Richard Addinsell - Warsaw Concerto & Other Piano Concertos from the Movies [CD]

Piano Concertos fromthe MoviesWith the possible exception of the violin, the piano would seem to havethe most demonstrative voice for the film composer faced with the sizzlingemotional temperature of high drama, for as many of the following pieces suggest,the problems of amnesia, enabling him to convey both romantic flair and subtlecharacter nuance through the broad canvas of the instrument's sonorities.The solo piano was often the only accompaniment to film in the cinema'sinfancy and 'silent' days but with the advent of sound it was not long beforethe piano found a more concertante r??le in soundtrack music. John Huntley, inhis book British Film Music, cites the use of the piano in a minormelodrama. The Case of the Frightened Lady, as a milestone in thisfield. It never really has a concerto r??le but it started something that hasgone on through changes in style and fashion right up to the present day, andMichael Nyman's The Piano.The first real 'Denham Concerto' as these hybrids were soon dubbed,after Korda's studio where many were made, came with the Warsaw Concerto in 1940,although there were hints four years earlier when the Polish virtuosoPaderewski made a film there called Moonlight Sonata which was littlemore than a filmed concert. Many similar works followed, some heard on thisdisc, and where the opportunity for an original work was not given, then theclassical concertos were suitably plundered -Tchaikovsky's No. 1 forThe Great Lie (1941) and The Common Touch (1941), Rachmaninov No.2 for Brief Encounter (1945) and even Mozart No. 21 for ElviraMadigau (1967).Warsaw Concerto - Richard Addinsell (arr. Roy Douglas, from Dangerous Moonlight)In 1941, war-weary cinema-goers, attending the latest British Film atthe Regal Cinema, Marble Arch in London's West End, were struck, not so much bythe acting, designs or dialogue but by a piece of music that pervaded the wholefilm, climaxing in a virtually complete performance of it in a concert settingwithin the scenario. The film company had no idea that it would have such anaffect on audiences, and had not prepared a commercial recording for sale. Thefilm Dangerous Moonlight, and the piece everyone was talking about, andhumming as they left the cinema, was the Warsaw Concerto by RichardAddinsell (1904-77). The performance they heard in the cinema and on a laterdisc was by Louis Kentner and the London Symphony Orchestra under MuirMathieson. In the years since, there have been over a hundred separaterecordings, and sales in excess of three million, with the sheet music of 'thetheme' amongst the highest sellers in that field.The idea for the film was hatched by three Intelligence officers, actorBasil Bartlett, musician Lionel Salter, and writer/director Terence Young, ofwhom only Young was granted leave to work on the project. The story concerns aPolish airman/concert pianist Anton Walbrook who escapes Warsaw to fight in theBattle of Britain. When it was decided not to pursue permission to useRachmaninov's