Customer Reviews
The best album ever - By: JC, 29 Oct 2004 
Quite simply this is the most sublime & heart achingly beautiful soundtrack I have ever heard. It will transport you completely. I saw the film & was struck by the music - & to listen to it again is rapturous. I can't recommend this highly enough. Don't be put off if you don't like The Piano music - I don't particularly. But if you like film scores like Glory then you'll love this.
Orchestrated Melancholia - By: Jonathan James Romley, 24 Jan 2004 This is somewhat different to Nyman’s other soundtracks, onlyin as much that the use of music throughout Winterbottom’s masterpiece is conceptual…in that each character has their own tune assigned to them, which then reoccursin various re-arrangements whenever that character appears throughout. This is pretty obvious from the titles of the selections featured herein. However, this means that many of the tracks don’t gel as well as say, the soundtrack to The End of the Affair,in which we actually get a sense of the film’s themes through the continual playing of Nyman’s music.
Here the compositions are, for the most part, much shorter than what Nyman is know for (thinking specifically about works like Miranda from Prospero’s Books or Memorial from the Cook the Thief...) often clockingin at around the three of four minute mark. This makes the composer’s melancholic production easier to take, as the music becomes a reflection of the misery of the film with its reliance on mournful string arrangements built around a minimal piano composition. Though it’s is epicin it’s own right, this is a much more intimate work than the score for say, The Piano, & certainly reflects more of the lyrical poetry foundin Winterbottom’s film.
This is a lovely collection of compositions following onin the more humanistic design established on his soundtrack for the early Gattaca that are certainly worth you’re attention. It may be more demanding than the early (fun) works such as A Zed & Two Noughts & the Draughtsman’s Contract, but it’s certainly an important part of Nyman’s evolution as a one of the greatest neo-classical composers of the last century... & a worth addition to your CD collection. P.S. don’t forget to see the film as well.
Nyman's Sublime Wonderland - By: , 19 Oct 2001 The score written by Michael Nyman for Michael Winterbottom's film "Wonderland" is one of the most simple & yet sublime pieces I've ever heard. It is incredible the way that Nyman expresses such intense emotions from seemingly so simple & probably unpromising materials.
This is mature Nyman at his best, far from the dazzling neo-baroque exercises for the Greenaway films (great they were indeed), the british composer writes nowin a less spectacular manner but defintivelyin a deeper & more senstitive way. His orchestrations are here delightfully thin, almost ethereal (relying mostly on strings), while some piano solo's become pristine poetry.
With Wonderland Nyman has achievd beautyin simplicity, with music that goes, rather than to our ears ... straight to our hearts.
Excellent stuff! - By: , 24 Mar 2000 I have a slight bias towards Michael Nyman - I worship the ground he walks upon & enjoy all of his music almost before I have had time to think about it. However, this score has wide-reaching appeal, unlike some of Nyman's more obscure works. Basically, his work falls into two categories: music for everyone, & music for Nymanites like myself. This particular work is lush & stringy, & never harsh-sounding or difficult to appreciate. For other examples of Nyman's more accessible work, try Gattaca, the even-newer End of The Affair, Carrington & of course The Piano.
Heart rendering stuff - By: Paul McLoughlin, 09 Feb 2000 I an not one to usually buy film soundtracks ... they rarely have the same impact away from the context they were originally used in. However, as the credits went up for Wonderland, & my emotions started slotting back into place, one thought stayed clear within my head ... "I need this piece of piano music". It was simply one of the most beautiful things I had ever heard.
And so, two days later, the soundtrack arrived on my desk, & has not been out of my machine since. All the tracks are loosly based around the same theme, so the CD itself explores various different aspects of the emotions this theme can conjure, & it is simply a beautiful, heart rendering emotional journey.
And that piano piece, track 11, "franklyn", well,in the two days I have had this CD, it has provided the most appropriate backdrop to the emotional landsacape of certain recent events ...
