This disc puts us in touch with one facet of John Lenehan: specialist interpreting music repetitive, minimalist currents. Nyman, of course, he recorded the piano concerto including in its theme from motives in the music for "Piano Lesson" and the pope also like: Philip Glass. John Lenehan has also written numerous transcriptions to the demand for young pianists Yuja Wang.
In the movie "The Piano", the instrument will become the link love union between Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) and Baines (Harvey Keitel). Ada married against her will and without having met Alistair Stewart (Sam Neil), the neighbor Baines receives the piano in exchange for land. Ada discover the passion to return to his piano note by note, hug a hug, then suffered first desired! Michael Nyman could not write music in a romantic sense of the term musicological (Brahms, Liszt, Chopin). The rudimentary piano Ada is a fortepiano dating from the eighteenth and possessing not even pedal. Perfect! Nyman is a lover of baroque music and little or no pedal is used in the minimalist music or staccato is pushed to the extreme. The CD devotes considerable space to 8 pieces extracted or derived from the music of the film.
The heart Asks pleasure first: Typical repetitive music (but not minimalist), the undulating and swirling melody evokes many images and feelings carried by the film: the surf of the sea on which arrives exhausted young wife (and on which she will fly), the gymnastic dance girl playing on the beach, and especially love the crossover resulting from fear to pleasure the beautiful and quiet Ada faces Baines. No, the theme is not minimalist and gives all the heat this evocation of a "heart seeking the first awakening of the senses" (possible translation). For the BO Michael Nyman playing with an epic power, detonated his score John Lenehan uses a tempo gaining less voluble and emotionality. He added there by a hairline game, a dreamlike atmosphere, a disturbing tenderness. A accelerando the middle of the song marks the time when Ada "is loose", accepts the reassuring masculinity Baines. All this in less than 3 minutes. It is quite the duo Nyman- Lenehan. Envoutant.
The following are six pieces of repetitive style but we bring a lot of changes in a coherent, a suite for piano that would not deny the high-flying composers. Voluptuousness ("all imperfected things") alternates with the frenzy ("Silver fingered fling").
The 8th and final piece is not from the movie. This is a rather long piece entitled "The attraction of the pedaling ankle" (attraction). A varied and magical piece that confront dance steps after an elegiac introduction. Several different episodes follow one another under the fingers of the pianist. The sound recording is fairly defined, both hands agree distinctly, but the microphones prefer a tad lower strings weighting colors
The album is completed with 4 other groups also extracted pieces of film music and even a video game Enemy Zero A little surprising, but when I write that the Anglo-Saxon composers are jack-of-all
Four beautiful pieces come from Wonderland (1999 - Michael Winterbottom, not the 2003 thriller with Val Kilmer). In music Nyman illustrating the tragicomic saga of a London family, there are also the clean rhythmic style of the composer but without the dramatic force that bore "Piano Lesson". 4 pieces, 4 surnames, 4 portraits of characters who seek their poetic ways, bittersweet, beautiful piano very light, but difficult to say more about a movie I have not seen. Michael Nyman said that this soundtrack was one of the one he preferred, making him confidence.
For those who love to feel enchanted by this music, but Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa living in the US recorded an album dedicated to generous Nyman. There is a similar program with the addition of the soundtrack of transcripts of Gattaca or The Cleam. As against the pieces are presented in disorder and not as logical sequences, film by film. The game is elegant pianist but I admit prefer more muscular touched John Lenehan. That said what and what brilliance miking! For the record, the pianist had engraved in 2012 sonatas of Charles Ives with Hilary Hahn for DGG. An original program and an accomplice duo
