- Audio CD (5 Feb 2001)
- Number of Discs: 1
- Format: Soundtrack
- Label: Universal Classics
- ASIN: B00005OC0B
- Other Editions: MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 120,250 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
For Enigma, John Barry's first score of the 21st century, Britain's most successful film composer returns to the espionage genre with which he made his cinematic name. However this story of code-breaking during World War II is far removed from James Bond, and Barry's score is very much in the romantic vein he has explored since Robin and Marion (1976). Founded on a warmly nostalgic yet distant piano theme, a sense of English pastoral melancholy runs throughout, lyrical cues mixing with low key suspense cuts such as the slow-burning five minutes of tension which is "The Convoy". Significant to the score is an extract from Vaughan Williams' Five Variants on Dives and Lazarus, a series of English folksong variants written just before the outbreak of World War II, the combination of folk and classical elements clearly influencing Barry's own musical sensibility. It is only to be regretted that the full piece was not included, as there is ample space remaining on the 56-minute disc. The programme is completed by two period tunes--the exciting big band jazz of "Big Bottom" by Benny Berigan and his Orchestra and the heartfelt love song, "You'll Never Know", sung by Anne Shelton. Not classic John Barry, but an album with much to reward the composer's many fans.--Gary S Dalkin
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
John Barry's last new release was the wonderful jazz score, 'Playing by Heart' in April 1999. Now we have his score for 'Enigma' and it is well worth the wait. Two beautiful melodies for the female characters in the film plus some wonderful Barry spy mood music make this a CD which gets better each time it's played. There are those who complain that recent Barry scores are just retreading old ground but this music suits the film perfectly and is beautifully crafted by one of the true greats of late 20th/early 21st century music. Nearly 40 years after he worked on 'The James Bond Theme' for Dr.No, John Barry continues to produce film music as good as, or better than anyone else working in the field.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Nobody does this musical genre more niftily than long-time film composer John Barry. As with so many films on which he has worked, if this project had had a different composer, (one that went in for the kind of rampant overproduction currently so popular), then this film would not have had half the tension it does.
Barry makes full use of his techniques for generating mystery and suspense, shifting effortlessly from a warm romantic piano theme to the literal enigma underlying the story represented by changes of key and an insistent xylophone motif.
Although not at all sassy or twangy in the way Barry's work used to be, this is proper spy music for an Eagle comic type spy adventure, and it makes you realise how empty the recent Bond films are without it.
Go on, buy it!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
12 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
One of the Best Scores ever Composed by John Barry
13 May 2002
Format:Audio CD
ENIGMA is one of the best scores ever composed by John Barry. It is methodically repetitive, yet simple in its construction and execution. It brilliantly taps into the emotional subconscious mind of the viewer of this intelligently crafted film. What may seem like a very static score is in effect very dynamic. I purchased this CD before I saw the film. Initially I was just pleased that John Barry had scored another film and the soundtrack had been issued. It did not seem extraordinary at the time but after seeing and hearing the score in the film I can only say and feel that it is an exceptional piece of work. It reaches back to what film scoring is all about. It evokes a feeling, a response to the images and the story unfolding on the screen. Once I saw the film I could not get this music out of my head. This is John Barry's most mature score and one of this best. It will grow on you.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
John Barry at his lush, heartbreaking best
9 Oct 2003
Format:Audio CD
As others have said, it's a pity we don't get to hear more scores from the man who, along with John Williams, is probably most responsible for turning people on to the art of film scoring. How many millions of people have walked out of a Bond film, Dances With Wolves, Somwehere In Time, Zulu, or any of countless other films, having been swept away by the music and rushed out to get the album?
Barry is among the most important, influential and, most of all, accessible film composers of all time. His combination of achingly romantic tunes, orchestrated with a crisp, sweeping sound that is unmistakable, is always a joy to listen to, even when the scores are to movies that don't deserve them.
In a world where each new blockbuster score sounds exactly like the last one, and the majority of Hans Zimmer-sound-alike composers manage to make a full orchestra sound like a mere synthesizer, this is a glorious old fashioned movie score. There are a couple of lovely themes, especially the main one, for Claire, the character played by Saffron Burrows. When it merges with the theme for Hester, Kate Winslet's character, in the next to last track, London 1946, it's film scoring at its best.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Classic Barry in "Enigma"
9 July 2002
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
The appearance of a new John Barry film score has sadly become something of a rare event these days.There was a time when, at the very least, one could expect (and relish)a James Bond soundtrack every two years. These days Barry emerges only every now and again, but thankfully this is one of those times. His score for Michael Apted's film "Enigma" is classic Barry, and it just happens to be something of a spy thriller, this time set in World War II Great Britain. But ulike most of his music for the 007 films, this score depends on subtle tones which bring to mind Barry's scores for "The Tamarind Seed" or "Somewhere In Time," especially because there is a definite romantic angle here as well. The subtlety and complexity of this score is perfectly matched to the story of the breaking of the Nazi Enigma code machine. Of course there are also the tense and menacing motifs that are characteristic of Barry (note "Trip to Beaumanor," "At Beaumanor" and "The Train," for example), and some of these take us back to the best of Barry's Bond music. Apted's film is well acted, written and directed but gains a noticable boost from a fine Barry score. Unhappily, the film is in limited release, which means that Barry's music will not gain its deserved recognition (his wonderful score for "Cry the Beloved Country" suffered a similar fate). Too bad, from his somber, romantic main theme, on piano and with full ensemble, to a host of motifs that carry many of the critical moments in this film, Barry weaves a masterly score. Well packaged and produced, John Barry's sountrack for "Enigma" is a must for serious students and fans of film music, and a rare treat for Barry fans.
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