MONTAGE: Great Film Composers and the Piano
2025 Tenth Anniversary Edition
to go live in re-release on August, 8, 2025
Emmy-winning documentary film to be offered free going forward
Supertrain Records is proud to announce the release of MONTAGE: Great Film Composers and the Piano: Tenth Anniversary Edition, featuring pianist Gloria Cheng in music by John Williams, Randy Newman, Michael Giacchino, Don Davis, Bruce Broughton, and Alexandre Desplat.
The recording will go live on all digital platforms on Friday, August 8, 2025.
Joining the tenth anniversary celebration of the album release, Breakwater Studios will simultaneously offer its associated 2016 Emmy-winning documentary of the same title for free going forward.
About MONTAGE Cheng stated “All of these composers are so well known for writing film music, but I knew there was an inner-composer inside all of them that was just dying to write music for the sake of writing music. That’s what I was curious about: what’s inside of them.”
The original 2015 album (Harmonia Mundi USA) featured almost entirely world premieres, including, notably, the only major solo piano work by John Williams, Conversations. This anniversary release includes a bonus recent Live recording by Cheng. Williams commented, “I think Gloria in a way has broken the mold by inviting film composers to be exactly not that. I don’t think any colleagues of mine past or present has been invited into a project like this.”
The album transitions to Composition 430 by Michael Giacchino, a tender reflection on his own childhood, before turning to a live recording of Giacchino’s impassioned, 12- minute Sonata in Darkness, written for Cheng to perform on the end credits of the soundtrack to the 2022 film, The Batman. Cheng performed the concert premiere of the piece on Los Angeles’s Piano Spheres series in 2023. That live performance is newly featured on this tenth anniversary release.
Don Davis, composer of the original Matrix Trilogy, has a broad connection to the field of new concert music, having written an opera, numerous tone poems, orchestral pieces, and a large catalogue chamber music. Surface Tension, composed for the MONTAGE project, shows a mastery of the sonic possibilities of the piano. Included in this anniversary edition is a bonus live recording of Davis’s 1998 Pain for two pianos, performed by Cheng and Vicki Ray.
Reflecting on the particular challenge of stepping away from film and composing “pure music” (for lack of a better term), variously challenged all six composers on the album. The only piece not specifically composed for Cheng but offered to her for this project was “L’Etreinte” (“The Embrace,” from Trois Etudes), originally written for pianist Lang Lang. Desplat stated, “I’m not ready to write again for piano! It took me a lot of time to figure it out!”
Broughton expounded on that feeling. “If you’re writing a piece of piano music, you better have something to say because when you are writing for piano you don’t have a safety net.” Giacchino echoed, “You do worry about every single note.”
Randy Newman used the opportunity as a chance to reflect on the broad musical legacy of his fabled extended family in Family Album: Homage to Alfred, Emil, and Lionel Newman. But he also leaned into what a great pianist has to offer, saying at the time, “There’s a select group of pianists, who do something to a piano, that enables them to have careers as concert pianists. There aren’t many. She’ll understand where the music is.”
The ten-year anniversary of the original release of MONTAGE offers an opportunity to reflect on the contributions of these great composers to the realm of concert music. Williams concluded, “It’s an exciting project for us, for film composers, that a great artist would do this. It’s unique in that way and it makes me and the other gentlemen on this collection especially grateful to her.”
MONTAGE: Tenth Anniversary Edition and MONTAGE: Great Film Composers, the documentary film from Breakwater Studios, will be available on Friday, 8-8-2025, on digital platforms
Contact: SupertrainRecords@gmail.com / press@breakwaterstudios.com
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TRACK LIST
01. Five Pieces for Piano I: Fast And Flowing – Composed by Bruce Broughton
02. Five Pieces for Piano I: Flowing – Composed by Bruce Broughton
03. Five Pieces for Piano I: E-Flat Five Ways – Composed by Bruce Broughton
04. Five Pieces for Piano I: Slow – Composed by Bruce Broughton
05. Five Pieces for Piano I: Restless; Tempestuous – Composed by Bruce Broughton
06. Composition 430 – Composed by Michael Giacchino
07. Surface Tension – Composed by Don Davis
08. L’Étreinte (The Embrace) From Trois Études – Composed by Alexandre Desplat
09. Conversations: I. Phineas And Mumbett – Composed by John Williams
10. Conversations: II. Claude And Monk – Composed by John Williams
11. Conversations: III. Chet And Miles – Composed by John Williams
12. Conversations: IV. Strays, Duke… And Blind Tom – Composed by John Williams
13. Family Album: Homage To Alfred, Emil And Lionel Newman: I. The Follies: Young And Beautiful – Composed by Randy Newman
14. Family Album: Homage To Alfred, Emil And Lionel Newman: II. Emil Teaches Sonja Henie How To Skate – Composed by Randy Newman
15. Family Album: Homage To Alfred, Emil And Lionel Newman: III. Carmen Miranda: “How Many Times Do I Have To Tell You I’M Not Mexican!” – Composed by Randy Newman
16. Family Album: Homage To Alfred, Emil And Lionel Newman: IV. Lionel Teaches Marilyn Monroe How To Sing – Composed by Randy Newman
17. Family Album: Homage To Alfred, Emil And Lionel Newman: V. Outdoors But Not The Red River Valley – Composed by Randy Newman
18. Pain: I. Inflamed (Live) – Composed by Don Davis (Gloria Cheng, Vicki Ray)
19. Pain: II. Chronic (Live) – Composed by Don Davis (Gloria Cheng, Vicki Ray)
20. Pain: III. Throbbing (Live) – Composed by Don Davis
21. Sonata in Darkness (Live) – Composed by Michael Giacchino
22. Conversations: I. Phineas And Mumbett (Live) – Composed by John Williams
23. Conversations: II. Claude And Monk (Live) – Composed by John Williams
24. Conversations: III. Chet And Miles (Live)- Composed by John Williams
25. Conversations: IV. Strays, Duke… And Blind Tom (Live) – Composed by John Williams