Preisner - Ten Easy Pieces for Piano
In a world of increasingly commercialised musical wallpaper, Preisner's 10 Easy [Piece] Pieces for piano are firmly of the ready-pasted variety, easy to write, easy on the ear and all too easy to forget
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Zbigniew Preisner
Label: EMI Classics
Magazine Review Date: 5/2000
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 54
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 556071-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Ten Easy Pieces for Piano |
Zbigniew Preisner, Composer
Leszek Mozdzer, Piano Zbigniew Preisner, Composer |
Author: Guy Rickards
Zbigniew Preisner is well known as a composer of film music, particularly to Krzysztof Kiesyowski's Double Life of Veronique (9/98) and Three Colours trilogy, but also for Agnieska Holland's 1993 remake of The Secret Garden (8/94) and the theme to BBC2's People's Century. In the concert hall, Preisner has attracted much attention for his Requiem (in memory of Kiesyowski, Erato, A/98), and the present set of Easy Pieces (1999) are his next foray away from the cinema, though in part a collaboration with pianist Leszek Mozdzer, with whom the composer had worked on the scores of Louis Malle's Damage and People's Century.
The problem with the Easy Pieces is that they sound like surrogate film music, the expressive impact of which is largely neutralised away from any visual media. At their least convincing - generally in slower items such as the opening pair, 'A Good Morning Melody' and 'Meditation' - the lyricism is weak and anonymous (wishy-washy even), while 'Farewell' (the seventh) has a sentimental pastiness that is almost embarrassing. The swifter items come off better; for instance, 'To See More' and 'Learning To Fly' (respectively Nos 3 and 5), but they're hardly original in style. Only No 8, 'A Tune A Day', really impresses on repeated hearings. Full of balletic grace, it sounds like the backing to a documentary about a novice dancer, but is full of charm. Mozdzer's performance is polished, and the sound fine; I wish they could have been put to more effective use.'
The problem with the Easy Pieces is that they sound like surrogate film music, the expressive impact of which is largely neutralised away from any visual media. At their least convincing - generally in slower items such as the opening pair, 'A Good Morning Melody' and 'Meditation' - the lyricism is weak and anonymous (wishy-washy even), while 'Farewell' (the seventh) has a sentimental pastiness that is almost embarrassing. The swifter items come off better; for instance, 'To See More' and 'Learning To Fly' (respectively Nos 3 and 5), but they're hardly original in style. Only No 8, 'A Tune A Day', really impresses on repeated hearings. Full of balletic grace, it sounds like the backing to a documentary about a novice dancer, but is full of charm. Mozdzer's performance is polished, and the sound fine; I wish they could have been put to more effective use.'
Preisner - Ten Easy Pieces for Piano
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