Michael Nyman, David McAlmont - The Coldest Place On Earth

Michael Nyman, Britain’s finest and most prolific classical composer together with David McAlmont, one of the most recognizable and admired vocalists to have emerged in the UK in the last fifteen years release a one-off single 'The Coldest Place on Earth'.

This brand new song, which is not featured on the duo’s critically acclaimed album The Glare, is available via digital download only.

'The Coldest Place On Earth' matches Nyman’s music (The Heart Asks For Pleasure First) to McAlmont’s extraordinary lyrics inspired by a story David read in a newspaper.

“The idea of a coldest place on earth felt appropriate to the music and a new song was born. Its’ appropriateness is remarkable because Michael’s music was inspired by a piece about winter in the coldest, remotest part of Scotland.” (David McAlmont, 2010)

Buy from MN Records

The Coldest Place On Earth

taken from the album Mozart 252

This album was designed to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mozart in 2006, but it seemed more appropriate to miss the boat, by two years - hence the 252.

to find out more about this and the other tracks on the album click on the 'Buy' button which will take you through the album page. 

Wheelbarrow Walk

This version of Knowing The Ropes is taken from the album 'Acoustic Accordions' - on which nine of Michael Nyman’s Greatest Hits have been arranged and are performed by The Motion Trio.

This release heralds an extraordinary collaboration between Poland’s foremost, nay celebrated, accordion trio, The Motion Trio and Britain’s finest and most prolific classical composer, Michael Nyman.

The collaboration, which operates under the name Michael Nyman and Motion Trio, was originally dreamt up for the 7th Kinoteka Polish Film Festival and performed at the Barbican in April 2009. Together, they have produced Acoustic Accordions, an interpretation of nine of Nyman’s greatest hits (plus a bonus track Silence, written and performed by The Motion Trio) featuring Nyman on piano and Nigel Barr on Trombone and Euphonium.

“Nyman’s music is so wonderful it even sounds good on the accordion.”


Knowing The Ropes (Motion Trio)

THE PIANO - The Composers Cut Series - Volume III

Music composed and performed by Michael Nyman

Michael Nyman's score for Jane Campion's 1993 film The Piano is one of the most successful film soundtracks of all time. The film itself won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival in 1993 and went on to win several Oscars at the 1994 Academy Awards. Holly Hunter's role as Ada the film's central role was that of an elective mute who chose to communicate via her playing. If having the music feature so prominently in a film was unusual, for the music to additionally convey the dialogue of the main character is unique. The soundtrack of the film went on to become a multi million seller. Perhaps surprisingly for music with such strong ties to its original source many of the pieces from The Piano were subsequently used in a variety of other settings in film, television and advertising making it some of the most performed/frequently heard orchestral music of the last twenty years.

The concert suite for The Piano as performed by The Michael Nyman Band also became a staple of the band's concert repertoire and has been performed all over the world with the composer taking the roles of pianist and conductor. It is this expanded form of the soundtrack that Nyman chose to record as his own definitive edition in Abbey Road studios in April 2005. The piano pieces again form a dialogue, though here the dialogue is purely musical between pianist and orchestra rather having the piano pieces act as speech substitute as they did in the film. The resulting album is a wonderful example of film music transformed to a distinctive stand alone concert work.

"The purpose of the Composer's Cut series is to present music from my soundtracks in a state of continuous evolution. As I transferred particular cues from film to concert hall both musical structures changed and performance styles developed, enabling the music, perhaps, to realise its true potential. So these recordings represent the Michael Nyman Band's state-of-performance as of spring 2005." – MN August 2005


The Heart Asks Pleasure First

taken from THE LIBERTINE - Original Soundtrack

Music composed by Michael Nyman
Performed by the Michael Nyman Orchestra

Working alongside director Laurence Dunmore, Nyman has composed the music for his latest film – The Libertine. The film is a version of the celebrated Stephen Jeffreys play and stars Johnny Depp, John Malkovich and Samantha Morton. It tells the story of the 17th century Earl of Rochester (Depp), his friendship with King of England Charles II (Malkovich) and his affair with actress Elizabeth Barry (Morton).

The Earl of Rochester was a legendary rake of the era and the film has been described as "outrageously sexy". He managed to reconcile being a sensitive poet and a pornographer, was simultaneously a republican and friend of King Charles II and was passionately in love with both his wife and mistress. The film captures the sense of new possibilities at the dawn of the age of enlightenment.

Nyman has been fortunate to work with directors who understand that music can add greatly to the overall impact of a film, directors who have allowed the music to have a solid presence in their films rather than simply act as background filler. Director Laurence Dunmore has wanted to work with Michael since he first heard his music in 'A Zed and Two Noughts'. For Nyman, there's a direct link back to his first major soundtrack The Draughtsman's Contract as both films are 17th Century based, visually stunning, comedies of manners. Once again the composer and his long-standing band deliver a stunning score, rich in detail with driving, baroque influenced tunes counter-balanced by a series of haunting, elegiac melodies of the sort that has made Nyman's work familiar to millions..


Rochester's Farewell

And Do They Do - Zoo Caprices

And Do They Do: Song III

And Do They Do: Song II

And Do They Do: Song IV

Nyman/ Noises, Sounds and Sweet Airs

'Sometime Like Apes' from 'Noises, Sounds & Sweet Airs'

Nyman: Prospero's Books CD2

'The Masque' from 'Prospero's Books'

PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED
Recently rediscovered from the archive of Robert Worby, this demo is from the late 1970s and features some previously unreleased Nyman compositions as well as early versions of 'In Re Don Giovanni' and other music that would later be heard in 'Prospero's Books'.
The Campiello Band later became the Michael Nyman Band, who are celebrating their 40th anniversary in 2016.  
Hear the complete Demo tape on Youtube: http://bit.ly/2fqA0Ns

Undated Demo (late 70s)

PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED 'In Re Don Giovanni' from 1970s Demo

The Piano: Music From The Motion Picture

The Promise

Film Music 1980 - 2001

The Other Side

The Composer's Cut Series, Vol. III: The Piano

The Composer's Cut Series, Vol. I: The Draughtsman's Contract

Chasing Sheep Is Best Left to Shepherds

An Eye for Optical Theory

The Embrace

The Heart Asks Pleasure First / The Promise (Edit)

The Departure

The Morrow

A Wild and Distant Shore

The Sacrifice

The Heart Asks Pleasure First / The Promise

Michael Nyman and 'The Tempest'

At Last I Left Them

Big My Secret

Caliban's Pit

Mozart 252

Fish Beach

‘Tis a Custom in the Afternoon

Miranda

Deep Into The Forest

Prospero's Magic

The Masque

At This Hour Lie at My Mercy

Michael Nyman's Official Soundcloud channel

Michael Nyman

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