Barry Moore Rat Race (2021)

The final instalment in the ‘Beethoven & Barry’ recording series which, over three volumes, has traced all nine of Beethoven’s Symphonies coupled with music by the celebrated Irish composer Gerald Barry.

John Barry's musical sixth sense is legendary. Though he eschewed the wishes of director Sydney Pollack to score Out of Africa with indigenous tribal sounds (and garnered an Academy Award in the process), it wasn't from lack of musical range, as Barry had previously demonstrated so effectively on this score. The composer's work for the gritty World War II Japanese POW camp drama features a jaunty, if typically Barry-idiosyncratic, march and a string-dominated title theme unusual for the genre. The composer infuses his distinctively adventurous arranging skills with percussive elements that give the music a sense of place. It's a score that cuts against expectations and traditions in much the same way as Hans Zimmer's score for The Thin Red Line would 30 years later.