Take a major label’s best-looking pianist, research his back catalog, identify all of the repertoire linked with film soundtracks, then slap on a cover photo that softly shrieks “I Am A Film Star, Not A Classical Pianist”. And voilà, you’ve got Jean-Yves Thibaudet: The Movie Album. The back cover lists each selection preceded by the title of its corresponding film. From The Piano we get–you guessed it–Michael Nyman’s The Heart Asks for Pleasure First. From The Pianist? Chopin’s First Ballade. And how fortuitous that Thibaudet recorded my two-piano adaptation of Bill Evans’ three-overdubbed-pianos version of Alex North’s Love Theme from Spartacus!
Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue strongly figured in Fantasia 2000, and Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto was from a famous wartime movie whose title everyone forgets (it’s Dangerous Moonlight). On the other hand, I completely spaced out on the appearance of Clair de Lune in The Right Stuff (pardon my bad pun!). And had I not fallen asleep during The Royal Tenenbaums I probably would have remembered Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1. While Duke Ellington’s In a Sentimental Mood is linked to A League of Their Own, the song actually made a more poignant effect in Deirdre Does Duluth.
Seriously, though, the selections are cannily sequenced and move easily from one to the next. On top of that, Thibaudet plays consistently well. If this disc helps bring new audiences to classical music, more power to Decca, and I hope that Jean-Yves makes a mint.
