Lebanese composer Gabriel Yared had never scored a Hollywood film before The English Patient, but achieved much fame, an Academy Award and massive record sales as a result of doing so.  (For some reason he doesn't seem to have managed to attract too many movies of similar high standards since then - such are the mysteries of film music.)

Anthony Minghella's beautiful film hearkens back to the David Lean epics, especially Lawrence of Arabia; Yared's score couldn't be further from the sensibilities of Maurice Jarre's classic, however.  Whereas Jarre accentuated the setting and the excitement inherent in the tale, Yared opts for the human element every time, in what is a very John Barryeque way of scoring a film - this is timeless music which could be for a story told anywhere, any time.

It's a very intelligent way of scoring the film.  Various themes intermingle throughout - each is somewhat low-key, but very beautiful.  The main theme is introduced after a brief solo from vocalist Marta Sebestyen in the opening track, and each of the next few tracks gives us a new theme.  My favourite is probably "I'll Always Go Back to that Church", a simply gorgeous violin solo.  The piano theme in "Let Me Come In!" also has an achingly-beautiful melody and is repeated to wonderful effect in the nine-minute "Convento di Sant'Anna".

The emphasis throughout is on subtlety, which means I'm sure that many modern-day listeners will not be quite so caught up in the score, but this is a score that works perfectly.  Minghella's film introduces genuinely surprising twists and turns throughout, and Yared needed to counterbalance that by providing a consistent mood and never drawing the viewer into too much sympathy for any particular character, but just to emphasise that for all that can change, love remains.

Album from Fantasy Records has a generous running time, including most if not all of the score, along with some source music used prominently in the film (including the Aria from Bach's Goldberg Variations).  Performance by the Academy of St Martin in the Fields conducted by Harry Rabinowitz seems somehow to have more feeling and emotion than some film scores, and Keith Grant's recording is top-notch.

It doesn't grab you with a killer theme like Lawrence of Arabia or Dances with Wolves or similar epics, but I'm sure The English Patient will over time be considered in just the same way as those scores are now.  A modern classic.

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Tracks

1. The English Patient (3:30)

2. A Retreat (1:21)

3. Rupert Bear (1:22)

4. What Else Do You Love? (1:00)

5. Cheek to Cheek Fred Astaire (3:15)

6. Kip's Lights (1:24)

7. Hana's Curse (2:06)

8. I'll Always Go Back to that Church (1:48)

9. Black Nights (1:53)

10. Swoon, I'll Catch You (1:47)

11. Am I K. In Your Book? (:55)

12. Let Me Come In (2:35)

13. Wang Wang Blues Benny Goodman (2:47)

14. Convento di Sant'Anna (9:09)

15. Herodotus (1:04)

16. Muzsikas Marta Sebestyen (4:32)

17. Ask Your Saint Who He's Killed (1:04)

18. One O'Clock Jump Benny Goodman (3:10)

19. I'll Be Back (4:00)

20. Let Me Tell You About Winds (:55)

21. Read Me To Sleep (4:56)

22. The Cave of Swimmers (1:55)

23. Where or When Shepheard's Hotel Jazz Orchestra (2:14)

24. Aria from Goldberg Variations (Bach) (2:57)

25. Cheek to Cheek Ella Fitzgerald (3:42)

26. As Far as Florence (5:16)

27. Lullaby for Katharine (1:07)