The Pianist: Music from the Motion Picture Audio CD

The marriage of music and motion pictures is indeed a tenuous art. Projecting emotions and actions as they appear on screen, using music, is a particularly ungrateful job. The breath of the music must be coordinated to perfection, while actions might shift from moment to moment. The music for Roman Polanski's The Pianist transcends these problems because this is a story about music, and the music of Fr￩d￩ric Chopin plays a central role. Like no other composer in the history of music, Chopin was able to fill his works with sheer poetry, and his music abounds with powerful imagery.

The film is based upon the 1998 memoirs by the Polish pianist and composer, Wladyslaw Szpilman. When the Nazi's invaded Warsaw, in 1939, Szpilman was performing a Chopin nocturne, live over the radio. That night all of Poland heard the explosions of bombs outside the studio, as a bloody six-year occupation of this city commenced. In this film, the degradation and horror that the Polish Jews suffered in the ghettos is juxtaposed with the great heights to which the human spirit can aspire, in the works of Fr￩d￩ric Chopin. Roman Polanski's The Pianist won the highest honor at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as three Academy Awards, and it is to the performances of Chopin's music, by Janusz Olejniczak and Wladyslaw Szpilman, that the film owes much of its power.

Not surprisingly this CD opens with Chopin's C Sharp minor Nocturne; the work that Szpilman was performing when the bombs began to drop on Warsaw, and the last live broadcast on Polish radio until the end of the Second World War. The deeply contemplative opening of the C Sharp minor Nocturne looms deep and ominous in hindsight. As the resonance of the first chord dissipates, a tenuous stepwise descent fills the air with deep foreboding. Like a prayer, this haunting opening figure returns as a wishful afterthought. The gentle simplicity of the melody that emerges from this opening is nothing short of stunning. An arpegiated bass line rolls beneath a sustained melody that flows as effortlessly as a stream, sparkling in the sunshine.

The eloquence of Janusz Olejniczaks phrasing is spectacular as he extends this melody with a feeling of timeless abandon. A graceful run cascades like a waterfall from the pianos highest range while, later, the spectre of a waltz shimmers in the distance, reflecting the face of humanity better than any mirror ever could. Wladyslaw Szpilman was a renowned interpreter of Chopin and this composers music played a major role in his recitals, as well as in his actual survival, in the bleak days of the Nazi invasion of Poland. To listeners, in 1939, bombs exploding over such exquisite music must have been a deeply emotional reflection of the evils that were about to be visited upon the people of Poland.

One of the great delights to found on this recording, and the only work that is not by Chopin, is a performance of Wojciech Kilars Moving to the Ghetto October 31, 1940, by the Warsaw Philharmonic National Orchestra. This short work (under two minutes) features clarinetist, Hanna Wolczedska playing a klezmer melody that bubbles with wisdom and disappointment. A clarinet pickup engenders a plucked accompaniment in the strings, which comes directly from the simple guitar strums of folk music. The lush sound of the clarinet melody is hypnotic as it twists gracefully, singing out a tune that is as old as man.

Another delight that is offered on this CD, is a performance of Chopins "A minor Mazurka Op. 17, No.4", by Wladyslaw Szpilman, the actual subject of the movie. Szpilman is inspired as he grasps the quicksilver melodic thread and weaves it through the musical fabric. We can hear plaintive sighs in the music as this amazing pianist allows the musics natural ebb and flow to dictate the pace. The contours of each, and every, phrase spring to life as Szpilman gracefully shapes each note; sculpting one of the most devastatingly poignant testimonials to Chopins music that you will ever hear.

This is not a recording that can be passed up. The Pianist is rightly being hailed as one of the finest movies of the last decade, and it is the power of music that has propelled this monument to mans endurance, under the worst of circumstances, to such heights. The poetry of Chopins music has filled concert halls with life and vitality for nearly two hundred years; consuming the very souls of audiences with a fire that glows bright to this day. Janusz Olejniczaks performances of Chopins works are exquisite, with split second timing that pulls every last ounce of passion from these compositions. The Pianist is a must see film and once you have experienced Roman Polanskis masterpiece you will want to submerge in this moving soundtrack again and again.

By Perri M. Zimmerman