NYMAN: Mozart 252 - Michael Nyman Band, Hilary Summers, Andrew Slater

When it was released in 2008, Michael Nyman wrote: "This album was designed to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mozart in 2006, but it seemed more appropriate to miss the boat, by two years hence the 252. "It could equally have been Mozart 30, since it is 30 years since In Re Don Giovanni originally saw the light of day in 1977 in the very first Campiello Band concert, in the National Theatre foyer. The Campiello Band was born out of the onstage band used for my arrangements of 18th century gondoliers' songs for Bill Bryden's production of Goldoni's 'Il Campiell', which opened the Olivier Theatre in October 1976 and was thus the father of the current Michael Nyman Band.

"Two main bodies of Mozart-derived works are presented on 'Mozart 252': the soundtrack to Peter Greenaway's 'Drowning by Numbers' (1988), and songs and duets from 'Letters. Riddles and Writs', a TV film developed in 1991 with the director Jeremy Newson as part of BBC2's Not Mozart series, which marked the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death."

Personnel: Hilary Summers (contralto), Andrew Slater (bass-baritone), The Michael Nyman Band

In Re Don Giovanni
Revisiting The Don
Trysting Fields
Not Knowing The Ropes
Wedding Tango
Wheelbarrow Walk
Fish Beach
Knowing the Ropes
O My Dead Papa
I Am An Unusual Thing
Profit And Loss