March 8, 2017

  • Piano Music of Ruth Lomon

     Shadowing: Piano Quartet & Solos
    Eileen Hutchins, piano; Ruth Lomon, piano;
    Katherine Winterstein, violin; Scott Woolweaver, viola; Patrick Owen, cello.
    Navona Records 6080
    Total Time:  67:00
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    A collection of piano works by Canadian-born composer Ruth Lomon (b.1930) is the focus of this new Navona release.  She studied with Lutoslawski and Dutilleux and has a rather extensive catalogue that includes several concertos and other large-scale works.  Among these she is known for an oratorio, Testimony of Witnesses, and a song cycle, Songs of Remembrance, both based on texts from Holocaust survivors and victims.  Boston-based pianist Eileen Hutchins has selected a program of four works from Lomon’s catalogue.

    The first of these works, Sunflower Variations (2010), was composed for Hutchins.  It is based on music from the composer’s setting of William Blake poety (Five Songs After Poems by Blake, 1962).  The thematic idea is taken on ten variations in this interesting work that introduces us to Lomon’s musical language.  The harmonic writing shifts between somewhat traditional writing and blocks of open intervals that alternate here across the variations.  The music’s intensity grows as we move further into the work with leaps across the register of the piano.  The piece unpacks rhythmic ideas as well.  We move from a fairly accessible thematic thread to one whose deconstruction becomes more intense as the piece progresses.

    Shadowing is a piano quartet in three movements.  Commissioned by the New Mexico Guild of Women Composers, the piece takes its inspiration from Women Who Run With Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes which the composer was reading at the time.  Setting up a thematic idea, the opening movement then moves through a variety of colors as it evolves across the ensemble with gradually more drama.  It is rather fascinating to hear the way the instruments are woven into the texture with the strings having this sort of intimate feel that the piano surrounds with sound and punctuations.  The piano also seems to be the pushing force to drag along the rest on the path of exploration.  Things calm down a bit in the central movement with a sort of flitting motif that tiptoes about.  The resulting colors are often rather fascinating.  Adding some slides and close intervals, we move into this final movement to depict running and this too has some intriguing energy that has strings pulling the music forward with the piano adding some of the harmonic color and underpinning.  There is a bit more dialogue between the trio and piano here seeming to punctuate the intimate conversation and journey the four have been on in a rather interesting chamber work.

    Hutchins then moves to two solo piano works.  The first, Esquisses (1992), is a three-movement work.  In some respects, this seems like an extension of Debussy’s impressionistic piano writing now taken to a more modern exploration of the piano harmonically.  This comes to mind especially with the opening movement, “The Bells”, and the aural depiction of the sound connecting to the partials created in European flared tower bells.  In “The Holiday”, explores rhythmic dance ideas in this modern pianistic style.  Always interesting is the way Lomon explores the full range of the piano.  The final “Memories of…” does this in a more reflective way that ebbs and flows as an idea is introduced and then explored across the piano.

    The Five Ceremonial Masks continues this exploration of pianistic sound adding some prepared piano techniques to further explore sound.  The work is inspired by Navaho masks that depict different aspects of the Yeibichai Night Chant ceremonies.  Each movement explore this connection to a more primeval connection of myth and ritual.  These tend to be reflective in quality and perhaps the more contemporary sounding of the works here.  Dissonance and more angular writing appear here as do fast shifts across the piano and a more intense overall sound.  The rhythmic ideas suggest dance but tend to be a particular motif that is unpacked and commented on as a movement progresses.   The prepared ideas make for a rather intriguing shift in sound and effect as well.

    As a sort of bonus, Navona has included a recording of the composer performing this same work made in 1984.  This will be of interest to those looking to see how Hutchins has interpreted this piece, often taking slightly different tempos in the larger movements and letting the sound ring a bit more there.

    Lomon’s music is rather captivating with each work exploring the wide range and ability of the piano.  One can see a line here from her teacher’s work into her own unique musical language.  It is a worthy discovery that may have you tracking down her other work.