Initial reviews augur well for this children's fantasy tale of a Loch Ness-style creature. The Water Horse has something in common with the Closing the Ring sountrack, with its Scottish setting and Celtic music, though oddly enough it's the Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor who features on the soundtrack. James Newton Howard has intriguingly composed a score of two different stylistic parts. The first is Celtic-flavoured with electronics, celesta (“Angus Feeds Crusoe”, “Bathtub”), acoustic guitar (“The Workshop”) and uillean pipes in “Run Angus”.

To mark the appearance of the water horse he switches into symphonic mode, with a deep growl from the orchestra in “The Fishermen” followed by a series of fully scored tracks, brilliantly played. This second part also includes an outrageous can-can with syncopated punctuation in “The Dinner Party” that for sheer chutzpah can be mentioned in the same breath as “Riot”, a cue from Korngold's The Prince and the Pauper.

In the concluding suite the composer returns to the earlier Celtic mood, thereby depriving us of what might have become a marvellous item fit for the concert hall. Nevertheless, his score has whetted my appetite to join that queue in the foyer to hear this impressive soundtrack at work.