It’s never too late to chase your dreams: Anthony Hopkins, 88, signed with Decca Classics to release Life Is a Dream, a new recording project encompassing more than six decades of original compositions. The album’s tracks were conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Hopkins has been playing piano since the age of four. He began composing music for local plays as a teenager. The album’s first single, “Bracken Road,” comes from Hopkin’s “1947: Suite for Solo Piano and Orchestra. It was “inspired by childhood memories of Margam, South Wales,” and “is a nostalgic musical portrait of the streets, meadows, farmland and mountains that surrounded his family home in the 1940s,” according to a press release.
Other tracks on the album include “My Fatherland,” which was inspired by traditional Welsh melodies, and compositions inspired by cinema, the actor’s wife, and his niece.
“Music was my first desire, my first wish,” Hopkins said in a statement. “I’ve been composing music all my life. Some of these pieces have lived with me for decades and I still find myself returning to them.”
He added, “Signing with Decca is the honor of a lifetime. It has been a true privilege to collaborate with the distinguished Philharmonia Orchestra and the virtuoso soloists, cellist Gregorio Nieto and classical pianist Sergio Tiempo. My deepest gratitude and respect go to Maestro Gustavo Dudamel, whose artistry is an integral part of this musical journey. With the graceful precision of his baton, he transformed each note with profound and indelible meaning, creating a pictorial landscape that invites the listener to feel and imagine something uniquely personal.”
Along with Dudamel and the Philharmonia, the album features pianist Sergio Tiempo, cellist Gregorio Nieto, the Bach Choir, and the Boy Choristers of Winchester Cathedral. It was recorded at Alexandra Palace in London in April.
Dudamel said, “Sir Anthony Hopkins is one of those rare artists whose creative voice transcends any single medium. The same depth of imagination, humanity, and emotional truth that has defined his extraordinary work on stage and screen is present in his music. Listening to his composition, I am struck by its beauty, craftsmanship, and the unmistakable sense of wonder that animates it.”
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He continued, “Anthony approaches music with the heart of a storyteller and the instincts of a poet, creating sound worlds that are both deeply personal and universally resonant. It has been a privilege to collaborate with him on this recording alongside my friends Gregorio Nieto, Sergio Tiempo, and the Philharmonia Orchestra, and to help bring to life the musical voice of an artist whose creativity knows no boundaries.”