Valentina Lisitsa's latest album for Decca/Universal Music Classics, Chasing Pianos, features the music of celebrated British film composer Michael Nyman.
Nyman is perhaps best known for his score to Jane Campion's film The Piano (1993). Lisitsa's Chasing Pianos is full of irresistible energy and includes all ten solo piano transcriptions from The Piano.
Chasing Pianos will be released on April 8 to coincide with Nyman's 70th birthday. But you can hear excerpts of the album now on National Public Radio's First Listen.
Standout tracks include "The Heart asks pleasure first" from The Piano, "Chasing Sheep is best left to Shepherds" from Peter Greenway's film The Draughtsman's Contract (1982), "The Departure" from Nyman's Golden Globe-winning score to Gattaca (1997), and the evocative "Time Lapse" from Greenaway's A Zed and Two Noughts (1985).
Lisitsa's album cover references the incongruous image from The Piano of an instrument sitting alone on the sandy beach.
During his career as a music critic, Nyman coined the term "minimalism" for a musical genre emerging in the 1960s, and soon became one of the most well-known composers of music in that genre. He went on to compose music for dozens of films which inspired a generation of moviegoers worldwide.
