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Army Archered - senior columnist, Just for Variety, on 20.2.2003
GOOD MORNING:
"THE PIANIST'S" ( WLADYSLAW SZPILMAN'S) music lives on -- with lyrics in English. I spoke with his son Andrzej (46) by phone from Germany where he is readying the publication of his father's songbook in three weeks. He had written more than 500 songs -- some of which Andrzej says he discovered written "on little bits of paper in coffee bars." Wladyslaw died July 6, 2000, when Roman Polanski was preparing to film "The Pianist." The songbook, published by Boosey and Hawkes will include English lyrics by Larry John McNally, David Batteau and Arthur Schlosser and Oscar-nominated (theme from "Rocky") Carol Connors. Her songs are titled, "Handle With Care" and "Lost Inside My Dream." Connors has something in common with the Szpilman family -- her Polish grandmother's entire family was murdered in Treblinka. Carol met with Andrzej in Hollywood last month and he returns in March to discuss names to record his father's songs with the English lyrics. I asked Andrzej his opinion of the film. "I am very grateful to Roman Polanski. It (the film) is a monument to all victims of the holocaust." As for his opinion on Adrien Brody, who portrays his father, "It was a great performance of a character so familiar to me. He was warm, great and I was very moved by him." Andrzej was present during the filming, his 10-year-old son played a role. He says Polanski avoided any personal publicity -- did not even have photographers around during his pre-filming meetings with Wladyslaw
By Guylaine Cadorette, Hollywood.com Staff
HOLLYWOOD, March 5, 2003 --
Son of "The Pianist" Releases Father's Songs
Andrzej Szpilman, whose father Wladyslaw Szpilman is the focus of Roman Polanski 's Oscar-nominated film The Pianist , has spearheaded an album of his father's love songs, pop classics in Poland from the 1940s and 1950s, titled Wendy Lands Sings the Music of the Pianist--Wladyslaw Szpilman , Reuters reports. Famous in prewar Poland for his film scores and popular songs, Wladyslaw Szpilman performed Polish radio's last live music broadcast on Sept. 23, 1939, as German shells knocked out the station's power. When Radio Warsaw resumed broadcasting in 1945, it picked up exactly where it left off--with Szpilman playing the same Chopin nocturne he performed in 1939. He wrote his story down following the war, and it was published in 1946. The memoir was then banned by communist authorities and forgotten until it was reissued, due to his son's insistence, shortly before Wladyslaw Szpilman's death in 2000.
Sixteen selected songs by Wladyslaw Szpilman
by Boosey & Hawkes Publishers
Some of Wladyslaw Szpilman's most popular songs from the 30s to the 70s have been recorded on the new disc "Wendy Lands Sing the Music of the Pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman". A selection of these timeless ballads are now published in their original version with piano accompaniment, for singers everywhere with newly commissioned English language lyrics by David Batteau, Michael Ruff, Carol Connor and others.
All concert works are now published by Boosey & Hawkes:
Concertino for Piano and Orchestra
Little Ouverture for Symphonic Orchestra
Ballet Scene for Symphonic Orchestra
Piano Suite "Living of Machines" for Piano Solo
a. O.
by Marci Weiner
28 Feb 2003
Valentines Day turned out to be Valentines week here on the Hollywood Beat, starting with a ladies only dinner at Pammolli Ristorante in Beverly Hills, hosted by Academy Award nominated songwriter Carol Connors. The theme was Men come and go but girlfriends are forever; and among the participants were Rhonda Shear (former host of USA Networks Up All Night); Charlene Tilton (best known as Lucy Ewing in the award-winning Dallas); famed classical guitarist Leona Boyd, hotelier (Four Seasons) Beverly Cohen and fellow columnist Anita Talbert.
Between dishing the dirt with this group of savvy sweethearts, we enjoyed a five course Passion Menu featuring jumbo Hawaiian prawns and Penne sauteed with the house bolognese sauce. Delicious! Thanks go to master chef Massimo Ormani and his lovely wife Daniella for introducing us to their romantic new restaurant
Among the most interesting news we picked up at this dinner was that Connors has been blessed to write the lyrics for Wladyslaw Szpilmans songbook. He is the composer/pianist from Poland, about whom the Academy award nominated film The Pianist is based. His son, Andrzej, pictured here with Connors, has commissioned her to write four songs, with the stipulation that not one word of his fathers music can be changed. A real challenge for her, but illustrates he is very much the custodian of his dads legacy.
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