Wuthering Heights
La-La Land Records ‎– LLLCD 1087

Michel Legrand, is one of the worlds foremost and respected performers and composers, his ability to please listeners with his jazz performances and compositions and also his work for film has kept him within public gaze for over 4 decades. WUTHERING HEIGHTS, was Legrand's third major film score and followed hot on the heels of THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1968) and ICE STATION ZEBRA also from that year. It is sometimes surprising to think that these three assignments are all from the same composer as each one employs differing styles and sounds, THOMAS CROWN, utilising jazz influenced musical colours, ZEBRA employing a more dramatic and grandiose epic sound, and HEIGHTS being a lush and lyrical work full of romantic and heartrending tone poems which are played alongside and intermingled with musical passages and motifs that are pure operatic creating an atmosphere of tragedy. Legrand's fully symphonic work is one that will please any connoisseur of fine film music, his use of strings combined with piano and also at times woods and harpsichord is hauntingly effective, this is demonstrated most effectively within track number 8, CATHY'S THEME, which is a piece straight out of the text book of romantic film scoring, the cue opens with flute underlined by soothing strings, muted horn and piano this introduction builds and leads into a lush and emotive rendition of the scores central theme performed by strings that are augmented and enhanced by trickling piano and wistful woodwind, which in turn also take on a solo role within the cue as well as a brief but poignant violin solo performance. The elements here combine to create a track that is full of not only emotion but drama that swells to a peak and then melts away just as quickly leaving the track to be brought to an end by woods underlined by slightly uneasy sounding strings. This is an excellent soundtrack and a perfect example of Legrand in romantic mode, sweeping and surging string passages and high dramatic compositions rule here, the composer painting a musical picture of the mystical moors that act as the stories backdrop and the tragic but tender and undying love between Heathcliff and Cathy Sound quality is very good, and as always the release is packaged and presented to La La Lands normal high standards. One to add to the collection.