Cinema Classics - The Piano at the Movies

Film music themes are generally presented in their original orchestral guises on recordings. But in the glory days of silent cinema it was only the biggest and most luxurious theaters that could boast a live orchestra, and even the mighty theater organ was heard mostly in big downtown movie palaces rather than in the neighborhood theaters where movies lived on a daily basis. Instead, it was a pianist who provided the soundtrack for a movie. This double album by Chinese-Dutch-Swiss pianist See Siang Wong pays tribute to this idea (in the graphics as well as in the general idea), applying the piano to a range of contemporary, very familiar movie themes. Wong gets only small-print billing in the graphics, and Sony seems to have regarded him basically as a device for executing the concept. That concept involves quasi-improvisatory arrangements of the movie themes by mostly uncredited arrangers, with the themes drawn most from the sentimental side: Michael Nyman, Ennio Morricone, and Ludovico Einaudi, whose Divenire is included even though it's not a movie theme. Dip in and sample anywhere; the tone doesn't vary much by composer. And that's the appeal of this collection: it doesn't do much to challenge the mind, or the pianist, but it offers you a couple of relaxing hours of highly evocative tunes, set in a gauzy background. For stress elimination to wind down in the evening, or to get through a commute, it may fill the bill. ~ James Manheim

Film music themes are generally presented in their original orchestral guises on recordings. But in the glory days of silent cinema it was only the biggest and most luxurious theaters that could boast a live orchestra, and even the mighty theater organ was heard mostly in big downtown movie palaces rather than in the neighborhood theaters where movies lived on a daily basis. Instead, it was a pianist who provided the soundtrack for a movie. This double album by Chinese-Dutch-Swiss pianist See Siang Wong pays tribute to this idea (in the graphics as well as in the general idea), applying the piano to a range of contemporary, very familiar movie themes. Wong gets only small-print billing in the graphics, and Sony seems to have regarded him basically as a device for executing the concept. That concept involves quasi-improvisatory arrangements of the movie themes by mostly uncredited arrangers, with the themes drawn most from the sentimental side: Michael Nyman, Ennio Morricone, and Ludovico Einaudi, whose Divenire is included even though it's not a movie theme. Dip in and sample anywhere; the tone doesn't vary much by composer. And that's the appeal of this collection: it doesn't do much to challenge the mind, or the pianist, but it offers you a couple of relaxing hours of highly evocative tunes, set in a gauzy background. For stress elimination to wind down in the evening, or to get through a commute, it may fill the bill.