Remember that Williams expanded Regaining A Son into the Elegy For Cello and Orchestra, which has been performed in concert many times including with JW himself. A beautiful piece…..
Thanks, I had forgotten that the elegy was based on a cue from Seven Years in Tibet, although again interesting that he chose to develop a secondary theme rather than the main theme.
I think he made an association between the film's scene that that the original cue accompanies (Harrer and his son reuniting) and the tragic event that inspired him the Elegy piece, i.e. the loss of two children of one of his orchestra players. I don't think he picked that theme randomly, but saw a link of sorts, as if to suggest a sense of resolution and peace.
I love that secondary theme, but besides the swirling variations in the track "Harrer's Journey," it's also why I have reservations about the album, which feels too languid and repetitive. Still, I'd be up for an expansion, especially for that camp escape cue (low rumbling stuff that Williams does so well).
Thanks to Ms. T. Gurdy, I gave this another spin (in two sessions) yesterday. First time in years. It's one of those scores which I'd kind of catalogued in my mind as "a bit boring", but was pretty enthralling when heard after so long. I don't know if what I'm going to say is indicative of getting old in general, but my attention span is not what it was. However, re-listening to this score took me back to well before 1996, way back to 1975, when I used to sit transfixed by films and music and film music for hours on end.
I wonder if I can stay in my trance-like state to have another go at MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, another which sort of defeated me on its earlier spins, perhaps due to my "thinking too much about other things" when it was on.
