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DCD34330-2CD
£29.99
Music for solo piano played a peripheral role during the first three decades of Philip Glass’s composing career, but from the 1990s onward he was increasingly in demand for solo performances of his own music. Keen both to provide himself with new repertoire and to develop his technical skills as a pianist, he set to work on Book 1 of what would eventually become a set of twenty etudes whose virtuosic surfaces conceal some of the composer’s most intensely personal music.
Drawing on the form’s historical past while also breaking away from it in inventive ways, these pieces have in recent years taken on a life beyond Glass’s own performances; indeed, Book 2 increasingly pushes at the limits of pianistic technique, in a challenge that has appealed to a new generation of committed virtuosos. Máire Carroll has met the challenge head on, performing the entire set of etudes live from memory and now taking it into the recording studio in interpretations at once personal and faithful to the composer’s tempi and dynamic markings.
"Let this disc transport you to a world where dimensions and parameters are unrestricted, allowing your consciousness to expand into new perceptual areas as the beautiful melodies sweep around ... Máire Carroll communicates with such delicacy and exquisiteness, not forgetting that to perform Glass well, the energy levels must be consistent throughout. Her carefully judged performances superbly communicate her empathetic interpretations ... Carroll’s interpretations are thoughtful and astute, showing acumen as she performs Glass’ delightful etudes with technical expertise and perspicacity. Máire Carroll met the challenge head-on, performing the entire set of etudes live from memory before taking them into the recording studio ... Fluent, expressive, and lyrical, her performances are compelling and irresistible. My only disappointment is that I did not start reviewing this disc immediately it landed. The combination of Carroll’s articulate finger work on the Steinway model D, and Delphian’s clarity in recording are divine ... Pwyll ap Siôn Professor of Music at Bangor University, provides interesting notes as well as a short interview he conducted with Máire Carroll. As the last notes fade after nine minutes of simply entrancing music from Etude 20, one realises how intoxicating these etudes are. What a highlight of the year!"
"Maire Carroll's new recording of the complete piano etudes embraces and articulates all the key Glass components - energy, beauty and imagination. Glass wrote these 20 minimalist studies both as a means of improving his own piano technique, and of channeling his more private thoughts on an intimate scale. That’s not to say they eschew the impatient, power-driven obsessiveness that defines so much of his music. Carroll’s performances have all of that when asked for, vitalised by electrifying fingerwork. She also enhances those trademark low-set timbres and subterranean gloom with a sublime radiance, and captures an endearing reflectiveness through her personable, eloquent lyricism. She does everything Glass asks for, then applies the expert pianist’s touch ..."
"Combining the clockwork proficiency required by a set of Etudes with a personal interpretation that brings them to life as pieces is a rare challenge. That Máire Carroll still holds the attention after two hours of listening is testament to her achievement in this regard, in performances that also always stay true to the spirit of the composer"
★ ★ ★ ★
'Carroll is explicit there about her keenness to hew close to the score rather than treat it as a showcase for virtuosity (her tempi, for example, are closer to the ones indicated in the scores than many other pianists ... Carroll knows exactly what she is doing, and her approach gives me continued food for thought. Perhaps ironically for a CD of études, there is an egolessness about this recording that makes it perhaps the most accurate picture on record of what exactly Glass wrote ... '
JOURNAL OF MUSIC
Release Date: 23 August 2024
Catalogue No: DCD34330
Total playing time CD1: 00:58:04
Total playing time CD2: 01:07:00
Recorded on 16-18 January 2023 at St Peter’s Church, Drogheda, Co Louth, Ireland
Producer: Laoise O’Brien
Engineer: Ben Rawlins
24-bit digital editing & mixing: Ben Rawlins
24-bit digital mastering: Paul Baxter
Piano: Steinway model D, serial no 544371
Cover & artist photography
© Laura Sheeran
Design: Eliot Garcia
Booklet editor: John Fallas
Delphian Records Ltd – Edinburgh – UK www.delphianrecords.com
PREVIEW
Etude No. 8
Category: Contemporary, Editor's Choices, Philip Glass, Piano
