Cinema (Port) [LP]

Alexandre Tharaud's relationship with film music runs deep - it also ranges wide. On his double album CINEMA, the French pianist delves into 50 celebrated film scores by composers from France, Italy, the USA, Japan, Poland, Romania and Lebanon - 19 in all. Among them are Michel Legrand, John Williams, Ennio Morricone, Francis Lai, Marvin Hamlisch, Nino Rota and Philip Glass. As Tharaud says: "This album pays tribute to them with a selection of pieces for piano and orchestra and for piano solo, most in their original versions, creating a sound-world every bit as thrilling without the motion picture." The movie magic is reinforced by Tharaud's starry partners on the album: Antonio Pappano conducts the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and making guest appearances are singers Vanessa Paradis, Camélia Jordana and Sabine Devieilhe, clarinettist Michel Portal and vioinist Nemanja Radulovic.