Posted on: December 18, 2010 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

“Scoop” is the newest in the increasingly long line of Woody Allen movies. I have really no idea what the movie is about, but the soundtrack has some hard hitting classical movements on it. Up first is the Swan Lake Ballet Suite, No expense was spared in including this Tchaikovsky symphony on this soundtrack; none less than The Berlin Philharmonic are present here. The one strong thing going for this soundtrack is the fact that all of the music present is classical.

Unlike other soundtracks, there are not interludes of current music or a blend of both old and new styles. The decision to go with purely classical music gives this soundtrack greater gravity than it would have had otherwise. Perhaps it is just me being ignorant of some of the classics of classical music, but there are a few compositions with which I am not familiar. Something like “Miami Beach Rhumba” sounds vaguely familiar, but it is beyond the purview of the periphery of my mind. There seems to be a Latin flair that comes up at times during this soundtrack; this first comes to bear during the aforementioned “Miami Beach Rhumba” and comes again in a reduced form during “Adios Muchachos”. This blend of straight classical and more ethnic classical is an interesting move, and is something that interjects a little bit of fun into something that does have a high amount of gravity to it.

Most soundtracks individuals can listen to parts of at a time (unless you are a Star Wars fanatic and love their scores), but Score really fits into that same level of things. The arrangement of these tracks is just perfect, allowing listeners to be engrossed in the music for about an hou8r. Individuals do not even need to know what the movie is about (like me) and can still enjoy fully the compositions on “Scoop”. This album really showed me the talent of a Lester Lanin; if individuals are not the best versed in the modern classical (and soundtrack) realm, the talent showed by eir on this album will cause individuals to go scrambling to that specific section in their local music store. Give this soundtrack a try and make sure to pick up Scoop the movie, just so one can see how the tracks work with the larger movie; I have confidence that the two will mesh together perfectly.

Top Tracks: The Nutcracker Ballet No. 7 Scene, Annen-Polka

Rating: 6.0/10

OST: Scoop / 2006 Decca / 18 Tracks / http://www.scoopmovie.net / http://www.iclassics.com / Reviewed 14 October 2006

[JMcQ]

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