MICHAEL NYMAN: The Piano Concerto; On the Fiddle; Prospero’s Books – Peter Lawson, piano/ Royal Philharmonic/Jonathan Carney – Royal Philharmonic Masterworks Audiophile Collection RPM 28600, 68:13 [Distr. by Allegro] ****:
Evidently the promotion of this standard CD series as “The Audiophile Collection” comes from the same error we see on so many CDs nowadays – mistaking the format of the original digital recording format for the strict lower-res standard of 44.1K/16-bit compact discs. Since this is not a 96K or 192K DVD, nor an SACD nor a DVD-A, nor even an HDCD or K2 HD disc, it certainly cannot be called an audiophile disc anymore.
However, the sonics are quite good. And the RPM is to be congratulated for joining the many major symphony orchestras around the world who have launched their own record label and are doing well with it. It’s just unfortunate they are not releasing them on SACD as most of the other orchestras are.
Michael Nyman’s music has an interesting mix of minimalist techniques together with elements of early music and the rhythms of rock music. He comes up with unusual solutions to music for films, and is famous for his collaborations with director Peter Greenaway. The four movements of The Piano Concerto come from the concert arrangement of his score for Jane Campion’s film The Piano. They are titled The Beach, The Woods, The Hut, and The Release. Nyman used Scottish folk and popular songs as the basis for his music because actress Holly Hunter – who played the main part – actually played the piano in many scenes and she was originally from Scotland. For this concert piece he “reconsidered” the film score for a piano concerto. The main theme is very striking and memorable, but it became a bit repetitious for me by the fourth movement – perhaps because I had heard yet another arrangement of it not long ago.
Themes drawn from three of Nyman’s collaborations with Greenaway provide the music heard in On the Fiddle. He originally arranged it for violin and piano but orchestrated it especially for the Royal Philharmonic for this CD. Prospero’s Books was Greenaway’s setting of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and its four sections for chamber orchestra follow four elements of the film. The first of the On the Fiddle movements is also music from Prospero’s Books. Nyman’s music sometimes can stress the endurance of non-aficionados of minimalism – similar to early Philip Glass – but there is usually an element of humor, outrageous harmonic changes or catchy rock rhythms that return one’s interest to the music.
– John Sunier
