An ambitious Spanish animation, Winnipeg, el barco de la esperanza (Winnipeg, Seeds of Hope) tells the story of over 2,000 Spanish refugees who fled from France to Chile to escape the Civil War and subsequent fascist dictatorship in their homeland. On board a cargo ship (the Winnipeg) crossing an Atlantic ocean riddled with Nazi U-boats, it is a stirring tale.
The music is by the always-impressive Diego Navarro and is surely his most impressive film score to date. It is anchored around a truly outstanding main theme, which opens the album in stirring fashion. Combining full orchestra with some beautiful violin and choral passages (the composer inspired by there having been an actual choir amongst the passengers), it is an anthem of hope and courage. There are echoes perhaps of latter-day Morricone, maybe even more so of Vangelis’s famous main theme from Alexander, but only echoes; it’s a breath-taking piece of music, a timeless piece which manages to convey the adventure and emotion and pays a fitting tribute to the brave souls involved.
While – especially as the score goes on – that theme has a prominent role to play, there is so much else on offer as well. “Calamidad” is the score’s secondary theme and is a little more restrained but no less beautiful; then there’s an outstanding passage for solo choirboy in “Retrato de infancia” which leads into some much darker, stirring drama. The elegiac strings of “Huyendo de la tierra” tug at the heartstrings for all their worth; then there’s the melodrama of “Traición”, the strings now being used in a very different way as a sense of tragedy unfolds. And all of that happens in the first fifteen minutes!
Unusually, there is absolutely no let-up in quality as the album progresses through its almost hour-long length. That sense of tragedy that gradually unfolds over those opening five cues becomes the dominant feature for a while, but glimmers of hope keep poking through – a gentle piano solo perhaps, a variant on the main theme, the delightful scherzo in “Ingenuidad / Camino de París” – until almost subconsciously that has become the dominant feeling.
When the main theme is reprised in all its glory in “Zarpando hacia la fortuna” the tide has very much turned and there is no turning back from there; it ushers in a series of inspirational, stirring pieces which go all the way to the score’s conclusion. “Mirando las estrellas” is particularly impressive – all too brief, but the twinkling, celestial nature is musical magic; and “Corazones abiertos” is an expression of sheer ecstasy, so brimming with emotion.
In many ways this sounds like film music of another age – an age when composers were allowed to be truly expressive, heighten rather than suppress emotion – and what a joy it is. With its wonderful main theme sticking long in the memory and every moment having something noteworthy about it, I’ve no doubt that many people who hear this will think of it come the end of the year when they’re considering which scores have stood out the most – it really is a delight, a personal and heartfelt work by Diego Navarro to which I will be returning a great many times. What an absolute treat it is.
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