Bride of the Wind (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack).

Various Artists (Deutsche Grammophon 289 469 584-2)

Long-time (and probably most short-time, come to think of it) readers already know that the music of Gustav Mahler is often discussed in these pages, not only in this and John Puccio's review columns, but also in Double Double, where Tom Lyle and I about as often as not are comparing recordings of our favorite composer. Long-time readers may also have deduced by now that I am not much of a movie buff, nor do I often review movie soundtracks. Unfortunately for me, my prejudice against soundtracks nearly caused me to completely overlook a wonderful recording, one that I just happened to come across over Christmas vacation when I spent a couple of days trying to bring some semblance of order to my CD collection, which had just about taken over my entire listening room.

I was just about ready to relegate Bride of the Wind to a stack that would probably never get played when somehow my eyes somehow noticed the word "Mahler' in the smaller print along the bottom of the front cover of the CD. I did a double take, then read the entire phrase there printed: Music by Gustav Mahler, Alma Mahler, and Stephen Endelman. Hmmm--that sounded kind of interesting. I immediately popped the CD into the player and started reading the liner notes.

Bingo! It turns out that Bride of the Wind is a film about Alma Mahler, and just as the front cover promises, the soundtrack features music by Gustav Mahler, Alma Mahler, and producer/composer Stephen Endelman, whose work for this soundtrack is written in the style of the Mahlers. Included on this CD are movements from some of the Mahler symphonies performed by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Pierre Boulez and Claudio Abbado, arrangements of Alma's and Endelman's music played by the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra conducted by Frantisek Preisler, and some songs performed by soprano Renee Fleming accompanied by pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

Bride of the Wind is one of those CDs that can be enjoyed as background music, but which also stands up to close, critical listening. The sound quality is excellent, the music is superb, and for Mahler fans, the end result is 78 minutes of musical enjoyment.