This must count as one of the more unusual film spin-off projects of recent
years. In 1997 Stephen Fry starred as Oscar Wilde in the film Wilde. Vanessa
Redgrave played the writer's mother, Speranza, and the excellent score was
written by Debbie Wiseman. Clearly the project was inspirational, for now
the three are reunited on this album which sets two of Wilde's classic fairy
tales, The Nightingale and the Rose and The Selfish Giant,
to new music by Wiseman. Fry narrates the former, Redgrave, the latter. And
for those who want to listen to the music without someone talking over it,
between the two fairy tales are two orchestral pieces, My Own Garden and
One Last Song. These lovely pieces flow seamlessly together, condensing the
main themes from both the main works in 16 gorgeous minutes of melody.
The clear antecedent for all such works is of course Prokofiev's Peter
and the Wolf. Miklós Rózsa's The Jungle Book
perhaps coming second. For The Nightingale and the Rose Wiseman evokes the
sad beauty of the tale rather than directly imitates the various characters,
the nightingale necessarily being the exception, to which she gives voice
in some gorgeous flute melodies. Her writing is still akin to film music,
in that the music must be subservient to the voice. She nevertheless crafts
beguiling themes, sometimes on her own instrument, the piano, which support
the emotion of the tale and easily lodge themselves in the memory even after
a first listen.
Apart from being a superb comic and serious actor, and an accomplished novelist,
Fry has recently provided fine audiobook readings of the Harry Potter
novels. Here he has rather less text to deliver, doing so admirably and realising
the pathos of the story for both children and adults. The latter will recognise
the irony of the tale; the contrast between the sacrificial innocence of
the nightingale and the fickle cruelty of the nominal human heroine.
The Selfish Giant is a complimentary fable, contrasting the freedom
of natural creation with a giant's desire to control all he surveys, and
how the innocence of a child thaws the giant's heart. The ending is happy,
and while both fairy tales can be taken as allegories for Christ's suffering
and redemptive work, this second tale is more explicit. Appropriately Wiseman's
scoring is iridescent, joyful and haunting, and she captures the tread of
the giant and the changing seasons in her orchestrations. Vanessa Redgrave
narrates with charming fluidity, concluding a disc which should all who hear
it.
The orchestral recording is very fine, and Sir Neville Mariner places the
whole firmly within the English pastoral tradition. If the violin writing
deliberately harks to the 1890's, Elgar's first fruits and the time of Wilde's
greatest triumphs (the fairy tales were first published in 1888), the remainder
is pure 20th century Wiseman. If there is a problem at all, and it is a minor
one, it is that Fry and Redgrave were clearly recorded in a different acoustic
to the orchestra. There is occasional reverberation on the voices, whether
natural or digital, which does detract a little from the sheer beauty of
the conception. In all other respects this is immaculately done, and would
make a fine Christmas or birthday present for any child able to concentrate
on 20 minutes of story at a time - in other words any child capable of sitting
though a standard television cartoon. Adults will love it too, whether previously
admirers of Debbie Wiseman's film music or not.
The booklet contains children's book style illustrations by Dirk Uhlenbrock
and extracts, rather than the complete texts, from the fairy tales.
Gary S. Dalkin
With the Academy of St Martin
in the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner 
