Piovani, Kilar, Amar - Welcome (2009)

1. Migrants (Nicola Piovani) (1:02)
2. Kadish (Armand Amar) (2:46)
3. Agata's Theme V1 (Wojciech Kilar) (1:00)
4. Simon (Nicola Piovani) (3:21)
5. Bilal Song (Nicola Piovani) (2:56)
6. Welcome (Nicola Piovani) (3:05)
7. The Black Sun (Wojciech Kilar) (2:39)
8. A la nage (Nicola Piovani) (2:36)
9. Agata's Theme (Wojciech Kilar) (1:57)
10. Welcome (Piano Solo) (Nicola Piovani) (1:37)

If I were to direct a film, I would undoubtedly hire one or more first rate composers. I still remember the day I discovered that Nicolai Piovani, Armand Amar and Wojciech Kilar were attached to the French film Welcome; a dream come true. Yet Piovani, with whom director Philippe Lioret had collaborated three times before, was the only one hired to compose original music. During the editing process they had assembled a temp score including music by Kilar and Amar. Because it worked so extremely well, the director didn't want to throw it out and asked Piovani to compose new music around it.

Welcome begins with an attempt from immigrants to be smuggled from the harbor of Calais to the shores of Dover, England. This is the scene were they placed Amar's cue "Kadish" from Va, Vis et Deviens, which was originally written for a film about refugees in Sudan. The piece is a moving composition for duduk and strings that powerfully addresses a plight of humanity.

While the other music is quite different, it manages to form a logical whole. Piovani wrote a beautiful theme for the piano that easily sticks, mainly because it is so unsophisticated. We get a few interesting treatments, one merely for the solo piano, while at other times subtle strings accompany it. The theme which is used for a immigrant who wants to try to swim across the North Sea to the shores of England, changes emotionally when the character attempts to do so. It is then that the theme develops into something of subtly operatic and a string driven emotional piece. Another notable thing is the orchestral chord progression in some of the music that recalls the works of Amar.

The music from Wojciech Kilar's Il Sole Nero is also in tune with Piovani's score, especially the string-and-piano led theme "Agatha's theme" sounds an awful lot like Piovani's music. Yet the rambling cue "The Black Sun" is the only example of a piece of music that is unmistakably written by Kilar. Naturally, if you've already ascended deeper into the world of this Polish composer and this specific score, it's most likely not that difficult.

The assembled existing score and originally written music makes an interesting listening experience. While the music of the three composer have their differences, they're strikingly similar in sound and emotion. It's subtle, emotional music with a very humane and personal touch. And even though the release is fairly short with its 22 minutes, I can truly recommend this release to everyone. --- Joep de Bruijn, maintitles.net

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