In 1988, when this came out, a new Peter Greenaway album with Michael Nyman soundtrack was a pretty big deal for me — something I would rush out and see/buy at the earliest opportunity. I've gradually lost my enthusiasm for either's work over the last fifteen years. I saw a concert of selected Nyman soundtrack pieces at the Royal Festival Hall four years ago, and the old stuff seemed much better than the more recent works. Have a look, too, at this damning review in the Financial Times of a recent concert down the road at the Barbican, which I didn't go to (my old gym used to offer a free newspaper: either the FT or the Daily Mail, so that's how come I read the FT from time to time).
But this is one of my favourite Nyman albums. It's one of the fairly rare soundtracks that works very well as an album in its own right, rather than sounding like it exists as accompaniment to something else. I like the fact that the gorgeous melodies have been nicked from Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante
I saw the Michael Nyman Band in '87 or '88 at the Royal Northern College of Music, and they had more energy than you hear on this album. In fact I remember thinking it was a blinding gig: the trademark Nyman driving pulse reached another level in live performance.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
|
Comments