Elena Kats-Chernin (b. 1957)
Eliza Aria (arr. piano & orchestra by composer)
Ancient Letters
Piano Concerto No. 3 ‘Lebewohl’
Prelude Machine (2019)
Bach Prelude (2010)
1720 (2019)
Tamara-Anna Cislowska (piano)
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra/Johannes Fritzsch
rec. 2019, Eugene Goossens Hall, Sydney; 2024, Federation Concert Hall, Hobart, Australia
ABC Classic ABCL0118 [62]
Elena Kats-Chernin has certainly got every last ounce of use from her best-known work Eliza Aria, originally written for wordless soprano and orchestra for the ballet Wild Swans. I have three other CDs of her music – collections for piano, piano and violin and string quartet – and on each, there is an arrangement of Eliza Aria. I feel that the original version remains the most striking, and this new version, while enjoyable, doesn’t change matters.
The title of Ancient Letters, a piano concerto in all but name, refers to the documents discovered in western China in 1907 by Sir Aurel Stein, and written by an unknown author from the Sogdian people who occupied the region now known as Uzbekistan (where Kats-Chernin was born) more than 1700 years ago. It is a glorious, lush and exotic work that I absolutely loved. It brought to mind Rachmaninov and Romantic film scores such as Maurice Jarre’s Lawrence of Arabia, so I was startled to read in the booklet notes that it was originally written for harpsichord and orchestra. Try as I might, I couldn’t imagine the surging emotions being successfully presented by the older instrument.
The Third Piano Concerto is a commemoration – celebration seems the wrong word – of Maria Barbara Bach, the first wife of Johann Sebastian, who died unexpectedly aged 36, while her husband was away. He returned home to be told the sad news. Compared with the Romantic passion of Ancient Letters, the concerto is more neo-Classical in feel, witha definite sense of Prokofiev, especially in the madcap third movement. The five movements are intended to convey the five stages of grief that Bach might have gone through after his wife’s death: shock and denial, pain and guilt, anger and bargaining, reflection and loneliness, acceptance and reconstruction. Listening to the work without this knowledge, it might strike you as a little scattergun, but once you know what the composer is trying to achieve, it becomes far more effective.
The final three works are for solo piano, each with a Bach connection. Prelude Machine quotes the C minor Prelude from Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Klavier, and was originally written for wind quintet. It is a jerky and awkward piece, with the Bach quote almost sounding like something from an old silent movie. Bach Prelude was written for Angela Hewitt, who was compiling a collection of contemporary works by composers inspired by Bach. It quotes the Prelude from the G major Cello Suite, and is more gentle and melodic than the previous piece; there are hints of Philip Glass. Finally 1720, referring to the year Maria Barbara Bach died, is a simple but touching lament for her.
Tamara-Anna Cislowska is one of Australia’s most highly regarded pianists, and her repertoire focusses on the 20th and 21st centuries, including collections of piano music by Kats-Chernin (review) and Peter Sculthorpe (review) for the ABC Classic label. Her playing, be it the Romanticism of Ancient Letters, neo-Classicism of the Concerto or the more minimalist solo pieces, is exemplary, and the orchestra supports her very well. The sound quality is good, and the booklet notes, partly written by pianist and composer, are very informative.
Ancient Letters was, for me, the standout piece presented here. I could admire the Concerto, but not greatly like it.
David Barker
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