This is the first
volume in a new survey of Amy Beach’s
piano music. Expatriate American
pianist Kirsten Johnson now lives
in England and has written her own
fine notes. In this volume she pitches
in with some Beach juvenilia and
adds two rather more substantial
works, Children’s Carnival Op.25
and Trois morceaux caractéristiques
Op.28 both written in 1894.
Given that much
here is of slight musical value
things depend largely on the imaginative
and sympathetic approach of the
interpreter. Johnson proves a valuable
guide in the series of rather generic
waltz and dance pieces that Beach
wrote when she was an ambitious
ten year old. There’s even Mama’s
Waltz written when the composer
was five! Elsewhere the picture
postcard and Schumann-flecked influences
are never far away.
It’s when we come
to the more substantial fare that
we can get a meatier grip on things,
even when – as in the case of Sketches
Op.15 – the demands are not bone-shaking,
though they are allusively Schumannesque.
The obvious comparison here is with
the multi-volume Arabesque set played
by Joanne Polk and you should consider
my review
of the three volumes that constitute
the solo piano works in the light
of this Guild entrant. The two competing
discs have in any case somewhat
complementary takes. Guild’s recorded
sound is brighter and more immediate,
Arabesque’s is rather more veiled
and recessed; the Guild is less
warm but has greater clarity. So
speaking of the Sketches we find
Johnson is the more forthright in
In Autumn whilst Polk plays
more capriciously with rubati. Polk
is decidedly quicker in Dreaming,
keeping the left hand figures more
mobile whilst Johnson establishes
the mood suggested by the title
more obviously. Conversely in something
like the vivacious Valse Caprice
we find that it’s Johnson who takes
this in an intoxicating arc, whilst
Polk holds back, establishing a
sense of "raising the curtain"
in the introduction and then taking
a less showy route throughout. The
Chopinesque ardour of the Op.6 Ballade
is taken finely by both players.
– very little to choose between
them, other than recorded sound.
In the Trois morceaux
caractéristiques Johnson
is consistently quicker than Polk.
Johnson takes the more incisive
direction, Polk the more languid
and withdrawn – especially true
of the opening Barcarolle. In the
main though Johnson is less inclined
to rubati than Polk, preferring
a brisker, crisper approach.
Johnson has certainly
opened her account with characterful
and vital performances. Engaging,
clarified and buoyant they make
a good foil for the more introspective
profile evinced by Polk.
Jonathan Woolf
Kirsten Johnson (piano) 
