Illumination: Piano Works of Victoria Bond
Paul Barnes, piano and chanter.
Slovak Radio Orchestra/Kirk Trevor;
Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic/Kirk Trevor
Albany Records TROY 1880
Total Time:  64:41
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Pianist Paul Barnes is featured exploring music inspired by ancient chant in this release featuring the work of Victoria Bond (b. 1945).  Bond was a student of Ingolf Dahl and Roger Sessions and early in her career assisted on some of Phillip Glass’s film scores.  Barnes has also worked with the latter over 25 years having also commissioned pieces by the composer.  He has also been quite instrumental in the development of the music on this album collaborating with Bond on recording her music and the world of Eastern chant.

The opening pieces here are for solo piano and take their inspiration from Byzantine chants.  Illuminations (2021) has slowly evolved into a three-movement work.  Its first movement, “Potirion Sotiriu” was composed in 1999 and incorporates the essence of that ancient chant melody into a mystical exploration that continues in the central “Simeron Kremate” (2019) which introduces a bit more intensity and dissonance; and moves into a sounder conclusion in the final “Enite ton Kyrion” (2021).  The latter pulls together the chants from the other movements to provide an apt conclusion to the work as a whole.  The music here recalls the work of Thomas de Hartmann’s mystical music inspired by the philosopher George Gurdjieff.  They are quite compelling pieces that are written in an accessible style with modern harmonic ideas adding a little extra flavor.  Bond’s music tends to be a bit more complex in construction with the chants feeling finely integrated into the musical reflections here.  As a bonus, one can listen to the chants sing by Barnes as a sort of addendum to this album.  This helps listeners better connect with the pieces further and provides another entry point for this music.

The album also includes two re-releases of previously-recorded works for piano and orchestra that inhabit the same sort of philosophical milieu.  Ancient Keys (2002) is a single-movement concerto that also uses the opening “Potirion Sotiriu” piano work now given a more expansive pallet.  The chant is sung as the work opens to provide some context for what is to follow.  The swirling opening of that chant informs the opening orchestral material that wafts up from the lower realms of the ensemble in a sort of slow spiral.  The way the material is handled has some parallels to the work of Hovhaness, though Bond’s musical language tends to stay more traditional.  The orchestral writing does allow for some interesting interaction with the soloist with a good forward motion and dramatic flair.

Black Light (1997) closes the release with a bit of variety in inspiration.  The works on the release overall are based on musical meditations of illumination and here Bond shifts her attention to African American musical traditions blending them with her own religious background.  The three-movement work opens with an intense driving rhythmic idea with a bit of interplay in a lighter theme for piano.  The latter displays a sense of wit.  The music here shifts to a far more dissonant set of pulses and angular piano lines that make for a nice contrast to the previous works.  The jazzier syncopation is also part of orchestration that takes its cues from jazz orchestral works making it a sort of contemporary integration of the style.  The central movement uses a Jewish liturgical chant for its primary material.  Finally, the piece wraps up with a hybrid rondo variation form inspired by the scat singing style of Ella Fitzgerald.

Interesting works and engaging music make for a fine introduction to Bond’s music for new listeners.  The performances feel quite committed and Barnes seems to be a fine interpreter of the music here offering informed, nuanced playing in the opening Illuminations and having a bit more opportunity for technical displays in the larger orchestral concerto pieces.  Both orchestras manage to tackle these pieces with a nice sense of precision.  The Martinu orchestra seems particularly attuned to the jazz gestures and that helps the piece quite a bit.  Everything is mastered well and equalized which allows for good imaging of the piano against the orchestra.  Clarity in the textures is also quite good which is both due to Bond’s orchestration as well as the clean playing of the orchestras.  Overall a quite interesting and engaging collection of modern music for piano.

Debussy: Images
Mathilde Handelsman
Sheva Collection 234
Total Time:  61:57
Recording:   ****/****
Performance: ****/****

Debussy’s piano music provides a window into his growing exploration of line and its impact on harmonic structures.  The music moves from the inherited harmonic ideas of the 19^th Century and shifts into more impressionistic aesthetics before moving beyond into even more abstraction.  He was also not above incorporating global music into his own work from Javanese gamelan and flamenco to even American ragtime.  In this new release, pianist Mathilde Handelsman, a student of Menahem Pressler and John O’Connor, explores music from 1903-1907 covering some of the essential works of Debussy.

For this recording, Handelsman plays on an 1875 Steinway which makes this recording historically interesting as the sound is a bit less bright than a modern piano.  This warmer sound quality imparts an equal richness in the harmonies that derive from careful sustains that Handelsman uses to shape the music.  It also softens the higher registral writing sometimes as well which helps “Reflets dans l’eau” which opens the album in the first set of Images.  Once the ear adjusts, made possible by the attention to detail and fine shaping of the music, the instrument itself fades into the background while the music can be experienced in this “new” way.  The subtlety of her approach continues in “Hommage a Rameau” with its excellent shades of crescendo and decrescendo moments adding to her phrasing and approach quite well.  She also manages to delineate and bring out the various lines of the music.  The climaxes of the music thus grow quite well in her interpretations.  Estampes provides an opportunity to further appreciate the shifts in Debussy’s style with “Pagodes” giving us a taste of new harmonic and melodic lines.  The rhythmic ideas in “La soiree dans Grenade” also provide another opportunity to hear Handelsman artistry at play.  The second series of Images brings us more beauty and exploration of sound and harmony with three final smaller works (“Masques”, “D’un cahier d’esquisses,” and “L’isle Joyeuse”) serving to round off the recital and serving as little encores of a sort.

There are hundreds (!) of recordings of partial and complete versions of all of this music and the competition is quite fierce.  Those who appreciate the music will certainly have their own interpretive favorites.  Handelsman makes for a fine interpreter of this music that can handle the virtuosic technicalities of the music as well as the subtle harmonic shifts quite well and it is obvious from her performances that she has spent a lot of time thinking through these pieces.  The draw here will be to hear this music played on a “period” instrument of sorts.  The miking is rather close at times which creates a sense of sitting in a studio, or salon, to hear the music rather than a larger recital hall space.  It works well overall and makes for a fascinating journey through Debussy’s musical landscapes that perhaps provides a new window into the soundworlds he heard.  As a debut recording, this one is quite impressive both technically and interpretively and it will be interesting to hear how Handelsman approaches to this music (which one could say has a fine French sensibility) continue throughout her career.  This makes for a great start with a hope for more Debussy from her in the future.