The Red Violin (soundtrack)

Last updated
The Red Violin
The Red Violin cd.jpg
Soundtrack album by
Released1999
Genre Classical
Length65:33
Label Sony Classical
Producer John Corigliano
John Corigliano chronology
Revolution
(1985)
The Red Violin
(1999)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Filmtracks.com Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg link
SoundtrackNet Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg link
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg link

The Red Violin is the original soundtrack album, on the Sony Classical label, of the 1999 film The Red Violin (original title: Le violon rouge), starring Carlo Cecchi, Sandra Oh and Samuel L. Jackson. The original score and songs were composed by John Corigliano [1] and performed by Philharmonia Orchestra with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting.

Contents

The album won the Academy Award for Best Original Score [2] and was nominated for a Grammy Award: Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media (lost to the score of A Bug's Life ).

Composition

Film director François Girard stated violinist Joshua Bell and Corigliano were involved from the outset, and reviewed every version of the screenplay as it was in development. [3]

Much of the score had to be written before principal photography, which is rare in film. [1] After shooting completed, Corigliano finished "Anna's theme". [4]

Track listing

  1. Anna's Theme 2:50
  2. Main Title 2:42
  3. Death of Anna 1:44
  4. Birth of the Red Violin 3:05
  5. The Red Violin 1:34
  6. The Monastery 1:06
  7. Kaspar's Audition; Journey to Vienna 2:38
  8. Etudes; Death of Kaspar 2:38
  9. The Gypsies; Journey Across Europe 2:07
  10. Pope's Gypsy Cadenza 1:37
  11. Coitus Musicalis; Victoria's Departure 4:40
  12. Pope's Concert 1:22
  13. Pope's Betrayal 3:00
  14. Journey to China 4:10
  15. People's Revolution; Death of Chou Yuan 3:15
  16. Morritz Discovers the Red Violin 3:38
  17. Morritz's Theme 1:54
  18. The Theft 2:10
  19. End Titles 1:46
  20. "The Red Violin" - Chaconne for Violin and Orchestra 17:37

Violin Solo: Joshua Bell

See also

Related Research Articles

John Williams American composer, conductor, and pianist (born 1932)

John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor and pianist. In a career that has spanned seven decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognizable and critically acclaimed film scores in cinematic history. Williams has won 25 Grammy Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, five Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. With 52 Academy Award nominations, he is the second most-nominated individual, after Walt Disney. His compositions are considered the epitome of film music and he is considered among the greatest composers in the history of cinema.

<i>Der Freischütz</i> German opera by Carl Maria von Weber

Der Freischütz is a German opera with spoken dialogue in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind, based on a story by Johann August Apel and Friedrich Laun from their 1811 collection Gespensterbuch. It premiered on 18 June 1821 at the Schauspielhaus Berlin. It is considered the first German Romantic opera.

String orchestra Musical ensemble

A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first and second violin players, the viola, the cello, and usually, but not always, the double bass.

<i>The Red Violin</i> 1998 Canadian drama film directed by François Girard

The Red Violin is a 1998 drama film directed by François Girard and starring Samuel L. Jackson, Carlo Cecchi and Sylvia Chang. It spans four centuries and five countries as it tells the story of a mysterious red-coloured violin and its many owners. The instrument, made in Cremona in 1681 with a future forecast by tarot cards, makes its way to Montreal in 1997, where an appraiser identifies it and it goes to auction. The film was an international co-production among companies in Canada, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

John Paul Corigliano is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His scores, now numbering over one hundred, have won him the Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, and an Oscar. He is a distinguished professor of music at Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and on the composition faculty at the Juilliard School. Corigliano is best known for his Symphony No. 1, a response to the AIDS epidemic, and his film score for François Girard's The Red Violin (1997), which he subsequently adapted as the 2003 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra for Joshua Bell.

Thomas Newman American composer

Thomas Montgomery Newman is an American composer best known for his many film scores. In a career that has spanned over four decades, he has scored numerous classics including The Player, The Shawshank Redemption, Cinderella Man, American Beauty, The Green Mile, In the Bedroom, Angels in America, Finding Nemo, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, WALL-E, the James Bond films Skyfall and Spectre, Finding Dory and 1917.

Esa-Pekka Salonen Finnish orchestral conductor and composer

Esa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is principal conductor and artistic advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and music director of the San Francisco Symphony.

Joshua Bell American violinist

Joshua David Bell is an American violinist and conductor. He plays the Gibson Stradivarius.

James Horner American composer and conductor (1953–2015)

James Roy Horner was an American composer, conductor, and orchestrator of film scores. He was known for the integration of choral and electronic elements, and for his frequent use of motifs associated with Celtic music.

Tan Dun Chinese-American composer and conductor (born 1957)

Tan Dun is a Chinese-born American composer and conductor. A leading figure of contemporary classical music, he draws from a variety of Western and Chinese influences, a dichotomy which has shaped much of his life and music. Having collaborated with leading orchestras around the world, Tan is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Grawemeyer Award for his opera Marco Polo (1996) and both an Academy Award and Grammy Award for his film score in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). His oeuvre as a whole includes operas, orchestral, vocal, chamber, solo and film scores, as well as genres that Tan terms "organic music" and "music ritual."

Jan Hammer Czech-American musician

Jan Hammer is a Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer. He first gained his most visible audience while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early 1970s, as well as his film scores for television and film including "Miami Vice Theme" and "Crockett's Theme", from the 1980s television program Miami Vice. He has continued to work as both a musical performer and producer.

Violin Concerto (Mendelssohn) Composition by Felix Mendelssohn, 1844

Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, is his last concerto. Well received at its premiere, it has remained among the most prominent and highly-regarded violin concertos. It holds a central place in the violin repertoire and has developed a reputation as an essential concerto for all aspiring concert violinists to master, and usually one of the first Romantic era concertos they learn. A typical performance lasts just under half an hour.

Danse macabre, Op. 40, is a tone poem for orchestra, written in 1874 by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. It premiered 24 January 1875. It is in the key of G minor. It started out in 1872 as an art song for voice and piano with a French text by the poet Henri Cazalis, which is based on an old French superstition. In 1874, the composer expanded and reworked the piece into a tone poem, replacing the vocal line with a solo violin part.

<i>Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith</i> (soundtrack) 2005 film score by John Williams

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the film score to the 2005 film of the same name released by Sony Classical on May 3, 2005, more than two weeks before the film's release. The music was composed and conducted by John Williams, and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and London Voices in February 2005, with orchestrations provided by Conrad Pope and Eddie Karam. The score was Williams' sixth score in the saga. Shawn Murphy recorded the score. Ramiro Belgardt and Kenneth Wannberg served as music editors; Wannberg served as music editor for the previous Star Wars scores. A remastered version of the soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records on May 4, 2018.

Discography for the cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20, is a musical composition for violin and orchestra written in 1878 by the Spanish composer Pablo de Sarasate. It was premiered the same year in Leipzig, Germany. Like his contemporaries, Sarasate misidentified Hungarian folk music with the "gypsy music" of the Romani people, and the themes in the piece are not of Romani origin, but were all actually adapted from Hungarian music pieces: for instance, the third section borrows a melody by Hungarian composer Elemér Szentirmay (1836–1908), and the last section uses a theme from Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 13, in the rhythm of the csárdás.

<i>Angelas Ashes</i> (soundtrack) 1999 soundtrack album by John Williams

Angela's Ashes: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack, on the Sony Classical label, of the 1999 film starring Emily Watson and Robert Carlyle. The original score was composed by John Williams. The record was originally released on December 7, 1999.

John Corigliano's Symphony No. 2 for Orchestra was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Symphony Hall. The symphony’s first performance was by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa on November 30, 2000.

John Williams, also formerly credited as Johnny Williams, worked as a jazz pianist and studio musician before starting to compose for television and film. Throughout his career he has directed his own works whenever possible.

Rhombus Media is a film and television production company formed in 1978 at the York University Film Department by Barbara Willis Sweete and Niv Fichman, and based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Larry Weinstein joined soon after. Rhombus Media developed a reputation for producing high-quality, lush art films focusing on music, theatre, and dance. The company has received many national and international awards for their work, including several Emmys: one for Le Dortoir in 1990, one for Canadian Brass: Home Movies in 1992, and one win in 1993 for an episode of the Channel 4 Series Concerto, featuring Aaron Copland. They have also won numerous Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture in 1993 for Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould and for The Red Violin in 1999. The Red Violin also garnered an Oscar for best original score by John Corigliano in 2000. Rhombus also produced the award-winning television series Slings & Arrows and Sensitive Skin.

References

  1. 1 2 Grove, Jeff (July–August 1999). "The Saga of The Red Violin". American Record Guide : 20.
  2. "THE 72ND ACADEMY AWARDS 2000". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  3. Smith, Ken (6 June 1999). "Truly Playing the Part". The Los Angeles Times . Archived from the original on 20 September 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  4. Grove, Jeff (July–August 1999). "The Saga of The Red Violin". American Record Guide : 21.