Zbigniew Preisner

Zbigniew Preisner born 20 May 1955 is a Polish film score composer best known for his work with film director Krzysztof Kieślowski Preisner is best known for the music composed for the films directed by fellow Pole Krzysztof Kieślowski His Song for the Unification of Europe based on the Greek text of 1 Corinthians 13 is attributed to a character in Kieślowskis Three Colors Blue and plays a dominating role in the story His music for Three Colors Red includes a setting of Polish and French versions of a poem by Wisława Szymborska a Polish Nobel Prizewinning poet After working with Kieślowski on Three Colors Blue Preisner was hired by the producer Francis Ford Coppola to write the score for The Secret Garden directed by Polish director Agnieszka Holland Although Preisner is most closely associated with Kieślowski he has collaborated with several other directors winning a César in 1996 for his work on Jean Beckers Élisa He has won a number of other awards including another César in 1994 for Three Colors Red and the Silver Bear from the 47th Berlin International Film Festival 1997 for The Island on Bird Street He was nominated for Golden Globe awards for his scores for Three Colors Blue 1993 and At Play in the Fields of the Lord 1991 In 1998 Requiem for My Friend Preisners first large scale work not written for film premiered It was originally intended as a narrative work to be written by Krzysztof Piesiewicz and directed by Kieślowski but it became a memorial to Kieślowski after the directors death The Lacrimosa from this Requiem appears in Terrence Malicks The Tree of Life The Dies Irae from this Requiem appears in the film La Grande Bellezza directed by Paolo Sorrentino Preisner composed the theme music for the Peoples Century a monumental twentysix part documentary made jointly in 1994 by the BBC television network in United Kingdom and the PBS television network in the United States He has also worked with director Thomas Vinterberg on the 2003 film Its All About Love He provided orchestration for David Gilmours 2006 album On An Island as well as additional orchestrations for the show at Gdańsk shipyards at which he also conducted the Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra this was documented on the album Live in Gdańsk 2008 Silence Night and Dreams is Zbigniew Preisners new recording project a largescale work for orchestra choir and soloists based on texts from the Book of Job The premier recording was released in 2007 with the lead singer of Madredeus Teresa Salgueiro and boy soprano Thomas Cully from Libera