CD REVIEW
– ALEXANDRE
DESPLAT
AIRLINES
Emmanuel
Pahud flute
Orchestre National de France /
Desplat
Warner Classics
0190295306878 (56:22)
Regular readers
will know from my review of 'Little Women'* in February this
year that I regard Alexandre
Desplat as second only to the
great John Williams as a composer
in the world of film music.
Following that earlier album, we
now have this further welcome
selection of his work.
The young Desplat
studied piano and trumpet before
choosing the flute as his main
instrument, and featured here is
one of today's finest flautists,
Franco-Swiss born Emmanuel Pahud,
principal flute in the Berlin
Philharmonic Orchestra. He is
accompanied by the Orchestre
National de France, conducted by
Desplat himself.
All the works are
world premiere recordings, either
reimagined versions of Desplat's
film scores, including Oscar
winners 'The Shape of Water' and
'Grand Budapest Hotel', or
original works, like the longest
item: Pelléas et Mélisande
Symphonie concertante. The
album's title track is an
expressive piece for solo flute.
'Girl with a Pearl Earring' is a
film about the Vermeer (Colin
Firth) painting; 'Birth' was
directed by Ang Lee; and 'Lust,
Caution' starred Nicole Kidman
and Lauren Bacall.
The booklet has 20
pages in English, including two
fascinatingly informative
interviews, conducted by Denis
Verroust, with M Desplat:
"From the studio to the
stage" and "Exploring
new territory".
This is another
attractive album that, with more
than 100 film scores alone under
the composer’s belt, could
surely have given us more than
under an hour's music.
Alexandre Michel
Gérard Desplat was born in Paris
in 1961 to a Greek mother and
French father. We learn from his
biography that, inspired by the
works of Jarre, Hermann, Rota and
Delerue, he expressed his desire
to compose for Cinema early on
but really made his decision
after listening to John Williams'
score for 'Star Wars'.
* Since my review
appeared, 'Little Women' has
added to Desplat's many musical
accolades with the International
Film Critics Association Award
for Best Original Score for a
Drama Film.
© Peter
Burt 2020
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