Michael
Nyman’s facility for turning out good tunes is a godsend to
film directors, and with his current filmography listing a remarkable
74 scores the cinema has clearly responded well to his work
in this field. Julian Haycock’s extensive booklet notes deal
with each of the associations represented on this disc in some
detail, but while I can appreciate, indeed have enjoyed some
of these pieces in the context of the films for which they where
written, I find myself worrying about this release perhaps more
than I should.
Taking
film music out of context is fine of course – we’ve been doing
it for years, and I have to admit hearing and loving Nyman’s
music for The Draughtsman’s Contract and others long
before finally getting to see the film. One of the things I
like most about Nyman’s music is the instrumentation – up to
and including the incredible Memorial from The Cook,
The Thief, His Wife and her Lover whose screaming saxophones
still rattle around in the skull for days after a good loud
airing. He has to me always been associated with the particular
sound of his own band, and - not inevitably to beneficial effect
- the particular intensity of Alexander Balanescu’s violin.
Where we disagree in this is on the subject of The Piano:
“I though the music was perfect for the needs, but when I walked
away from the film I realized there was a lot of potential in
that music which hadn’t been realized with the film so I went
away and wrote the Piano Concerto.”
With
this long list of piano solo pieces there is often not a great
deal to differentiate one tune from another – gorgeous though
many of them are, especially when the piano sound has been set
in an acoustic haze which makes the whole thing sound like a
new age album produced by someone like Roger Eno – which is
also fine and lovely – just so you know what to expect.
You
may actually like this, and as background music it does have
a certain innocuous and atmospheric charm, but I do miss the
subtle shades Nyman can produce with usually compact but often
potentially explosive numbers of instruments. John Lenehan’s
touch with Nyman’s often insistent and repetitive accompaniment
figurations is also a little on the heavy side, and I would
have preferred some more variety in the left hand at times –
though I’m sure the whoomy recording does the playing no favours
in this regard. The microphone placement seems very close, but
as Manfred Eicher regularly proves on his ECM label, this doesn’t
necessarily have to result in a ‘wall of piano’ effect.
Nyman
fans who are less enamoured with the earlier, harder, more
muscular scores for Peter Greenaway but who liked The Piano
will probably adore this disc. I have to come clean and say
I am of the opposite type, who thinks things went seriously astray
with the sentimentality of The Piano. I would defend any
composer’s right to develop in any way he chooses, especially
if it means earning him pots of money and the best of luck. To
me, this is a kind of high grade contemporary gebrauchsmusik,
useful for turning posh interiors with minimalist fittings and
furniture into real-time film sets through which one can waft
with an air of discreet mystery.
Dominy Clements
