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Preisner: Ten Easy Pieces for Piano

Zbigniew Preisner , Leszek Mozdzer Audio CD
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product details

  • Performer: Leszek Mozdzer
  • Composer: Zbigniew Preisner
  • Audio CD (20 Mar 2000)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: EMI Classics
  • ASIN: B00004LCAP
  • Other Editions: MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 130,769 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

1. A Good Morning Melody
2. Méditation
3. To See More
4. Talking to Myself
5. The Art of Flying
6. About Passing
7. Farewell
8. A Tune A Day
9. Greetings from Pamalican
10. A Good Night Melody

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk

In the 1990s Zbigniew Preisner became well known for his beautiful scores for the films of Krzysztof Kieslowski, especially The Double Life of Veronique and the "Colours Trilogy" introduced by Three Colours Blue. Following Kieslowski's death Preisner transformed the music for their most recent project into the beautiful choral work, Requiem for my Friend. As the composer says: "the question to be answered is whether those of us who are left have...enough strength to say, 'Now it is our time. Now look at us.' Do we have enough talent..." For answer Preisner has chosen the intimate voice of single piano. In the excellent accompanying booklet he acknowledges the influence of Keith Jarrett's Köln Concert, and pays due homage with a comparable sound and style. Apart from playing on many Preisner soundtracks, Leszek Mozdzer is an acclaimed jazz pianist noted for his Chopin Impressions, and here offers concentrated and controlled improvisation on simple yet melodically engaging material. Ten Easy Pieces for Piano is an elegantly fluid album with an attractively atmospheric sound; easier to enjoy than to classify, it should find equal favour with classical, jazz and film music audiences. As for Preisner's question, discerning listeners have long been positive about the answer. --Gary S Dalkin

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Preisner: More Than Just Another Film Composer 27 Aug 2000
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
Until 1999 the Polish composer Zbigniew Preisner was known only for his film soundtracks - chiefly for films directed by his friend and collaborator, Krzystof Kieslowski. Then came the remarkable 'Requiem For My Friend' and now there is Ten Easy Pieces, a modestly titled album of exquisitely played piano works. The titles of the pieces offer clues about the inspiration behind them - Meditation, To See More, About Passing, A Good Night Melody. In the sleeve notes Preisner offers a further clue - "I like very much all the music recorded by Keith Jarrett...maybe it inspired me to do something similar." There are certainly shades of early Jarrett in such pieces as Talking To Myself but the influences are much wider ranging encompassing as they do Chopin, Debussy and Bill Evans. The results are mere confirmations of Preisner's undoubted talent and direction. Some have, unfairly in my opinion, compared him with Michael Nyman but this detracts from Preisner's grounding in Polish folk music and tradition whereas Nyman is more at home with the precision of baroque styles. On one level Ten Easy Pieces can be listened to as relaxation music and this it does admirably - there are no unpleasant intrusions from a more modern hand here. On another level, however, the pieces are there to be explored and dissected. The playing of Leszek Mozdzer is intuitive and sympathetic to everything Preisner is attempting to express with the soft pedal being used to convincing effect. The atmosphere throughout the album is generally cheerful and pastoral with A Good Morning Melody and Meditation standing out as memorably tranquil. For those who have heard Preisner's music in films this will be an instant addition to their collections; for those who have not heard his music this not only serves as the ideal introduction but also as an excellent fifty three minutes of perfect peace.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 4.0 out of 5 stars  5 reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Simple and beautiful 11 Jan 2002
By Andreas Ludwig - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
The ten pieces on this CD are simple - and most of their beauty results from this simplicity. They have the lyrical, dreamlike tone we know and love in the music of Zbigniew Preisner. And it's always a nice dream expressed by these melodies - some are outright happy tunes ('To See More' and 'The Art Of Flying') or even funny ('A Tune A Day').
Lesdzek Mozdzer gives them a jazz-like touch in his improvisations, which prevents the music from turning into too sweat candy, but also lets the themes appear the more clear and fresh in their simple beauty (warning! some are earcatchers).
This is music you need no guide for, no knowledge of technique, history of music and biography of the artist, as it speaks for itself.
People who expect hard intellectual tasks, headaches when listening first, and proud membership in an exclusive circle of distinct experts when they got used to ('understood') a certain, 'difficult style' will not like this CD.
After all it's not pure jazz or demanding contemporary music, but something as difficult as simple, yet intelligent, music you can just listen to and enjoy.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars 'Simply beautiful' 12 Jun 2000
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD
Like most who've fallen in love with Preisner's work, I first became familiar with the very powerful, awe-inspiring music from Kieslowski films. 10 Easy Pieces is very different, but only inasmuch as it lacks the instrument combinations and complexity of his earlier work. As the title suggests, this was completely intentional by the composer, who perhaps just wanted to take a break or just do something different for a change after 'A Requiem for a Friend.' While the 'Preisner's Music' compilation may be better for someone generally interested in a range of Preisner's work, 10 Easy Pieces nonetheless captures his genius in its simplicity, and is a must for any fan.
6 of 10 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars I keep coming back to this one - what a great surprise! 19 Oct 2001
By Jennifer Allison - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am a fan of all kinds of music - from hard/alternative rock (my last two CDs purchased were Staind and Nickelback) to house/trance and other kinds of club music, to country, to classical. I have to say that when I come home at the end of the day and settle under my down comforter with a book and a cup of tea, this has been the background music of choice almost every day since I picked up this CD a few months ago. This is some wonderful piano music, composed and performed with tenderness. It is sweet and melancholy and a refreshing 45 minutes of simplicity in this complicated world.

I must also state that saw "Blue" and "Red" a few years ago but don't remember the music he wrote for those movies especially moving me. I'll have to give them another look/listen now.

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