• Composed by George Kallis
• Moviescore Media / 43m

A biopic of the legendary footballer Lev Yashin, goalkeeper for the Soviet national side as well as Dynamo Moscow from 1950 to 1970, The Dream Goalkeeper follows his life from the humblest of beginnings to worldwide fame. Composer George Kallis has tackled Russian movies previously – this is his third, in fact; the Moviescore Media label has championed his work for a number of years and I always enjoy hearing it. This is another fine one – full of melody, the sort of big spirit you expect to hear in a sports movie score but also plenty of emotion.

There are numerous themes. The opening “Driving Through Moscow” is actually a really lovely, pastoral piece; there’s a beautiful love theme, “Lev and Valya”; the football itself tends to get a driving, dynamic feel (not so much a theme) at first as in “Dynamo vs Torpedo” and “Flashback: The Loss in Chile” where it is sandwiched between source music, before later becoming more soaring. It’s not all fun and games though – there’s a haunting sadness to “Rock Through the Window” (amongst others). A more modern sound heralds “Ballon d’Or” but it soon develops into a wonderful, celebratory piece. There is a Russian sound at times – often quite subtle, but there – it is at its most overt in the choral “Farewell”, another highlight. The big finish comes with a pair of tracks, both really good – “Alone by the Goalpost” and the inspirational “Best in History”. This is a really good album, not just good melodies but there’s a real dramatic arc to it as well – it’s feelgood music at a time we could all do with some of that.

Rating: *** 1/2

facebook.com/moviewave | twitter.com/MovieWaveDotNet | amazon.com