Search - Original Soundtrack :: Shutter Island (Music From The Motion Picture)(2 CD)

Stunning soundtrack to a good, but not great movie

E. Ganev | Utrecht, The Netherlands | 02/28/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This pair of discs contains a wonderful collection of contemporary classical music. In most cases Amazon's tracklisting only provides the names of the performers, so I took the liberty to list the composers for the various tracks.

Ligeti's 'Lontano', an old favourite of mine, is also used to great effect in Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining', a movie that evoked similar emotions with me (although I consider 'The Shining' a truly great movie).



CD 1

1. Ingram Marshall - Fog Tropes

2. Krysztof Penderecki - Symphony No. 3 - IV. Passacaglia - Allegro moderato

3. John Cage - Music for Marcel Duchamp

4. Nam June Paik - Hommage à John Cage

5. György Ligeti - Lontano

6. Morton Feldman - Rothko Chapel 2

7. Johnnie Ray - Cry

8. Max Richter - On the Nature of Daylight

9. Giacinto Scelsi - Uaxuctum - III. [untitled]

10. Gustav Mahler - Quartet in A minor for piano and strings



CD 2

1. John Adams - Christian Zeal and Activity

2. Lou Harrison - Suite for Symphonic Strings - IX. Nocturne

3. Brian Eno - Lizard Point

4. Alfred Schnittke - Four Hymns - II. For Cello and Double Bass

5. John Cage - Root of an Unfocus

6. Ingram Marshall - Alctraz - I. Prelude: The Bay

7. Lonnie Johnson - Tomorrow Night

8. Max Richter/Dinah Washington - On the Nature of Daylight/This Bitter Earth"

Haunting and Beautiful Movie Soundtrack

Compay | New Orleans, LA | 02/21/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"What's interesting about the score to Shutter Island is that none of it was composed exclusively for the film, but there's plenty of orchestrated music that fits the movie beautifully. Scorsese actually had Robbie Robertson, who worked on the music for The Departed and Gangs of New York, to find existing songs to use for the film. And to his credit, Robertson did a great job.



Songs that are alone worth the price of the CD include the utterly gorgeous and hope-inspiring composition On the Nature of Daylight by composer Max Richter. Lontano and Symphony #3 are beautifully composed works that lend to the sinister feel of the film.



Some of the songs (Music for Marcel Duchamp) are incredibly stark with almost no instrumentation, but still add to the foreboding feel of the movie. Songs like Lizard Point and Prelude - The Bay add a floating, atmospheric element to the score. And a few tracks aren't even what you'd consider music, such as the sound-effect driven Hommage a John Cage. Robertson does effectively keep with the time period for the movie, with 1952 tracks like Cry (crooner Johnnie Ray) and 1948 blues ballad Tomorrow Night (Lonnie Johnson).



These aren't CDs that you would necessarily play from start to finish like those of a movie with an entirely orchestral score, but the music is still haunting and beautiful. It's a must have for anyone that's a fan of movie scores."

A remarkable achievement by Robbie Robertson

Jim Bruce | Dublin, Ireland | 04/02/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"One of the great joys of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey was the extraordinary soundtrack. Not satisfied with Alex North's original score, Kubrick went with a selection of classical pieces, some familiar like Strauss's The Blue Danube and others less well-known such as Ligeti's Atmospheres. That soundtrack became a classic and Shutter Island is easily in the same league. Like 2001, the music for Shutter Island comes from a number of classical composers and none of the pieces used was written specially for the film. In my opinion, the Shutter Island soundtrack is superior to 2001 in that the music sounds like a coherent score, quite like Bernard Hermann's work for Hitchcock in places.



For anyone interested in contemporary classical music, some of the composers represented here will be familiar names, for instance, John Cage, Krzysztof Penderecki and Alfred Schnittke. Others, like Max Richter, were unknown to me. Richter's On The Nature Of Daylight is a haunting piece and features twice on the soundtrack, the second time in a memorable mash-up with Dinah Washington's This Bitter Earth. A real bonus is a complete performance at the end of CD 1 of Gustav Mahler's only chamber piece, his Piano Quartet in A minor written when he was only sixteen.



The music on this double CD was clearly chosen with great care and intelligence by Robbie Robertson. He has created a collection that will appeal on several levels. Those who have seen the film can acquire a musical memento of Martin Scorsese's extraordinary achievement. For anyone who would like to expand their horizons and hear some of the best music composed in the latter part of the 20th century, this is an excellent starting point. Or if you would simply like some superior mood music, then just programme out the two or three songs on the set and play the rest on repeat.



I can't praise these CDs highly enough."