I'm doing things on the computer and listening to KNIGHT WITHOUT ARMOUR. Music for Piano played by Daniel Robbins, I've had the CD for ages and it still um well, doesn't 'work'. Perhaps it's because the maestro's music is of such power and intensity, and the limitations of the piano are so obvious, that it is quite simply impossible how ever laudable the attempt. Or is the fault mine, that I expected too much.
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THE PIANO
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 filmmusicbuff |
THE PIANO |
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Posts: 79 (10/28/08 13:07:45) |
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William D McCrum |
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Posts: 1795 (10/28/08 17:49:31) |
I like the two Robbins pf albums. I don't know what a 2-stave score looks like for an orchestra/piano reduction, but I have a feeling that a lot of
glissandos and arpeggi need to get thrown in to beef up the sound. These can distract from the clarity of the melodic line. But without them, you'd have
very much thinner pieces. I'm not sure 'Knight Without Armour' is a great title for the album, since that score has some fine music, as evidenced
by the exquisite suite Rozsa conducted for the RPO in the '70s for Polydor, and beautiful though the song for Marlene is, it's not a central aspect of
that score. They aren't 'film music for piano' though as billed: they're rather 'film music' for piano, which is something different.
With 'Spellbound', 'Time Out of Mind, 'Lydia' etc., we see Rozsa's idea of what a piano is FOR in terms of cinema, and with the piano
concerto and piano sonata etc. we see Rozsa's concert use of the instrument ... totally different, more modern, muscular, dissonant, angular etc.. This
isn't quite either. But a lot of material is there that is nowhere else.
But y'know, there is good footage of Daniel Robbins excellently playing piano transcriptions of SCORE (not just folio) stuff from 'King of Kings' and 'Ben-Hur', and I certainly think a CD of a complete score scaled down for piano might be very interesting, certainly something everyone here would find a draw. It might just be for the inner core of fans ... but who knows? Why not arrange extended piano suites for scores? Someone take a shot? Certainly a cheap option too. I think that the Koch release of Malcolm Arnold's 'Hobson's Choice' works far better for string trio and piano than the full orchestral version on Chandos, for example. I don't think it need be a matter of competition. It might catch on. |
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