Composer: Michael Laurence Nyman
Performer: Valentina Lisitsa
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Decca
Release: 2014
Size: 1.36 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01 The Heart Asks Pleasure First (1993 version) The Piano
02 Big My Secret (1993 version) The Piano
03 Candlefire The Diary Of Anne Frank
04 If (2005 version) The Diary Of Anne Frank
05 Sheep ’n’ Tides Drowning By Numbers
06 Goodbye Moortie The Diary Of Anne Frank
07 Fly Drive Carrington
08 Diary Of Love The End Of The Affair
09 Time Lapse A Zed & Two Noughts
10 Odessa Beach Man With A Movie Camera
11 The School Room The Diary Of Anne Frank
12 Why? The Diary Of Anne Frank
13 Chasing Sheep Is Best Left To Shepherds The Draughtsman’s Contract
14 Deep Sleep Playing The Piano
15 The Exchange The Claim
16 Here To There The Piano
17 Jack Wonderland
18 Bill Wonderland
19 The Departure Gattaca
20 Lost And Found The Piano
21 All Imperfect Things The Piano
22 The Attraction Of The Pedalling Ankle The Piano
23 The Mood That Passes Through You The Piano
24 The Embrace The Piano
25 Silver-Fingered Fling The Piano
Ukrainian pianist Valentina Lisitsa has taken an unusual path toward career development: she posted her Chopin performances to YouTube, gained a strong following there, and then hired the London Symphony Orchestra for a set of Rachmaninov concerto performances. The gambit seems to be working: Lisitsa’s performances of late Romantic repertoire have been reasonably well received, and now she’s earned the right to implement what one imagines was the point of the whole exercise in the first place: the pursuit of the crossover audience centered above all in Britain. There is no denying that Chasing Pianos works well. British composer Michael Nyman has made a long specialty out of minimalist music that shades in the direction of melodic pop. Although Nyman has stated that opera is his favored genre, the style is ideally suited to film scores, and his music for The Piano (1993) is a classic of the genre. That score, adapted for solo piano, is heavily featured here, along with music from other scores that is artfully chosen to give just enough contrast to avoid sheer repetitiveness without disturbing the basic calm surface. Lisitsa’s style, flawlessly precise and slightly mechanical, fits this music in a rather eerie way, and fans of Nyman’s music will doubtless find a fresh and exciting take on it here. Those coming to the music from the film The Piano or from one of the other soundtracks represented should also be pleased. The sound, from the concert hall at Britain’s Wyastone Estate, is unusually well suited to the project: dreamy and soft without being overly gauzy.