Quest
Elizabeth Remy Johnson, harp.
Albany Records TROY 1863
Total Time:  61:16
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Emily Remy Johnson’s new album Quest takes its title from the opening work on the album.  Composed by Niloufar Nourbakhsh in 2013, the piece has a tenuous exploration of traditional harmony with some subtle dissonance and interesting harmonic diversions.  It is one of just several modern works for the instrument featured on this new release from Albany Records.  Those pieces make up the second half of this ample program that highlights work by female composers.

The first portion consists of new arrangements by Johnson of some unique piano literature.  First is Cecil Chaminade’s delightful Aubade (1911) which keeps us in slightly modern to late-Romantic style.  It and  D’un vieux Jardin (1914) provide fine bookends for a series of brief pieces from the period.  Amy Beach’s A Hermit Thrush At Morn (1921) is another unique miniature exploring bird songs the composer heard on a trip in New Hampshire.  It is a quite delicate little work.  The center piece, and rather wonderful discovery are the Cinq Morceaux (1894-1927) by Mel Bonis (1858-1937).  She was a promising student invited by Franck to study at the Paris Conservatory, but her parents pulled her from her studies to avoid a developing affair with another student.  Married off, she eventually returned to composing and the selection here demonstrates her brilliant harmonic and melodic gifts in five stunning works.  This is followed by Fanny Hensel’s Melodie (1846) and the somewhat familiar little Romance (1853) by Clara Schumann.  Each of the works here are quite engaging and performed brilliantly by Johnson whose interpretations and transcriptions feel fairly faithful to the original keyboard works, though they tend to take on a more magical, reflective quality.  As a transition, Johnson has chosen a little folk song to wrap up the portion of the album (Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies).

Four works for harp help round off the album to further illustrate the musical capabilities of the instrument and its versatility while maintaining a folkish theme.  The first of these is a reflective piece by Katie Agocs that explores an Appalachian folk song, “John Riley”.  An excellent programming transition from the traditional folk song that precedes it.  In Sally Beamish’s Pavane (2016), we are back in the world of reflection and post-Impressionism recalling the earlier works on the album.  The qualities of Scotchish folk-harp music inform Freya Waley-Cohen’s Skye (2017) which transports the listener to the isle.  The final piece, Spindrift (2008), is inspired by the legend of Odysseus and Leukothea.  The work by Johann Selleck is a more substantial miniature tone poem for harp.

Quest is an album of often subtle harp work that provides a window into the beautiful qualities of the instrument with the more contemporary works all maintaining an accessible musical language.  The arrangements of piano literature work quite well here in a collection of fairly restrained pieces that invite reflection.  How the album is sequences also shows a great deal of thought that helps move well through the program allowing listeners to make additional connections to the narrative aspects that inspired the composers represented.  The album is a bit on the quiet side which makes for a relaxed listen of quite compelling music worth hearing and exploring further.

Bottiroli: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 2 (Nocturnes)
George Takei, narrator. Fabio Banegas, piano.
Grand Piano 871
Total Time:  72:35
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

The music of Argentinean composer Jose Antonio Bottiroli (1920-1990) is among those of lesser-known 20^th Century composers beyond, perhaps, his homeland.  His Belgrano March was decreed to be used as a commemoration for the national flag of Argentina.  Like other composers of the mid- 20^th-Century, Bottiroli thus began exploring folk music idioms in his work.  That approach is mostly absent though from this current volume of piano music composed in the last couple decades of his life.

Pianist Fabio Banegas undertook to collect and edit the works of Bottiroli and his intimate understanding of the music from such a task has no doubt impacted the loving care he brings to these world premiere recordings.  The Three Sorrows (1984) that open the release will catch the listener off guard at first because the music is all quite Impressionistic in its aesthetic with touches of Late-Romanticism.  The music has some flirtations with more modernist harmonic gestures but maintains its nod to the piano miniatures of an earlier era.  One feels like a whole new unearthed collection of Debussy has been discovered.  Ideas waft in beautiful harmonic support with a sort of dreamlike reflection.  The Six Album Pages (1976-77) create a variety of musings on evening beauty with a relaxing quality that wafts across each.  Sometimes a little salon-like musical feel will sneak into the style creating an even further delight.

A more innovative approach can be heard in the final work on the album, Five Piano Replies (1974-80).  Bottiroli was a noted poet with some 84 known works to his credit.  The composer’s poetry serves as a scene setting for his music which subsequently adds a more dramatic arc to the individual movements.  The poetry, reproduced in the booklet, is read by the inimitable George Takei, perhaps more familiar to fans of Star Trek as Sulu.  That might peak interest among fans of a different ilk, but they will certainly discover some music that will encourage looking up into the night sky to contemplate their own place in the vast universe.

Banegas is an excellent interpreter of these works and has been a dedicatee of the Six Album Pieces.  It would seem his skill would be equally adept at other earlier 20^th Century Impressionist composers and perhaps he will turn his attention there once he has completed recording the works of Bottiroli.  What we have here though is a fine collection of colorful, relaxing works for piano that may entice listeners to continue to join him on these explorations of this Argentinian composer.