Max Richter – She Remembers (2014)

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Sunday sounds… this time as an accompaniment to some DIY and painting at Chez Samuel. In 2014, Max Richter wrote the music for the HBO series The Leftovers. The despairing ‘She Remembers’ features in the first series about how those left behind respond to the simultaneous disappearance of 2% of the world’s population (140 million people).

Philip Glass – Mishima / Closing (1985)

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I’m on the laptop working this afternoon and looking for musical distraction. The closing theme of the Paul Schrader movie Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters is this sublime and somber piece played by the Kronos string quartet. The entire soundtrack was written Philip Glass for the 1985 dramatised film about the life of Japanese writer Yukio Mishima. I hope you are having a good weekend and catch up again tomorrow.

Gustav Mahler – Adagietto (1902)

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Alma Schindler had quite the thing for Gustavs. After a celebrated relationship with Gustav Klimt, she fell for Mahler, 19 years her senior. He was already feeling rather lucky after surviving near death intestinal haemorrhage, that when he married Schindler, he celebrated their love with this beautiful piece of music. The 4th movement of his Symphony No. 5 would be used subsequently and vividly in Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film Death in Venice.

Ennio Morricone – Chi Mai (1971)

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I sign off this week with the Ennio Morricone composition ‘Chi Mai’. It was used in the films Maddalena directed by Jerzy Kawalerowicz (1971) and Le Professionnel directed by Georges Lautner (1981). With its accessible baroque tone, it became a familiar soundtrack to the early 1980s. In the UK, it is best known as the theme music for the BBC drama The Life and Times of David Lloyd George, and in France it became ubiquitous as the backdrop to a series of Royal Canin commercials.

Gabriel Fauré – Requiem, Op.48: VII. (“In Paradisum”) (1888)

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Good morning… it will be a sombre day. The French composer Gabriel Urbain Fauré composed his Requiem in D minor, Op. 48 in 1887/88. It is unusually gentle for a requiem mass for the dead. The transcendental final movement ‘In Paradisum’ features in the movie The Thin Red Line.

Michael Nyman – Chasing Sheep Is Best Left To Shepherds (1982)

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Now for something different and completing a week of decade-sized leaps… in 1982, Peter Greenaway wrote and directed The Draughtsman’s Contract. As he had done a couple of years earlier on his feature The Falls, Greenaway chose to collaborate with Michael Nyman on the score. With a big nod to Henry Purcell, the showpiece ‘Chasing Sheep Is Best Left To Shepherd’ was a pitch perfect accompaniment. Nyman went on to work with Greenaway on many his best-known films – incl. A Zed & Two Noughts, The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover, and Prospero’s Books – before they fell out. Have a good weekend.

Ennio Morricone – Ninna Nanna Per Adulteri (1968)

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‘Ninna Nanna Per Adulteri’ or ‘Lullaby For Adulterers’ is from an Ennio Morricone movie soundtrack for the 1968 twisted thriller Cuore Di Mamma. It’s a great example of the Maestro’s use of a beautiful lullaby to heighten emotions. He was firing on all cylinders (Once Upon A Time In The West) and in all directions (Danger: Diabolik) in 1968, but he always had time for an orchestrated lullaby and it would be a technique he used regularly and effectively.

Vincenzo Bellini – Casta Diva (Norma, Act 1) (1831)

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Well the Italians are playing well in the delayed Euros 2020, so out comes the opera. The Norma is a tragedia lirica composed by Vincenzo Bellini. It was first experienced at Milan’s La Scala on 26 December 1831 and is regarded as a standout example of bel canto. The soprano prayer ‘Casta Diva’ in Act 1 is the most famous piece. Rosa Ponselle is probably the fanatics’ choice of Norma from the last century, but I will save you a crackly recording from 1920s/30s. Instead, let’s hear some more Maria Callas; she wasn’t too shoddy either.

Patrick Cassidy – Vide Cor Meum (2001)

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Patrick Cassidy had already tasted success with Children of Lir, the first major symphonic work written in the Irish language. Released in 1991, it remained at number one in the Irish classical charts for over a year. A decade later, Cassidy was playing in a whole different ball game. He was now in Hollywood as a relatively new member of Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions film scoring company. The company was working on Hannibal, and, in particular, a scene in which Dr. Hannibal Lecter and Inspector Pazzi see an opera in Florence. Director Ridley Scott, Hans Zimmer and producers Dino and Martha De Laurentiis wanted something original: a new aria based on Dante’s first sonnet from his “little book” La Vita Nuova (1294). It was a late decision and Zimmer approached Cassidy for his strength in choral music. Cassidy estimates that he wrote the beautiful ‘Vide Cor Meum’ in under a week – and without any knowledge of Italian. “I was in the right place at the right time.”

Franz Schubert – Ständchen (1826)

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Of Franz Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven said: “Franz has my soul.” Franz Liszt called him “the most poetic musician that ever was”. So when the Austrian composer died of syphilis at the unripe age of 31, one could argue that the world saw the greatest instance of a master cut off before his prime. Schubert had already become a prolific writer of art songs (“Lieder”) that combined poetry and music to tell a story. He wrote over 600 of them. ‘Ständchen’ (‘Serenade’) was written in 1826 and was released posthumously in 1830. It was later famously arranged for solo piano by Liszt and I prefer the inclusion of cello as well.

Hans Zimmer ‎- Journey To The Line (1999)

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From soundtracks, to scores to a choice single theme… I watched the movie The Thin Red Line, shortly after it opened in Leicester Square in 1999. There was a lot of pre-hype at the time because of the 20 year wait to see a Terrence Malick release since the director’s work on 1978’s Days Of Heaven. Hans Zimmer had already made a name for himself for his work on standout movie releases Thelma & Louise, True Romance, The Lion King and Crimson Tide. However, his score for The Thin Red Line would set a template for the greater successes that followed. ‘The Journey to the Line’ was main, recurring theme of the score. The piece earned the nickname “the forbidden cue” due to the tendency of film makers, tv producers, ad execs and video game manufacturers to use it as a theme for dramatic moments. ZImmer would revisit the opening tick of the clock on his subsequent scores for Dark Knight, Inception, Interstellar and Dunkirk.

Sufjan Stevens ‎- Untitled Piano Score (Eve soundtrack) (2008)

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I just burnt an all-nighter (work rather than play) and am in need of some midweek respite. In 2008, Sufjan Stevens wrote and produced some piano compositions for Natalie Portman’s directorial debut – a short movie entitled Eve. Four years later and the pieces of music would turn up on an extended version of his EP ‎All Delighted People. The score is melancholic and somnific, but recognisable as Sufjan. Perfect. More upbeat tomorrow, for sure…

Ennio Morricone – Deborah’s Theme (1984)

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The world of music lost a great man this week. Prolific and enduring, Ennio Morricone won an Oscar for the soundtrack of The Hateful Eight as recently 2016 at the ripe old age of 87. Not a bad career for someone that originally achieved fame in 1964 for the first of Sergio Leone’s crossover westerns – A Fistful Of Dollars. Nevertheless, loved though he was, he was certainly under appreciated in some quarters. Before he received his 2006 Oscar for contributions to the art of film music, Morricone had been incredulously overlooked for his work on 1984’s Once Upon a Time in America and 1986’s The Mission. ‘Deborah’s Theme’ immortalised the score of the former. R.I.P. Ennio.

Henry Purcell – When I Am Laid In Earth (Dido’s Lament) (1689)

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A slight detour this morning… I’m tired and feeling contemplative. Baroque music is not my go-to, but there is something uniquely modern and cathartic about ‘Dido’s Lament’, also known as the aria ‘When I am laid in earth’ from Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas. Dido was a queen of Carthage. The Trojan warrior Aeneas departs fallen Troy, travels to Sicily, gets blown off course and lands in Africa where he falls in love the queen. His duty takes him back to Italy leaving her distraught and lamenting. She commissions a pyre to be built and set ablaze so that Aeneas will foresee her death from his ship. She then sings the lament before stabbing herself.

Max Richter – Dona Nobis Pacem 1 (2015)

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Some midweek mastery and two words that mean cool contemporary classical… Max Richter. In 2014, the German-born British composer wrote the music for the HBO series The Leftovers. The cello in ‘Dona Nobis Pacem 1’ just sings to me.