CD REVIEW - THE LAST LEGION
The Last Legion
Music by Patrick Doyle
Varese Sarabande VSD 6820 (EU)
15 Tracks 51:24 mins
We can all be very thankful that Patrick Doyle is still with us, following his serious illness of a few years ago, for now, more than ever, he is producing the goods - and how. Following excellent scores for the Nanny McPhee, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Eragon, now comes his thrilling music for The Last Legion, starring Colin Firth and Ben Sir Ben Kingsley, with the young star of TV's Feather Boy (scored incidentally, and excellently, by Debbie Wiseman), among others, playing the the 12-year old and last emperor of Rome.
Utilising the most excellent services of the London Symphony Orchestra and Choir, Doyle has produced some fabulous music for the film, including a memorable main theme, first heard moving weightily to a triumphant ending in the opening album track "Sacred Pentangle" and at its most triumphal in the following "Coronation," but then repeated in variations throughout many subsequent tracks, sometimes competing with the theme for the enemies of Rome, first heard in the dramatic actioner "Goths Seize Rome" and most effectively thereafter in "Death of Vortgyn."
Other tracks of particular note (though all have something to offer) are the stringed fugue-like "Escape from capri," the heroic and purposeful "Journey to Britannia; the nobility and triumph of "Hadrian's Wall;" the magical opening to "Excalibur;" the flowing "Sword Play Romance;" "Who Killed Them?" with its choral lament; the inspiring opening and conflict of "The Battle of Hadrian's Wall" and the satisfying vaiations on the main theme in the concluding "No More war."
If you like your music to be big and symphonic, with strong themes, you'll lap this up as much as I did.
The Last Legion
Music by Patrick Doyle
Varese Sarabande VSD 6820 (EU)
15 Tracks 51:24 mins
We can all be very thankful that Patrick Doyle is still with us, following his serious illness of a few years ago, for now, more than ever, he is producing the goods - and how. Following excellent scores for the Nanny McPhee, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Eragon, now comes his thrilling music for The Last Legion, starring Colin Firth and Ben Sir Ben Kingsley, with the young star of TV's Feather Boy (scored incidentally, and excellently, by Debbie Wiseman), among others, playing the the 12-year old and last emperor of Rome.
Utilising the most excellent services of the London Symphony Orchestra and Choir, Doyle has produced some fabulous music for the film, including a memorable main theme, first heard moving weightily to a triumphant ending in the opening album track "Sacred Pentangle" and at its most triumphal in the following "Coronation," but then repeated in variations throughout many subsequent tracks, sometimes competing with the theme for the enemies of Rome, first heard in the dramatic actioner "Goths Seize Rome" and most effectively thereafter in "Death of Vortgyn."
Other tracks of particular note (though all have something to offer) are the stringed fugue-like "Escape from capri," the heroic and purposeful "Journey to Britannia; the nobility and triumph of "Hadrian's Wall;" the magical opening to "Excalibur;" the flowing "Sword Play Romance;" "Who Killed Them?" with its choral lament; the inspiring opening and conflict of "The Battle of Hadrian's Wall" and the satisfying vaiations on the main theme in the concluding "No More war."
If you like your music to be big and symphonic, with strong themes, you'll lap this up as much as I did.
posted by jeffhall | 11:28 AM
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