After something like a twenty year career as a composer of electronic music sometime in 1989 or 1990 Suzanne Ciani began to move back to her original roots as an acoustic instrument player. For a musician who had come up through the ranks working on a massive Buchla synthesizer, moving in and out of tonalities, flirting with space music, this was a great sea shift. While the artist rarely focuses on the motivations behind the change in interviews what we know is that physical illness triggered a move to the West Coast and that some internal process refocused her on the melodic.

"Pianissimo," her first fully acoustic piano recording. Other than a few original pieces, this live performance draws primarily from Neverland and History of My Heart. The shift to piano makes the inner workings of these pieces far more transparent, allowing more of Ciani's intentions (she talks of "My Italian roots and a sense of melody") to come clear. This in turn allows new ideas to work within the discipline and bounds of the piano's world. The net product is something that sounds familiar, but which is more than a passive adoption of old conventions.

Ciani lacks something of the New Age technical brilliance of a Michael Jones or a George Winston, but she has the same ability to deliver a performance that is creative and compelling. This is a connection that I did not feel with some of here earlier work. She has gone on from this point to develop an eclectic style that marries elements of all the worlds she has worked in. This album is a great example of a musical turning point and has made a fan out of me.

This is the first of the series of albumns where Suzanne Ciani play her previous tracks on piano only.

Hearing these tracks play, one may think that they were originally written for piano only but they are not. Anthem has a very national mourning and salute feel to it. Rain is perfect for a rainy day where the rain drops gently tab against the windows. She Said Yes almost represent the joy when one says yes to a marriage proposal. Every track has a meaning, every note - an emotion that fits it beautifully.

Suzanne is one of the only artist that is able to composed a track that rhymes, unlike other more abstract works of others.

Do get it and consider the rest of her wonderful albums like Pianissimo II, III, Hotel Luna, Dream Suite & The Private Music of Suzanne Ciani. Like the review title says "Made in heaven!"

I have many CDs of piano music, but Pianissimo is one of my favorites. The music swells and flows joyously over you, lifting and relaxing you.

I love Suzanne Ciani's acoustic music recordings, which are completely different from her electronic music. Hate a previous recording of one of her songs? try the Pianissimo version- and you will be pleasantly surprised, and deeply moved by the experience. This album has some truly breathtaking songs - Rain and Tuscany for instance - but what I find disappointing is the selection of songs for the album itself. Their melodies are fragmented, like little snippets of ideas. It is a peculiarity that I am not sure Suzanne herself noticed, and the result is that the album feels a little artificial to me - more like electronic SOUNDS gathered together then converted to music, rather than music from the get go. I really dislike Adagio - one reviewer had commented for Pianissimo II that Suzanne bangs the piano keys, and for this song, I tend to agree. I understand melodically why she wants to bang a particular note, but I still do not agree with it. I guess her point is to make that song disturbing, and if that is her goal, she wins - the song is disturbing.

I also do not like the piano this album is recorded on - I have heard different versions of Berceuse, for instance, and this recording is not nearly as good as the other ones, I think because she is using a different piano. This one sounds a little on the tinny side. Some people like this, I do not, because it makes Berceuse sharper sounding, and sharp in not a good way. The version on her Dreams and Meditations album is lovely, she really gets it right there.

If you are looking for something soothing to listen to (except Adagio, and you don't care about the mechanics of piano technique (ie a true listener) then I highly recommend this album. Nobody else I know understands what I am talking about when I criticize this album, and my criticisms are limited to very specific things. I note that pianists are brutal with the piano playing of others, so I suspect all the negative press is generated by other musicians. We all think we play it better. Suzanne herself is curious about different interpretations of her own music, and her own incredible reworking of her own songs suggests that nothing is carved in stone - she is very interested in other interpretations. She is also the first to admit that she is not the most technically gifted pianist - her gift is her songwriting ability. She also does not always obey her own notations either, so I tend to think that there is a lot more leeway in the song than one might expect. Pianists: this is still a great listen. Everybody else: this is a must own album.

It's rare to find a CD that has energy but is calming at the same time. I think Ms. Ciani does this very well. The music is very flowing and peaceful, but there's a moving energy through the different pieces that keeps you from zoning out. She's an accomplished artist, and I enjoyed this CD very much. I'm looking forward to purchasing another by her.