PIANO SPECTRUMS
ANNA KISLITSYNA, Piano
Navona Records NV6413 / TT: 76’00”
How does one approach a piano recital album where every single composer it is not previously known to the listener? Listen with an open mind and ears, and then listen again. When impressions form, or connections are made with past memories, make a note of them. And then listen again. Some works would became friends, while others remain remote and elusive. The cost of listening is time, and there is certainly not too much to go around. And then decisions are made. The pieces you get, you get to keep. As for the others, some other time... perhaps.
I have listened to Russia-born and California-based pianist Anna Kislitsyna’s album several times through. There are 20 tracks in total, all short pieces, representing nine composers based in USA, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. Five of these are slightly lengthier works, running 6 minutes and more, with some comprising multiple movements. Here are some random thoughts and very brief notes.
Among the longer works, Tara Guram’s Piano Sonata is in three movements, showcasing mild dissonances of the Hindemith variety, a central movement with jazzy rhythms, and a funeral march in A minor after Chopin. Zhiyi Wang’s Etude for Concert has a slow, quiet beginning filled with Coplandesque harmonies, later builds up in tempo and volume with syncopated rhythms before closing quietly. Jacob E. Goodman’s Variations on a Theme of Beethoven is very approachable, based on the well-known Andante Favori in F major. One variation incorporates children’s ditties and another a fugue. Eric Chapelle’s Place in Landscape (Taormina) is a single-movement gentle and impressionistic soundscape of a Sicilian seaside town, both atmospheric and minimalist.
There is much variety in the short pieces. Michael Cohen’s Prelude is neo-Bachian, with a bluesy feel. Richard Vella’s selections from Book Two of Mise-en-Scenes are atmospheric and minimalist. John Robertson’s selection of four Preludes are tonal character pieces, including a tango (No.11) and a menuet a la Haydn (No.12). David Nisbet Stewart’s Prelude No.7 brilliant and etude-like number, which would work equally well on a harp or guzheng. Two selections from Carla Lucero’s opera Wuornos: Rough Trick is bluesy while The Capture provides a dramatic and dissonant close. Bruce Babcock’s Time and Again: four shorts alternating between being gritty, kinetically charged and lyrical.
Will any of these pieces become part of the mainstream, or appear in a concert pianist’s recital repertoire? Given the profusion of composers and compositions in these times, only an infinitesimally small fraction will ever become known to a wider public. Among these, Goodman’s Beethoven Variations and Chapelle’s Taormina might just gain some currency beyond this album. Kislitsyna’s playing is incisive and persuasive, which will bring these works new and receptive listeners. I am no clairvoyant, but this recording might just be the only chance of ever hearing these works again.
To sample / download / purchase this album:
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