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Elena KATS-CHERNIN (b.1957)
Slow Food
Second Door on the Left (2006) [2:43]
Russian Waltz (1995-96) [2:15]
Painting (2006) [2:57]
Eliza Aria – from Wild Swans (2003) [3:05]
Naïve Waltz [3:35]
Butterflying (2003) [3:11]
Kwong Song Two (2006) [2:34]
Silvery Night – from Silver Poetry (2006) [4:28]
Silver Eucalypt - from Silver Poetry (2006) [2:51]
Autumn [2:59]
Reflections [2:38]
Green Leaf - from Wild Swans (2003)  [1:39]
Road to Harvest Slow (2006) [5:30]
Mute Princess from Wild Swans (2003) [3:04]
Burnished Silver - from Silver Poetry (2006) [3:32]
Melancholic Piece (1990s) [2:41]
Silver Pearls - from Silver Poetry (2006) [3:29]
Silver Poetry - from Silver Poetry (2006) [2:43]
Phoenix Story "Tears from Above" [9:25]
Elena Kats-Chernin (piano)
rec. City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney, December 2006 
TALL POPPIES TP196 [66:41]

My last encounter with Elena Kats-Chernin’s captivating music came in the shape of three works on an ABC disc devoted to the composer (see review). There we had the Second Piano Concerto, the Wild Swans concert suite and Mythic and I thoroughly enjoyed it all. Elements of the concert suite make a reappearance here because some of the pieces are heard in versions for solo piano. If you know the soprano-and-orchestral version you will enjoy hearing these stripped back, pared down versions.

‘Slow Food’ is the disc’s title and there’s a culinary motif in the booklet – not least on the front cover and in the composer’s favourite recipe, which you can, as the saying goes, make at home - it’s Organic pickled beetroot and egg salad with steamed flathead fillets. The title also refers to the predominantly slow tempi of the pieces, all of which are performed by the composer.

The first was written for the composer’s son and it’s lightly up-tempo, a lyrical song, whereas Russian Waltz is a simplified Rag and full of wistful charm. Painting shows how spare and limpid writing can still be truly evocative. The Eliza aria from Wild Swans may be better known from a TV advertisement and its unpretentious but catchy warmth is shared by the Naïve Waltz. Much of the writing is treble-orientated but the bass keys get a visit in the Chopinesque Silvery Night – full of rolled chords and a nineteenth century salon feel. It’s a theme revisited in Silver Poetry. And another influence on her is Tchaikovsky, specifically the piano music, as in Autumn which pays oblique homage to The Seasons.

Road to Harvest Slow shows a certain kinship with the music from the film The Piano – Kats-Chernin’s music has occasionally reminded me of Nyman and Adams in the past. This is a discreet and very lyrical piece, which exists in several versions. The big last track, Phoenix Story "Tears from Above" shows the same influences. Her admiration for Michel Legrand is shown in Burnished Silver with its full complement of rich harmonies. There’s great lyric tracery in one of my favourites from among the selection of nineteen – Silver Pearls from Silver Poetry.

This is a feast for Kats-Chernin’s admirers – delightful music, sensitively played by the composer and judiciously recorded.

Jonathan Woolf 

 

 

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