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A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Sylvia is probably an attempt by BBC Films to capture the same audience as Iris from a couple of years ago, the excellent biopic of Iris Murdoch; this time round, the famously suicidal poet Sylvia Plath is the subject, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, with the expected level of support from the cream of British acting, notably the ever-excellent Michael Gambon.  Music for a film like this (track titles include "Fire", "Lonely Christmas" and "Dying") is never likely to be all that perky, and so Gabriel Yared's score is appropriately sombre and generally full of doom and gloom.  Exactly how much you like to have ever cheer removed from your soul will likely dictate how much you enjoy this album!

The score is dominated by a series of piano solos, played by Yared himself, which are slow and meandering, rarely offering all that much of interest.  It is at its best, ironically, when the piano is ditched in favour of a series of superb solo parts for other instruments; "The Beach" is blessed with two, one for violin and one for clarinet, which are touching and beautiful.  And in fairness the score isn't entirely dreary - the second half of the opening piece is quite a frisky, playful scherzo; "Making Love" is beautiful, though tinged with sadness; "The Marriage" is very attractive.

In fairness to Yared, he does keep things moving along when the piano is absent, and even though virtually the whole score has a deep air of tragedy, the composer manages to not quite drive the listener to the same fate as the film's protagonist by using nice flourishes of colour from different sections of the orchestra.  Certainly, as it goes on towards the end the sadness becomes almost unbearable ("Seeds of Doubt" makes for awkward and disturbing listening, though the violin solo of "Don't Ever Leave Me", with a lovely part for flute as well, is an immediate antidote).

This is a somewhat tricky album to assess because Yared's music brilliantly captures the essence of the tragic story, far more effectively than Philip Glass had a year or so earlier for The Hours, which I suppose features a vaguely similar idea; unfortunately there is nothing really for Yared to latch onto to provide too many moments of relief, which James Horner was able to do in his effective Iris.  It's excellent music, perfect for the film, brilliantly composed; but I'm not too sure that a soundtrack album is an appropriate vehicle for it.

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Tracks

1. Opening (2:26)
2. First Meeting (1:23)
3. Making Love (2:17)
4. The Cows (3:04)
5. The Scar (2:42)
6. The Marriage (1:16)
7. The Beach (3:33)
8. Seeds of Doubt (1:54)
9. Don't Ever Leave Me (2:04)
10. Devon (3:48)
11. Fire (4:45)
12. Empty Streets (3:06)
13. Lonely Christmas (1:05)
14. Last Love (1:36)
15. Romance (2:36)
16. Beethoven (1:28)
17. A Beautiful Dream (3:45)
18. Dying (3:10)