Nyman: MGV - Piano Concerto

This is the first thing I hear by Michael Nyman. However, MGV (Musique à Grande Vitesse: a rather facile word play on Train à Grande Vitesse) is a piece that has garnered rave reviews, also from experienced listeners. Another reason why I was intrigued is that Alexander Balanescu, leader of the eponymous quartet ensemble, has been the leader of the Michael Nyman Band. I will always cherish the recordings of Volans' and Bryars' quartets by these musicians. So I was happy to give it a go. The music has originally been recorded for an Argo release but apparently Nyman himself bougt back the rights and now they are distributed under his own label MN Records.

MGV is, as the name suggests, on occasional piece, written for the inauguration of the TGV North European line in 1993. It takes a high-speed train journey that moves through different regions as a suggestive starting point. The Piano Concerto is compiled from Nyman's soundtrack for Jane Campion's famous 1993 movie 'The Piano'. 

I can be very brief about the musical merits of these compositions. Here we are on the bland side of minimalism. The propulsive rhythms and idiosyncratic orchestration (strings and saxophones, essentially) are fine for about 10 minutes but from that point onwards it becomes a very wearisome affair. MGV goes on for almost half an hour. Also the concerto shrinks to an undifferentiated blur of saccharine harmonies, melodic clichés and an impenetrable instrumental fabric within which an impossibly hectic solo voice is buried (bravo Kathryn Stott). The concerto takes an immodest 32 minutes to make its case. The programme is very badly recorded to boot, which surprises me as Argo has been a Decca subsidiary. The sound is shrill and thin and fatiguing to listen to at somewhat higher volume. A disappointment. I won't be quickly returning to this recording.