Review: "The Mythos Suite" - Debbie Wiseman, Stephen Fry

For those who were not lucky enough to study Ancient Greece at school and have been slow to explore its myths, legends and gods, this recent Decca release provides a unique way to delve in. The multitalented Stephen Fry is the author of the book “Mythos”, which retells the stories of the gods in contemporary language and the author’s own whimsical and comical style. Working with the composer Debbie Wiseman, this release combines the concept of an audiobook with film-soundtrack in an entertaining, informative and highly engaging way. Wiseman — a prolific composer for TV and film, has many credits to her name and other highly commended projects commissioned from Classic FM — UK’s popular classical radio station.

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Fry narrates his own chosen texts, to which Wiseman has composed evocative music conjuring-up a range of emotions, moods and atmospheres. Her understanding of how to use an orchestra to create soundscapes is exceptional; one doesn’t need the narration to feel the storytelling in the soundscapes she creates. Some of the music is a little clichéd, but this enhances the drama to Fry’s narration.

Fry’s stories are well chosen. In the five tails – ‘The Story Of Chaos’, ‘The Story of Rhea’, ‘The Story of Persephone’, ‘The Story of Apollo & Marsyas’ and ‘The Story of Sisyphus’ – Fry is expressive in his narration throughout, bringing a perfectly pitched sense of drama. Speaking with a natural rhythm, he uses the different ranges of his voice eloquently. The choice of vocabulary Fry employs is rich and varied, and needs repeated listening to fully appreciate. Like Alexander Armstrong on the recently released “Not Now Bernard” (reviewed here), Fry’s Received Pronunciation ensures pristine clarity. The reverb used for Fry’s voice enhances the drama and gives a sense of space; it is used judiciously so as not to blur words.

After each narration, Wiseman’s instrumental music can be enjoyed as quasi mini tone-poems, all use themes from the preceding track. Detached from Fry’s charismatic narration, the music doesn’t always manage to give a persuasive case on its own. For the more experienced listener, Wiseman uses a range of musical ideas and themes similar to leitmotifs. In the instrumental tracks, which together form a suite of incidental music, there is much-repeated music in ‘Tempest’ (track 2) and ‘Hidden Danger’ (track 4). On first hearing they are interesting, but does become a title tiresome. ‘Demeter – The Music of Persephone’ (track 6) begins with contrasting musical colors and textures, but does not possess the intense darkness of the previous movements. ‘Aegeon Sea – The Music of Apollo & Marsyas’ (track 8) begins with a beautifully executed mandolin solo, which is slightly clichéd. The final track, ‘Voyage Of Scyrus – The Music Of Sisyphus’ (track 10), has echoes of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade with seductive woodwind solos, but doesn’t quite break the uniformity of mood as the other instrumental pieces.

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The playing from the National Symphony Orchestra is excellent, the players clearly feel at home with this style of music. Recorded in the famous Abbey Road Studios, London, the engineers have captured the instruments well, the balance is intrinsic to the style of music. The musicianship is first-rate and care has taken to ensure a high caliber of soloists. Jack Liebeck takes the violin solos, while guitarist John Parricelli performs the solo mandolin part.

This album is designed to have the instrumental music after the narrated tale. While this gives the listener a chance to make sense of the story and the compositions separately, the music can become repetitive. I suspect some may prefer to listen to the narrated tracks alone as a playlist. Not all the content is a suitable family listening, but would certainly be of interest to adults and teenagers as an introduction to Greek mythology.