Wakeman Paints New Piano Portraits

Rick Wakeman will release his new solo album Piano Portraits on 13 January, 2017. It’s a collection of newly-recorded, solo piano interpretations of a wide variety of material from the rock and pop world and far beyond. The album includes versions of classics that he originally played on, such as David Bowie’s ‘Life On Mars’ and ‘Space Oddity’ and Cat Stevens‘ ‘Morning Has Broken,’ as well as pieces by Debussy and Tchaikovsky.

“I’ve been wanting to do a piano album for years,” says Wakeman, “and I spent quite a bit of time looking at everything from straight classical pieces to stuff that I’d played on in the past like ‘Morning Has Broken’ and ‘Life On Mars.’ Plus pieces of music that I thought would work really well like ‘Stairway to Heaven’ and classics like ‘Clair de Lune.’ Nearly all of the tracks have a memory for me somewhere down the line and it just seemed to work.”

Watch a short film previewing the new project here:

The solo nature of Piano Portraits may be in contrast to some of Wakeman’s grand, progressive works, but it reflects his classical training and years of study at the Royal College Of Music, before he became an in-demand session and then a member of prog pioneers Yes. The album also includes a version of their hit ‘Wonderous [sic] Stories.’

Here’s a brand new video of Wakeman’s interpretation of The Beatles‘ ‘Help!’ from the album:

You can pre-order the album from the uDiscover store at the buttons below and at the top of the story. Digital pre-orders will receive an instant download of the new version of ‘Help.’

Tracklisting:

01 Help
02 Stairway to Heaven
03 Life on Mars
04 I’m Not In Love
05 Wonderous Stories
06 Berceuse
07 Amazing Grace
08 Swan Lake
09 Morning Has Broken
10 Summertime
11 Space Oddity
12 Dance of the Damselflies
13 Clair de Lune
14 Vow To Thee My Country
15 Eleanor Rigby

Explore our dedicated Rick Wakeman Artist Page

Format: UK English