Golijov I'd steer you toward Dreams and Prayers, or perhaps Osvaldo Golijov: Ayre, which includes some very approachable work by the much-neglected Berio.