Maurice Jarre wrote the central musical motif of his score for Doctor Zhivago, “Lara’s Theme,” in a few minutes in a hotel, amid a frantic five-week rush to score the 197-minute movie. That theme made the Doctor Zhivago soundtrack album one of the biggest selling soundtrack of the 1960s, a considerable feat when one reckons in the competition from A Hard Day’s Night, Never on Sunday, A Man and a Woman, Exodus, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. The rest of Jarre’s score is more in the realm of lushly textured Russian-themed mood music, filled with dark male choruses, folk and folk-like themes, and dense orchestrations, sort of faux-Tchaikovsky. The stereo separation is used to good effect, and the music as a whole 
forms a kind of romantic/exotic travelogue as much as a dramatic sketch of the movie’s action. The only drawback is that, given the length of the movie and the relatively short time that Jarre had to compose and record the score, there is a fair amount of repetition (one wishes that Jarre had been as lucky as Miklos Rozsa on Ben-Hur, with nearly a year to work on the music for that epic). The Sony CD was a considerable upgrade over the MGM LP and the mid-’80s MCA CD in both sound and content, adding a large body of incidental and intermission music built on the main themes from the film as well as several variants on “Lara’s Theme.” It, in turn, was supplanted by Rhino Records’ 1995 re-release, which offered somewhat better sound quality and more than a half-dozen outtakes from the score. (by Bruce Eder)
Personnel:
MGM studio orchestra conducted by Maurice Jarre
The Original Album:
01. Overture From “Doctor Zhivago” 4.10
02. Main Title From “Doctor Zhivago” 2.37
03. Lara Leaves Yuri 1.25
04. At The Student Cafe 1:30
05. Komarovsky And Lara’s Rendezvous 3.49
06. Revolution 3.59
07. Lara’s Theme From “Doctor Zhivago” 2.50
08. The Funeral 3.05
09. Sventytski’s Waltz 2.12
10. Yuri Escapes 2.16
11. Tonya Arrives At Varykino 3.39
12. Yuri Writes A Poem For Lara 2.35
30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition:
01. Overture 4.22
02. Main Title 2.38
03. Kontakion/Funeral Song
04. Lara Is Charming 1.16
05. The Internationale 1.12
06. Lara And Komarovsky Dancing Up A Storm 0.40
07. Komarovsky With Lara In The Hotel 3.51
08. Interior Student Cafe 1.34
09. Sventitsky’s Waltz/After the Shooting 2.17
10. Military Parade 2.11
11. They Began To Go Home 2.06
12. After Deserters Killed The Colonel 1.05
13. At The Hospital 1.00
14. Lara Says Goodbye To Yuri 1.17
15. Tonya Greets Yuri 0.46
16. The Stove’s Out 1.30
17. Yevgraf Snaps His Fingers 3.09
18. Evening Bells-Moscow Station 1.03
19. Flags Flying Over The Train 1.04
20. Yuri Gazing Through A Tiny Open Hatch 0.37
21. The Door Is Banged Opened 1.48
22. Intermission 0.43
23. Yuri Follows The Sound Of The Waterfall 0.44
24. Tonya And Yuri Arrive At Varykino 2.56
25. They Didn’t Lock The Cottage 1.33
26. Varykino Cottage, Winter Snow 0.57
27. Yuri And The Daffodils 1.17
28. On A Yuriatin Street 1.36
29. In Lara’s Bedroom 0.34
30. Yuri Rides to Yuriatin 0.22
31. Yuri Is Taken Prisoner By the Red Partisans 0.49
32. For As Long As We Need You 0.40
33. Yuri Is Escaping 2.17
34. Yuri Approaches Lara’s Apartment 0.50
35. Yuri Looks Into the Mirror 0.30
36. Lara And Yuri Arriving At Varykino 1.39
37. Yuri Is Trying To Write 1.19
38. Yuri Frightens the Wolves Away (Part 1) 0.49
39. Lara Reads Her Poem 0.40
40. Yuri Frightens the Wolves Away (Part 2) 1.55
41. Yuri Works On 0.52
42. Then It’s A Gift (End Title) 1.43
43. Lara’s Theme (Jazz version) 1.57
44. Lara’s Theme (Rock N Roll version) 2.39
45. Lara’s Theme (Swing version) 1.15
Score composed by Maurice Jarre
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** (coming soon)
Frontcover of the “30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition”
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