Music from Ida

Last night I posted at Facebook a piece by John Coltrane that was used in the gorgeous, extremely moving film Ida (2013, directed by Pawel Pawlikowski) I watched yesterday. The last music heard in that film is this Bach arrangement, as played by Alfred Brendel (film fans will also recognize this Bach chorale, in its original arrangement for organ, as the opening theme of Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Solaris). The austere beauty of the music and Brendel’s performance, and of the film for that matter, goes straight to the heart.

Here too is that John Coltrane piece, “Naima,” that was also used in Ida. So few notes, so much feeling.