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Artist: Rea Beaumont
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Charles Williams - The Dream of Olwen

Rea Beaumont releases theme song “The Dream of Olwen” to celebrate 75th anniversary of film While I Live

Concert pianist Rea Beaumont celebrates the 75th anniversary of the film While I Live (1947), directed by John Harlow, with a recording of its famous theme song “The Dream of Olwen” by British composer Charles Williams (1893-1978).

In the film “While I Live,” a woman suffering from amnesia, arrives at the home of a composer-pianist named Olwen Trevelyan who fell to her death 25 years earlier while sleep-walking. When this mystery woman starts to play the composer’s last work (“The Dream of Olwen”) on the piano, the composer’s sister believes her to be Olwen reincarnated.

Recorded at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre’s Glenn Gould Studio, Toronto, Beaumont was inspired to record “The Dream of Olwen” because “this piece has a very important role in the film. It became an immensely popular work, known for its romanticism and brilliant virtuosity, similar to the style and difficulty of Rachmaninoff."

The music of composer Charles Williams [born Isaac Cozerbreit] is heard in over 50 films, including Director Billy Wilder’s The Apartment (1960) and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934). Rea Beaumont is an internationally recognized Canadian concert pianist and composer, known for her powerful performances and “beautiful” albums (American Public Media) that have been broadcast in 15 countries.

Rea Beaumont:

Timeless

Music has the power to change our perception of time.  It can act as a driving force, provide a moment for reflection, and even give the illusion of time suspended. Occasionally the compositions on the album dispense with metric structures (time signatures) and predictable rhythmic groups.  Without a frame of reference, the listener is unable to anticipate the metric pulse and is, instead, encouraged to listen in the present moment as the composition unfolds.  However, there is no frame of reference for time, except that which we impose upon it.  The album cover features Foucault's Pendulum at the Panthéon in Paris, which measures the Earth's rotation and reminds us that time is passing by. 

Rea Beaumont:

A Conversation Piece

Award-winning pianist Réa Beaumont presents: A Conversation Piece– with an Impressionist masterpiece and hidden gems. Beaumont's compelling interpretations take the listener on a journey through intense introspection and searing virtuosity. The disc's Impressionist set includes:Maurice Ravel's five-movement: Miroirs (1905), that in Beaumont's words, "evokes poetic and pictorial images." Beaumont makes her compositional début with: Shattered Ice that cautions against ecological destruction in the Arctic. An expert in Canadian music Beaumont presents undiscovered works by three of Canada's legendary composers: R. Murray Schafer, John Weinzweig and Jean Coulthard. A Conversation Piecewas recorded at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre's Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto by CBC engineers Adam Tune and John MacLean.  Former CBC Senior Producer David Jaeger co-produced the album with Beaumont.