The latest releases reviewed
STEPHEN WARBECK Proof Varese Sarabande ****
The Oscar-winning British composer Stephen Warbeck teams up again with director John Madden to score Proof, based on the award-winning play about mathematics and madness. On their previous collaborations, Warbeck combined diverse musical idioms (Elizabethan gigues for Shakespeare in Love, Greek and Italian folk music for Captain Corelli's Mandolin) with short melodies, eclectic instrumentation and spare orchestration to infuse Madden's films with a strong sense of character and period. For Proof, Warbeck mixes 20th-century minimalism with 19th-century romanticism to create an affecting and evocative score of subtle textures and rich colours (marimba, electric guitar, piano and strings) containing unresolved themes and pulsing polyrhythms, particularly on the playful Proof, the delicate Catherine, and the triumphant Line by Line. - Jocelyn Clarke
