MARIANELLI: Dawn (From Pride and Prejudice) :HISAICHI: Merry Go Round of Life (from Howl’s Moving Castle) :YASUKAWA: Hometown (from Cape Nostalgia) :TIERSEN :Comptine d’un Autre Ete (from Amelie): NYMAN: The Heart Asks Pleasure First ( from The Piano): SAKAMOTO: Theme ( from The Last Emperor): SHORE, RYAN, ENYA, RYAN :May It Be ( From Lord of the Rings): HUPFELD: As Time Goes By ( from Casablanca): MANCINI: Moon River ( from Breakfast at Tiffany’s) :TRAD: Romance ( from Jeux Interdits) :ROTA: A Time for Us ( from Romeo and Juliet); Love Theme ( from The Godfather) : MORRICONE: Love Theme ( from Cinema Paradiso); Gabriel’s Oboe ( from The Mission); Deborah’s Theme ( from Once Upon a Time in America) :WILLIAMS : Main Theme ( from Schindler’s List): KNOPFLER : Wild Theme ( from Local Hero): KARAS: Harry Lime Theme ( from The Third Man).
Kaori Muraji
Decca: 4834788
Japanese born Kaori Muraji has many recordings to her name one of which, a Classical Beatles Double album, I reviewed last year, and this latest one is the nineteenth! It is immediately very interesting because of the wide variety of films that these melodies come from, most of which I know, but as with any long list such as this, there are a small number I haven’t come across before.
Marianelli’s Dawn from Pride and Prejudice is a work I don’t know but it is immediately memorable and beautifully arranged for guitar, immediately showing what a lovely player our lady is. The next piece is from a film I have never heard of called Howl’s Moving Castle, which sounds like a game rather than a film, but the piece itself is lots of fun, and has a nice melody and some lovely harmonies. Cape Nostalgia is yet another film unknown to me, but this theme is beautiful, very sad at times and full of tremolo writing in between. Amelie is, of course, a well – respected film and its music is surprisingly up – beat with some imaginative writing and needless to say, lovely playing too. Michael Nyman’s The Heart Asks Pleasure First from that beautiful film The Piano, is well – known and yet in spite of how many moving parts there are in this piece, it works really well, and makes a lovely solo. Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Theme from The last Emperor, like his music from Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, is well – loved and sounds perfectly natural on our guitar, and is again a lovely bit of melodic writing. The famous tune from The Lord of The Rings is a beautiful work that many will recognize, and is one of the highlights of this lovely recording. Then we jump back decades to Casablanca with As Time Goes Back, which here gets some slightly more jazz – based harmonies than usual, but everything sounds well, and it is indeed just another take , albeit a little different , on this famous work. Henry Mancini’s Moon River is another well – loved work which again gets the slightly more jazzed up arrangement than you might be expecting, but it has a lovely feel and sound and it shouldn’t be a problem to any listeners! The famous Traditional Romance sounds fine, but to be fair, I could have done without this one; I’ve heard it recorded too many times! A Time For Us from Nino Rota’s Romeo and Juliet is a beautiful piece of writing that is, and deserves to be, well – loved, and the guitar arrangement is as lovely as you might hope. Enrico Morricone’s theme from the beautiful Cinema Paradiso is yet another wonderful arrangement of a fabulous piece of writing, and an apt vehicle for the classical guitar.John William’s music is some of the most stirring, exciting and moving music, and his moving music for Schindler’s List, surely one of the most exciting, and moving films ever made, is certainly one of my favourites on this album. The Godfather is yet another film with music by Nino Rota with very moving music that has been a favourite melody of film goers for decades. The guitar arrangement is lovely and sounds like it was made for the guitar! Gabriel’s Oboe by Enrico Morricone is another firm favourite of listeners,( it is often played on Classic FM, for example) and the various voices and parts in the piece sound effortless and beautifully arranged. Mark Knopfler’s music from Local Hero is a deservedly famous melody that many will recognize, even if they have never seen the film and is another wonderful performance of a lovely arrangement. Enrico Morricone wrote the music for so many films, and here is one, Once Upon A Time In America, that I wasn’t aware of, musically speaking. It is very touching, emotional and our player makes a great job of its lyricism. The recital finishes with that fun and up – tempo melody from The Third Man, which is great fun, fits beautifully and brings this album perfectly to a close.
This is a lovely CD, with wonderful arrangements (I would LOVE to see some of these), and some beautiful playing and a nice clear recording. Great .
Chris Dumigan