Memoirs Of A Geisha Soundtrack CD

Composer: John Williams .
Personnel: Hiromi Hashibe, Masayo Ishigure (koto); Itzhak Perlman (violin); Yo-Yo Ma (cello); Masakazu Yoshizawa (shakuhachi).
Audio Mixer: Shawn Murphy.
Recording information: Royce Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA; Sony Pictures Studio, Culver City, CA.
Editors: Kenneth Karman; Ken Wannberg; Ramiro Belgardt.
For the soundtrack to 2005's MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, Hollywood composer John Williams unveils one of his most inventive scores. The film, based on Arthur Golden's bestselling novel about a poor girl who becomes a refined geisha in World War II-era Japan, is enhanced by Williams's emotive (and often melancholy) music, which deftly blends orchestral works with passages that feature traditional Japanese instruments such as the shakuhachi and the koto. Remarkably, this mix of western and eastern sounds never comes across as forced, thanks to both Williams's bold musical vision and the outstanding solo contributions of cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman. The opening track, "Sayuri's Theme," is a hauntingly beautiful piece, while "The Fire Scene and the Coming of War" evokes an appropriately ominous tone. What is perhaps most striking about GEISHA's score, however, is the use of quiet, reflective moments and pure silence, with Williams effectively adhering to the old adage of "less is more."
John Williams skillfully utilizes the formidable talents of renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and equally beloved violinist Itzhak Perlman to flesh out director Rob Marshall's celluloid rendering of the bestselling novel by Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha. Elegant and predictable, Williams sticks to the source, building grand Western themes off of traditional Japanese melodies with a heady mix of regional instrumentation (shakuhachi and koto) and cinematic know-how. This is the composer at his most refined and nuanced, providing a textbook example of professional composition that revels in its subject matter without ever intruding. ~ James Christopher Monger