The Painted Veil: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
From AwardAnnals
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| Artist(s) | Alexandre Desplat |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | Original Motion Picture Soundtrack |
| Label | Deutsche Grammophon |
| Honors | |
| The evocative score features music composed and conducted by Alexandre Desplat, the Prague Symphony Orchestra as well as solos by world-renowned pianist, Lang Lang. | |
Music Composed and Conducted by Alexandre Desplat Featuring World-Renowned Piano Virtuoso Lang Lang.
“Prodigiously gifted” (Gramophone) pianist Lang Lang is featured in Golden Globe nominee (Girl With A Pearl Earring) Alexandre Desplat’s evocative score for the new film version of W. Somerset Maugham’s celebrated novel, The Painted Veil.
The Deutsche Grammophon soundtrack features music composed and conducted by Alexandre Desplat, the Prague Symphony Orchestra as well as solos by world-renowned pianist, Lang Lang.
Honors
Reviews
Amazon.com
While this soundtrack is very solid overall, it’s also rather subdued and perhaps not as immediately likable as composer Alexandre Desplat’s previous offerings (most notably The Queen and Syriana), so it could disappoint fans of the immensely gifted Frenchman. But a certain old-fashioned charm does operate after a while, which, after all, is exactly what you’d expect of the music for a movie based on a Somerset Maugham novel. Desplat set out to evoke 1920s romanticism with a series of brief vignettes, usually greatly enhanced by the sensitive playing of pianist Lang Lang. And considering that most of the movie takes place in China, Desplat has refrained from easy orientalism: “Walter’s Mission” is one of the few tracks to allude to Asian sounds. The only non-original tracks on the CD is Erik Satie’s well-known “Gnossienne No. 1,” a slow piece that evidently served as inspiration for Desplat’s own “River Waltz.” But who’s complaining? There are worse people to emulate than Satie. —Elisabeth Vincentelli
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