Howard wrote much of the classically oriented half of Red Sparrow without seeing the footage first, emphasizing a reliance on classical mannerisms and a vaguely Russian style to his alternative. Technically speaking, Howard's work for Red Sparrow is a bridge between the composer's fully symphonic and choral fantasy and his synthetically-dominated minimalism, the score opening and closing with the former while the middle portion akin to Howard's usual contemporary, urban suspense mode. There is a clear narrative direction throughout the score, the opulent melodicism of the opening ballerina scenes shattered during the cue but slowly returning as the lead character reinvents herself as a different star of the Russian state. Howard's method of dissolving his thematic material for the girl and slowly rehabilitating it as the story progresses is quite commendable. On the other hand, the thematic progressions for the girl are never really enunciated with total clarity to begin with; Howard instead relies upon repeated undulating figures and classically informed waltz progressions of perceived importance to better drive the momentous cues for the girl's success. Melodies for the Russian dominance and the girl mingle in two and four-note descending phrases that eventually yield to an intriguing three-note ascending phrase that builds throughout the culminating, defiant coronation, "Didn't I Do Well?" until a not-so-subtle conclusion to the cue drives home the new progression with absolute clarity. Casual listeners will gravitate towards the "Overture" and "End Titles" (two cues guest conducted by Finland's respected Esa-Pekka Salonen, interestingly), as they express the opulent classical structures in their fullest; there is some redundant structural overlap between these two cues. These passages will remind film score collectors of a blend of Victor Reyes' unheralded but outstanding Grand Piano during the crescendo to the injury that sets the plot in motion (though nowhere near as impressive as that 2013 translation of classical music into a horrifically suspenseful environment) and classic Bernard Herrmann grandeur and mystery, the latter style a clear influence on the middle, revelatory portions of this score as Howard supplies undulating, whimsically inaccessible string textures a la Vertigo to a cue like "Blonde Suits You." Handled tastefully, more reliance upon these influences would have been welcomed.

The maligned middle portions of Red Sparrow may be overlooked because of long, groaning, ambient sequences like "Take Off Your Dress" and "Switching Disks" that feature tired techniques of synthetic and organic dissonance. But hidden in these passages are the seeds of the return to the melodies of the opening ballet cue, a transition first hinted in "Follow the Trail Wherever It Leads You" and solidifying in "Blonde Suits You," "Ticket to Vienna," and "Can I Trust You?" As "So What Next?" introduces the formal return to classical melodicism in "Didn't I Do Well?," the two-note phrasing is reminiscent, intriguingly, of the battle material from Gabriel Yared's rejected score for Troy. Undoubtedly, "Didn't I Do Well?" is the singular highlight of the score, containing the bulk of the transformative melodic structures that are otherwise less defined in the two, longer, bookending cues that both conclude with several minutes of ambient suspense that diminish their appeal. Howard, who had supplied ethereal choral tones to earlier cues such as "Arriving at Sparrow School," allows the choral layer to fulfill Russian stereotypes in "Didn't I Do Well?" with elegance and grace. This cue is alone worth exploring, though don't expect all of its melodic consolidation to always make sense. There are a few disqualifying detriments about Red Sparrow that will make its listening experience on album inaccessible for some, and the dichotomy between suspenseful minimalism and classical romanticism isn't necessarily one of them. First, the narrative of Howard's score, while commendable in concept, isn't executed as clearly as it could have been, in part because his own themes aren't overtly obvious and are therefore not the easiest to deconstruct. Additionally, the infusion of the classical pieces into the film for certain subplots distract from Howard's parallel development. Secondly, the score on album suffers from poor leveling of gains and a sometimes droning bass presence, even in the orchestral passages, that forces the listener to constantly adjust the volume during the listening experience. When the only sound you hear in a quiet cue like "Anya, Come Here" is distortion from the woofers, then you know something is wrong. Finally, several of the suspense cues offer nothing of substance whatsoever, a trait not uncommon to Howard's work in that realm but one that causes the very long album for Red Sparrow to drag significantly. Overall, this score is promising in the whole and magnificent at its height, but the presentation of its ranks on album, especially sans any of the classical pieces, underachieves to the same extent as the film.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download