Eyes Wide Shut Soundtrack CD

Stanley Kubrick made his own musical choices for his films, many of them existing pieces that were forever redefined by their use. (Remember "Thus Spake Zarathustra" in 2001: A Space Odyssey?) For his final work, Eyes Wide Shut, he employed composer Jocelyn Pook to compose some evocative string-filled music (including one track, "Masked Ball," eerily featuring backwards vocals), but his score also included works by Liszt and Shostakovich, syrupy versions of "When I Fall in Love," "If I Had You," and "Strangers in the Night," a jazzy rendition of "Blame It on My Youth" by Brad Mehldau, Chris Isaak's cross between John Lee Hooker and Roy Orbison on his 1995 song "Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing," and, opening and closing the disc, a simple but intense solo piano piece by Gyögy Ligeti, whose work also had been used in 2001 and another Kubrick film, The Shining. The result was an eclectic soundtrack album that primarily was of interest to fans of the film who were in need of an aural souvenir. ~ William Ruhlmann

Unknown Contributor Roles: Mickam Yogeswaran; Kelsey Michael.

Personnel: Jacqueline Norrie (violin); Clare Finnimore (viola); Sophie Harris (cello); Dominic Harlan (piano).

Recording information: EMI Abbey Road Studios, London, England; Henry Wood Hall, London, England.

Entertainment Weekly (8/6/99, p.65) - "...another of Stanley Kubrick's eclectic musical mixes....framed by the cerebral modernist rigor of Gyorgy Ligeti....Kubrick had a keen musical ear, matching sound to sight in ways just right and weird enough to keep our ears wide open." - Rating: A-
Q (10/99, p.118) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...largely hewn from classical works...and jazz....Wry as ever, Kubrick appears to have had fun with the selection of music..."