Orchestrated by Kevin Kliesch, Bill Boston, and Andrew Kaiser

Produced by Christophe Beck

Release Date: September 30, 2003

            Hollywood Records
 

     Under the Tuscan Sun is a nice, light-hearted effort by composer Christophe Beck that is long on style yet also has plenty of substance to elevate it over the common refrains that are usually heard in this genre. While a few gems exist here and there among films of this type, it’s usually not a section of the film scoring community that has enjoyed much success apart from the visuals. Many scores of this type are content to only support the action and never strive to achieve life outside of the films that they are attached to. Yet in this instance, Beck’s sense of playfulness that is inherit in each cue, along with the wonderful Italian feel that he gives the music, really give this score an identity all its own.

     Yet all is not fun and games here. Mixed in are a few cues with a darker tone (Bramasole) that keep the light-heartedness from getting too far out of hand. It brings the tone into a manageable level that avoids the saccharine texture that other works in this nature all too often fall into. Beck was asked to pay homage to Nino Rota and in this area he has succeeded. The music achieves moments where you could swear it had to have originated with a film between the forties and the sixties. Styles of this type are all too rare these days, and to have Beck literally nail it at certain moments is quite fun. There are also moments remind me of David Newman’s work that also combines well with the rest of the style.

     Oftentimes, a cue is made up of a small ensemble piece that then segues into a full-blown orchestral moment, and in these instances the strings really come out and push the score into full gear. Beck’s string compositions are really notable during these cues and are always delightful. While Chris Ibenhard works to great effect in his soprano role, the use of a synth choir in Believers stands out against the real instruments that accompany it in a way that I found distracting. With plenty of short cues scattered around the album, it would be easy for things to get disjointed, but the arrangement of the score is really good and cues seamlessly blend into one another. Still, with all the wonderful moments that this music entails, it never really seems to gel together as a whole (probably due to the lack of any obvious themes), and even with a running time of under fifty minutes, the last third of the score really starts to bog down.