Brahms: Complete Piano Quartets

Advantages: Excellent physcological study of character.
Disadvantages: Grim, brutal, shocking scenes of a sexual nature.

... The Piano Teacher The Piano Teacher is a subtitled film of the Phycological Drama genre. Released in 2001 it is also known by it's French name La pianiste. Directed by Michael Haneke, it is based on the novel by Die Klavierspielerin which won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004. Graphic in it's content this film delves into the darker side of sex, including fetishism, bondage, and sado/masochism. It also touches on the delicate subject of genitalia self harm. This is not a light film, and is not recommended for family viewing. ~ I will be reviewing FILM ONLY Synopsis This is a tale revolving around a professor at a music conservatory in Vienna. Her name is Erica and she is played played by the wonderful actress Isabelle Huppert, Who has an impressive 75+ films under her belt. Erica is... Read review

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Advantages: A great film to watch, a very emotional film which is gripping to watch..
Disadvantages: none

...The film, The Piano, is a film that tells a story about a young woman’s journey from oppression to freedom. The main character, Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter), is sold off in marriage to marry Alisdair Stewart (Sam Neil) and is thus sent away from her home to New Zealand. She is accompanied by her 9 year old daughter, Flora (Anna Paquin) and her beloved piano. When Ada arrives on the beach of the New Zealand coast she is dressed in black dress and bonnet standing beside her beloved piano (her daughter on top), Ada provides a stark contrast with the vast backdrop of the crashing sea and grey skies. Ada has not spoken ever since her lover was killed by lightning. She communicates through her piano and sign language, understood by her daughter. The way in which she uses the piano reflects her mood in a very strong and clear manner... Read review

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Advantages: Two outstanding peices of chamber music for an unusual combination of instruments
Disadvantages: On the surface quite contrasting works, listener must be openminded

...The work of Ligeti has been at the forefront of Western avant-garde since his escape from the oppressive communist regime of Hungary in 1956, and he is widely appreciated as one of the most outstanding contemporary composers. The Trio for Violin, Horn and Piano because it was born out of a three-year period of illness and writer's block after the completion of Le Grand Macabre in which time he laboured over a piano concerto but completed only two short harpsichord pieces (Continuum and Hungarian Rock), yet the result in 1982 was the Trio, one of the finest and most complex pieces written so far. His career up to this point had included such sucesses as his Requiem, Atmosphères and the soundtrack for Stanley Kubrick's film 2001. Tiring of his own cluster-textural techniques and the avant-garde, Ligeti refreshed his compositional... Read review

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