End of the Affair [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] [Flame Coloured Vinyl]

Michael Nyman Orchestra includes: Jackie Shave, Alexander Balanescu, Ann Morfee, Ian Humphries, Maciej Rakowski, Pat Kiernan (violin); Kate Musker, Bruce White, Andy Parker, Phillip D'Arcy, Paul Martin, Nick Barr (viola); Anthony Hinningan, Nick Cooper, Louise Hopkins, Sophie Harris, William Schofield (cello); Jonathan Snowden (flute, piccolo, alto saxophone); Michael Chapman, David Chatterton (bassoon); David Roach, Christian Forshaw (soprano, alto & baritone saxophones); John Harle, Simon Haram, Phil Todd (soprano & alto saxophones); David Theodore (English horn); David Lee (horn); Steve Sidwell (trumpet, flugelhorn); Nigel Barr (bass trombone, tuba); Chris Laurence, Mike Brittain, Mary Scully (bass); Martin Elliott (bass guitar).
Original score composed by Michael Nyman.
Recorded at Whitfield Street Studios, London, England from August 10-17 & October 6, 1999.
Neil Jordan's rendering of Grahame Greene's semi-autobiographical novel is a "teddibly" English story of a love triangle in which, as more than one critic observed, people behave frightfully well while behaving badly. Michael Nyman's musical backdrop, while not sounding specifically English, does have a sort of pastoral romantic minimalism that recalls Vaughan Williams, in mood if not in harmonic sophistication. Nyman scored AFFAIR for a small chamber orchestra (approximately the size Mozart would have used), which seems apt, and his recurring motivic fragments a la Phillip Glass are less repetitive than you'd expect--he's actually able to inject a sense of aching emotion into his bare-bones melodies.