There's a wonderful legend, retold by (among others) Pfitzner's opera Palestrina, attached to the "Pope Marcellus" Mass: the Council of Trent, ground zero of the Counter Reformation, was about to ban all music but chant from the liturgy when Palestrina submitted this Mass, thereby changing the prelates' minds and saving church music. The writing is beautiful enough to deserve such a story: ...
Director Lasse Hallstrom's recipe for Chocolat is bittersweet: a tale of human hope and frailty imbued with no small amount of symbolism. It's a story that requires a deft, sensitive musical touch and Hallstrom has wisely turned again to composer Rachel Portman for the honours. As she did on The Legend of Bagger Vance and her previous, Academy Award-nominated collaboration with ...
This is a remarkable release, both for its beauty and its novelty at programming. Für Alina is a two-minute solo piano piece composed by Pärt in l976 that ushered in his "tintinnabuli" style, that is, the bell-like, simple, no-notes-wasted method for which he has become beloved and famous. On this CD, pianist Alexander Malter plays it twice, as the second and fourth tracks; each iteration ...