Joohyun Park - The Film Music Of Michael Nyman For Solo Piano - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Composer/Producer/Musician Joohyun Park presents a collection of classical/new age compositions for solo piano.

Celebrating Anglo-Irish composer Charles Villiers Stanford's centenary, this new album from The Sixteen includes a number of premiere recordings of Stanford's Irish Folksongs and Partsongs. Stanford is celebrated both nationally and internationally as a composer of great diversity. He composed a substantial number of concert works, including seven symphonies, but he is best-remembered for his choral works. Stanford's writing for voices is exquisite and his imaginative storytelling is ever-present in his Irish Folksongs where he captures everything from fiery revenge to passionate love with equal effectiveness. Stanford's dedication to the poetry of Mary Elizabeth Coleridge also stands out-he was drawn to the lyricism of her poetry and the imagery she conjures up-something that is clearly heard in his Opus 127 settings. Much of her poetry is marked by a sense of loss and change, nowhere better portrayed than in The Guest with it's unsettling narrative.

Inspired in part by the Goldberg Variations and Schoenberg's solo piano music, Suite for Piano is Zorn's very personal take on some of the oldest traditional classical forms. It is performed here by one of the most dedicated, virtuosic, and passionate interpreters in the Zorn universe, Brian Marsella, whose educational experience (too InchjazzInch for the classical world and too InchclassicalInch for the jazz world) makes him the perfect interpreter of Zorn's cross-pollinating musical poetics. Accompanied by the telepathic rhythm section of Jorge Roeder and Ches Smith (Heaven and Earth Magick) this is a beautiful and soulful program of music for the classic instrumentation of piano, bass, and drums.