La Neuvième Porte

Soundtrack aficionados tend to consider the score for Bram Stoker's Dracula to be Polish composer Wojciech Kilar's finest, and deem the one he produced for Roman Polanski's 1999 film The Ninth Gate to be a slightly lesser work in a similar vein. Somehow, though, I scarcely noticed the music when I watched 'Dracula', but was immediately drawn to that for the later movie, which I saw on a rented DVD in 2001. Obtaining the OST CD shortly thereafter, I played the disc a great deal in the first years of the century, and now the jewel case is cracked and the disc itself scarred with scratches.

I love the slow & very low strings over the opening titles, Liana's eerie theme, and the touches of harpsichord throughout. I even enjoy soprano Sumi Jo's wordless warblings on several of the cues, even though, in general, operatic vocals aren't to my taste. Some of the faster-paced pieces like 'Boo!/The Chase' and 'Balkan's Death' I like less. It seldom happens that sondtracks turn my head, and I don't have more than half a dozen OST recordings on my shelves, so why this one should have reached out & grabbed me when the movie itself didn't make any lasting impression - I can't say.

Enthused by this music I sought out some of Kilar's orchestral compositions but found I didn't enjoy them nearly as much. The one exception was a rousing piece of his for string orchestra called Orawa.

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