The threshold of the art to kitsch is often a fine line and Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of Shakespeare arg craft comedy exceeds it more than once. So a little to Branagh's populist approach is reflected also in Patrick Doyle's composition again, even though he has, in contrast to the director, in front of "Henry V", technically improved. The style width is enormous compared to its predecessor: it oscillates between neo-classicism ("Did I Not Tell You"), late Romantic (dripping: "You Have Killed A Sweet Lady") and strawinskiesken detours ("The Lady Is Disloyal") back and forth , equipment as for pleasant pastime. Opened the score from a recitation ("The Picnic") of Balthazar song "Sigh No More Ladies," whose song version is the main theme of the music. In the overture (Main Title) all threads are passed compact in four minutes: a rousing heroic fanfare accompanied the approaching riding nobles in slow motion. Here the instrumentation is the most colorful, and it is drawn from the full orchestra reserves. The majority of the score makes use of chamber music means by which the music is some intimate to comical accents. The initiation of the brawlers Benedick and Beatrice to common turtledoves ("The Gulling of Benedick / Beatrice") accompanied Doyle with "Mickey Mousing" effects, without neglecting the thematic material. The song version of "Sigh no more, ladies" (the same as a choral finale "Strike Up Pipers") is a matter of taste, because Doyle is unable to move into areas of art song, but leaves it in pop-similar stylistics. "Pardon, Goddess of the Night" is a chant for the fake funeral Heros. Here the voice guidance is advised subtle; real progress towards the simplistic scheme of "Non Nobis, Domine" from "Henry V". The score is losing in its second half (the CD is chronologically cut), like the film itself, its lightness and drifting rapidly in the lard zone. This is also technically clean, but largely without surprises. Renaissance sounds of Doyle only at a single point effort ("The Masked Ball"). Cute! ;-) Overall, the score is an upmarket symphonic work that need not fear comparison with the classic Walton-musical settings to shy away from.
