コンティニュアム～ジュリー・クーパー: 作品集

ジュリー・クーパーはイギリスの作曲家で、BBC放送他さまざまなメディアでその音楽が使用されており、広く知られています。彼女はテレビドラマやドキュメンタリー、映画音楽など多方面で活躍しています。今作はコロナでロックダウンに陥った時の経験したことのない沈黙や不気味さを体験し、そのような状況を理解しようと描いた音楽日誌が起因となっています。
東京エムプラス

Composer Julie Cooper has had a successful career as a writer of scores for British film, television, and theater. Here, she steps out with a solo album of rather cinematic music inspired in a general way by meditations during the coronavirus pandemic and its mood of enforced quiet. The program consists of a Contemplation Suite made up of music for four dayparts, an introductory Continuum with spoken word by actress Adjoa Andoh (Bridgerton), and single works with descriptive titles ("Life in Stillness," "Galilean Moons"). Some of the pieces are scored for a small orchestra and played by the Oculus Ensemble, while others are for piano, played by Cooper herself or by Nicholas McCarthy. The piano is in an Einaudi vein, and the primary audience for the music may overlap with that for his New Age-tinged sounds. Cooper executes the style well, avoiding the trap of having too many pieces of similar tempo (consider the perky Calliope), and ornamenting things with soloists like Andoh, violinist Elena Urioste, soprano Grace Davidson, and more. Elegant engineering wizardry from producer Jonathan Allen, working at Abbey Road Studio 2, is another attraction that has helped place this pleasant outing on the classical charts.