Enigma

In the liner notes by director of Enigma, Michael Apted, he says 'John Barry was born to score this movie' - a sentiment that seems hard to disagree with. The film, about the code breakers of the Second World War is '...a complicated mixture of action, intellect and romance' which are three things John Barry is a master at. The composer obviously feels the need to be greatly inspired before signing to a film these days and I imagine that the pitch of Enigma sounded just about right. It seems somewhat unfortunate then, that the score simply doesn't come across as being written by a composer so inspired.
Enigma is not really a score that has anything wrong with it, but merely one that just doesn't excite one as much as it should. The two main themes are typically lyrical Barry, the love theme being a plaintive and fairly restrained piano and strings melody. The other major theme is a little more imposing, but of course being set in war time, the film requires some sense of the magnitude of the situation to strike the balance. Alongside the quieter interludes, there are a few more suspenseful and exciting moments with Police Chase being a brief, but exciting cue that reminds the listener of the composer who gave the Bond films such zip.

Indeed the suspense tracks are also familiar in tone to the Bond scores, the repetition, inversion of motifs in cues such as Wigram Arrives and Waiting for Signals are not a style of writing Barry employs nearly so often these days. Barry's contributions are rounded out with the wonderful End Credits suite which will hopefully become a Barry concert staple. A couple of period songs and a short, but wonderful piece of Vaughan Williams - which compliments Barry's own writing marvelously - round out the album. Enigma is one of those low impact score that grows on you, but even after several listens, I am left more with impressions of moods and orchestral colour than the sublimely memorable Barry melodies we come to expect.