SOUNDTRACK

The music to accompany Brideshead Revisited.

ADRIAN JOHNSTON

Brideshead Revisited

Chandos

Geoffrey Burgon's opening theme for the Granada TV series Brideshead Revisitedis one of the most memorable and iconic pieces of music from the 1980s, an elegiac trumpet solo that heralded a new cinematic direction in television drama and music.

For his score to the new film adaptation, Adrian Johnston (a longtime collaborator with director Stephen Poliakoff on several award-winning television series, including Capturing Mary) eschews the grand classicism of Burgon's approach to create a more contemporary post-minimalist score that embraces the emotional and psychological complexities of Evelyn Waugh's novel of class and desire.

At once sophisticated and ironic, warm and lyrical, Johnston's superb score, performed by the BBC Philharmonic and conducted by the award-winning Terry Davies, is all the more remarkable for its effortless and exquisite elegance.

www.chandos.net

JOCELYN CLARKE

Download tracks: Sebastian, Desire