Sun., Dec. 22, 2002, 6:00am PT
 
Play it again, Wladyslaw
Szpilman's son hopes English lyrics preserve legacy
 
By PHIL GALLO

  It's a fleeting scene in "The Pianist," a three-second take in which Wladyslaw Szpilman is seen seated at the piano, penciling in notation on a musical staff. He is doing what he had quite a reputation for doing, even before World War II: composing.

Roman Polanksi's pic chronicles Szpilman's harrowing days in Poland eluding Nazis, concentrating on his prowess as an interpreter of Chopin, usually for Poland's national radio. It never mentions his career as a songwriter, penning ditties that would become standards in the country before World War II and for more than two decades afterward.

Szpilman's son, Andrzej, has made it his mission to see that his father's music survives. He plans to introduce the elder Szpilman's work to Western audiences, starting with a new recording of his father's songs with English-lingo lyrics. He held an audition to find a singer and, after trying out about 30 vocalists, settled on Canadian warbler Wendy Lands; lyricists were commissioned to put the elder Szpilman's works into the new language.

The result is the obviously titled "Wendy Lands Sings the Music of the Pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman." Universal's Hip-O Records came onboard after Andrzej Szpilman had completed four of the tunes with Lands and producer John Leftwich. Although the album was released Nov. 26, the promotional push is being tied to the Dec. 27 release of "The Pianist" film. (Sony's soundtrack album also was released Nov. 26.)

Few scripted films about real musicians have spawned non-soundtrack albums -- Robert Altman's "Kansas City" comes to mind -- which makes this venture unusual.

Andrzej Szpilman has grown concerned that since the fall of Communism in Europe, the music publishing of the Eastern world never made the transition to the West the way classical music did. His father's classical music was performed in the U.S., and Szpilman toured the States beginning in the 1960s with the Warsaw Piano Quartet, but his 500 songs, 150 of which made their way onto Poland's pop charts, were unknown outside his home country.

"My father's work was up to the work of Western composers, and the best way to get my father's music to Western (auds) was through proper recordings with English lyrics," Szpilman says. "The Polish lyrics were too specific to Poland to translate."

Szpilman often collaborated with Poland's leading poets, one of whom was his brother Henryk; his music was a favorite of Polish jazz musicians and several tunes were recorded 50 times or more, the younger Szpilman says.

The new album is a thoroughly modern-sounding disc, akin to the work of Norah Jones or Rickie Lee Jones. Szpilman, a fan of Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and Burt Bacharach, drew on Western influences when writing pop music.

"We were taken by the intimate nature of the album," says Hip-O VP Pat Lawrence, who brought the project to the label.

Tracks from the album are being serviced to radio, though there is no specific single. The CD will be part of radio station giveaways associated with the screening of the film, and Lands will likely do showcase gigs in L.A. and New York, possibly touring if sales are strong enough. Lands, from Montreal, had a hit in Canada with "Can't Hold On," and over the last couple of years has landed tunes in TV shows ("Felicity," "Family Law") despite not having a domestic deal.

Songs on the album were wholly revamped lyrically but unchanged musically. "I Wish You'd Ask to Dance With Me" was a hit in 1936 as "I Didn't Expect Your Tears"; "Fall in Love Again" was written in the Warsaw ghetto in 1940 as "Wherever You Are, Come Back"; and "My Memories of You" began life in 1948 as "Silent Night."

Szpilman stopped recording in 1968 and wrote his last songs in 1973. He died in 2000 at the age of 88.

Boosy & Hawkes will publish a songbook associated with the album, and a documentary on the pianist's life is being readied for U.S. television in 2003, says Andrzej, who has been musical director for a rock group, a record producer and a dentist. "In just a few months," Szpilman says of the retelling of his father's story, "we'll cover an entire life that he never talked about."

Variety 
Date in print: Mon., Dec. 23, 2002,

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