by William RuhlmannFrench pianist François Couturier was inspired by Soviet film director Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986) in creating the music on this album, but it should be noted at the outset that the album does not contain any music actually used in Tarkovsky's films in general or his 1983 movie Nostalghia in particular. Rather, Couturier, who states his admiration for Tarkovsky in his brief liner notes, saying that has "seen all his films over and over again," tried to evoke the mood of those films in writing these pieces of music, several of which share titles with them. Typically, Couturier also borrowed from several classical works, acknowledging that "Le Sacrifice" and "L'Éternal Retour" were "inspired by" Bach's Matthäuspassion; that "Nostalghia" and "Andrei" contain "references to" Alfred Schnittke's Sonata No. 1 for Violoncello and Piano; and that "Toliu" has "allusions to" …  » Read more