Diên Biên Phu

Georges Delerue

 
" Personal goodbye from Delerue "

Written by Thomas Glorieux - Review of the regular release

Diên Biên Phu is one of the final scores of Delerue's career, and considered one of his most personal. Well it's a given that you don't get what you perhaps expected. For instance, when I saw the cover I expected well ... George Fenton's Memphis Belle. Heroic grandeur and all those guns blazing. And knowing Delerue could do this epic heroism well I was thoroughly intrigued. Well scratch that because you're not getting that, but personal dramatic music. Bordering on classical music. This is a dramatic piece written for concert and repeated twice in the first track, while separated in the second track. The rest are piano cues and a vocal piece. In general, the main theme is quite nice and would offer more momentum when it would receive a larger orchestral performance. I mean, everything about this screams for more grandeur. This was perhaps not that project but I nonetheless wished it to be. Making the disappointment perhaps larger. I've heard this score already 3 times, and every time it failed to grab me. Nothing bad about the music because it's great. But sadly it just doesn't grab me like it perhaps should.

Score is a nice and soft emotional piece, offering various performances and concert suites.
I expected different things judging from the cover.
The piano music is effective, but not my cup of tea.

Track Listing

1. Concerto de l'Adieu (9.59)
2. Fragments du Concerto de l'Adieu (17.45)
Fragment no 1 (0.52)
Fragment no 2 (2.16)
Fragment no 3 (1.30)
Fragment no 4 (1.56)
Fragment no 5 (1.35)
Fragment no 6 (1.08)
Fragment no 7 (1.45)
Fragment no 8 (2.16)
Fragment no 9 (1.05)
Fragment no 10 (3.22)
3. Communion * (0.47)
4. Sortie de la Messe (0.32)
5. Nostalgie ** (1.34)
6. Valse Souvenir ** (1.44)
7. Les Copains ** (1.55)
8. Normandie Bar ** (2.38)
9. Confidence au Normandie ** (0.59)
10. Les Adieux au Normandie ** (1.57)

* Soliste vocal: Marie Kobayashi
** Piano performed by Georges Delerue

Total Length: 39.50
(click to rate this score)  
 
  •  
(total of 1 votes - average 5/5)

Released by

Polydor 513 289-2 (regular release 1992)

Conducted by

Georges Delerue