[Thor Joachim Haga]

I think it was Malte who brought up Roque Baños earlier in the thread. He was very interesting once upon a time, especially all his variations and permutations of the classic Bernard Herrmann sound. In later years, he’s veered more towards various boring thriller tropes, which is not his forte. He’s more interesting when he works on Spanish-language productions, and less so with Hollywood or English-language ones.

I have four Baños scores that I like – GOYA EN BURDEOS (1999), SEGUNDA PIEL (2000), LAS 13 ROSAS (2007) and CANTINFLAS (2014). If I were to pick a favourite, then maybe the earliest one, GOYA EN BURDEOS, about the Spanish painter Goya who moves to Bordeaux towards the end of his life and reflects on his past. Baños mixes chamber-sized late 18th century classical tropes with certain regional colours (castanets!) and a more fullbodied, ominous orchestral sound that indeed wears its Herrmann on its sleeve.