Search - Michael Nyman, John Lenehan :: Michael Nyman: The Piano Music

REMAKE / REMODEL

Kerry Leimer | Makawao, Hawaii United States | 12/01/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Nyman keeps coming back to his work for the film The Piano. A score which, to my taste, far outperforms the film. Not long after the film was released he produced The Piano Concerto, a more esoteric interpretation of the work for the film that may have traded the emotional vigor of the original score for some abstractions that seemed unsuited to the folk origins of the - sorry, gotta say it - haunting theme. Now, some 15 years later Nyman goes back to the score and frankly nails it. The 14 pieces work so well as an integrated whole they together effortlessly achieve the sense of "concerto". The additional bonus here, aside from the profoundly modulated and nuanced performances, is the immaculate production, a level of sound recording that the original soundtrack release could only long for."