Track Listing

1. To The Edge Of The Earth
2. Big My Secret
3. A Wild And Distant Shore
4. The Heart Asks Pleasure First
5. Here To There
6. The Promise
7. A Bed Of Ferns
8. The Fling
9. The Scent Of Love
10. Deep Into The Forest
11. The Mood That Passes Through You
12. Lost And Found
13. The Embrace
14. Little Impulse
15. The Sacrifice
16. I Clipped Your Wing
17. The Wounded
18. All Imperfect Things
19. Dreams Of A Journey

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39119 in Music
• Released on: 2003-03-03
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Soundtrack, SACD

Customer Reviews

Pure brilliance
The first time I ever watched The Piano, I fell in love with the film and the music. I went out and bought this cd and from the first note of the first track I fell in love with it all over again. Michael Nyman has created a soundtrack that for me sends me to a wonderfull place every time I listen to the cd. I just close my eyes and Im transported to this place. Just listening to the way every note is played often sends shivers down my spine. If you loved the film as I do, then dont wait another second, buy this soundtrack. I promise you will love it!

Improved sound on SACD, music still marvellous
The original recording was produced by Nyman himself and is characterised by the multi-miking, near-saturation and closeness for which performances of his music are generally noted. The DSD (stereo)remastering was done by Simon Heyworth in August '01 and it does sound better than the original. Although there's not noticeably much greater bloom, instrumental definition & tone is clearer and more characteristic of the instruments, especially John Harle's and David Roach's saxes, and that in turn adds to the stereo effect.

It also adds greatly to the "height" of the sound. Fittingly for film music, it now covers a canvass as tall as it is wide. The sometimes electronic-sounding violins of the Munich Philharmonic not only pack a punch, they also soar. Bass extension is good without being dominant, as it can be in many Nyman albums.

The immediacy of the sound is part of Nyman's stylistic signature of resolving the almost opposing forces of hysteria and inevitability. For the "Piano" this conflict is less explicit than in some of his pieces, but no less forceful. The hysteria here is an inward and muted one, befitting its association with the mute, piano-obsessed, emigrant bride Ada. The music too was written to suggest both Ada and her childhood memories of songs and piano pieces and so it reflects "Scottish" type themes and melodies as well as the tempestuousness of the new world Ada finds in New Zealand.

I found the film itself embarrassingly melodramatic and it hasn't grown on me in the decade since its release, but the music has. It is possible to find it lightweight initially, a la George Winston and co, but it holds more than it seems to. It is deliberately "naive" music and eventually works on an almost atavistic emotional level. It's also bloody lovely, with a main theme Paul McCartney would die to have written (as Douglas Adams would have written).

So, to sum up, it was worth trading in the redbook version for, and it'll get regularly played.

just... brilliant
this the most wonderful album i have ever heard in my entire life..! every time i play it it's like.. something happens.. i mean, the man is just a genius! (forgetting a bit the film scenes it might recall) it absolutely blows you away, takes over you, rapes your mind and makes you think of and feel nothingelse.. even if you didn't fell in love with the film, you will with this OST. tracks 1, 6, 10, 11 and 18 are the most breathtaking...14 and 15 as well..oh, just buy the cd - i garantee you you won't regret: it's a masterpiece..!