Sony Music releases Alexandre Desplat's original score for Little Women. Recorded in New York City under the leadership of Desplat, who conducted a chamber orchestra to perform his original compositions. Writer-director Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) has crafted a Little Women that draws on both the classic novel and the writings of Louisa May Alcott, and unfolds as the author’s alter ego, Jo March, reflects back and forth on her fictional life. In Gerwig’s take, the beloved story of the March sisters – four young women each determined to live life on her own terms -- is both timeless and timely...

I don't know why, but I've never been able to get on with Alexandre Desplat's music. I think, for me, the problem is that while he can deliver some heartbreakingly beautiful music, a lot of the time his themes have promise and then go nowhere. I've also not been able to shake the feeling that he's a watered down John Williams. Yet, I always listen to each of his score with an open mind.

Of the soundtrack, composer Desplat says: "To capture the life of these four young girls on their path to adulthood, I have called in the four hands of two pianists. They are surrounded by a chamber orchestra, which keeps us in the intimate world of these ‘little women.’ We recorded the score in New York City with the most wonderful musicians whose musicality and virtuosity went beyond my expectations."

Little Women is certainly one of his most beautifully melancholic and emotionally rich scores, but again, I kept being reminded of John Williams, more notably his score for The Book Thief. That said, this is a remarkably deep and varied album which works its magic outside the movie just as well as it does inside.

I found it immensely rewarding the more times you revisit it. One of Desplat's finest works to date.

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Darren Rea