Elena Kats-Chernin: Unsent Love Letters – Meditations On Erik Satie by Tamara-Anna Cislowska

‘Many years after Erik Satie’s death in 1925, friends gained access to his small and cluttered apartment where they found two grand pianos stacked on top of each other, a chair, a table, seven velvet suits, and hoards of unsent love letters. An apparently eccentric man, Satie lived a life of contradictions: he was an introvert but a compelling performer; he lived in squalor but dressed immaculately in velvet; he was branded a ‘worthless’ pianist by his conservatoire professor, and yet he composed some of the most strikingly beautiful piano music of the twentieth-century. Satie’s mysterious life has long since provided fascination for historians and musicians, and now, notably, our very own Elena Kats-Chernin (composer) and Tamara Anna Cislowska (pianist).

I raved about Kats-Chernin and Cislowska’s fine artistic partnership back in May 2016, following the release of their album Butterflying. Their latest project – a collection of twenty-six piano miniatures inspired by Satie’s unsent love letters – is equally outstanding. Each piece reflects some element of Satie: a line from a letter to his lover Suzanne Valadon, a segment of a composition, or an anecdote pertaining to his eccentricity. Kats-Chernin previously demonstrated her talent for interpretation in her 2004 Re-Inventions based on the music of J.S. Bach, but I think her style lends itself even more fully to Satie’s work. Their respective compositions are similar for their hypnotism, simplicity and creeping melancholy. Cislowska brings the Kats-Chernin/Satie amalgam to life with the same brilliance she displayed in Butterflying. She summons the ominous rise and decay of a funeral bell in the closing ‘for whom it tolls’, and elicits the excitement of young love in the opening ‘love token’. Unsent Love Letters is a triumph for Kats-Chernin and Cislowska, and a great tribute to the tender and exquisite music of Satie.’

– Alexandra Mathew

Aida by Aida Garifullina

‘Aged only 29, Russian soprano Aida Garifullina has it all. She is stunningly beautiful, and possesses the voice to match. If that weren’t enough, she is named after one of the greatest operatic heroines: Verdi’s Aida. More still, Garifullina recently appeared as legendary soprano Lily Pons alongside Meryl Streep in the film Florence Foster Jenkins. Yes, Aida Garifullina has it all, as amply revealed on her debut album for the Decca label. Although Garifullina presents an odd mishmash of repertoire – just two French arias alongside an otherwise all-Slavic program – she sings the whole thing with such finesse that it’s easy to forgive any such incongruity and revel in the lusciousness of the music.

Skip the two opening French arias (Gounod and Delibes) and fast-forward to the Tatar folksong ‘Allüki’. Here the heart of Garifullina’s voice is revealed. Notice the soft precision of her consonants, the gentle undulations of her vibrato, and the tenderness of her expression. It’s the particular combination of these attributes that makes her unique within a market teeming with talented sopranos. Garifullina’s utterly beguiling interpretations of ‘Cossack Lullaby’ and Rachmaninov’s ‘Lilacs’ further prove her distinctive talent. I can’t wait to find out what’s next for this exceptional soprano.’

– Alexandra Mathew

Philip Glass: Piano Works by Vikingur Olafsson

‘Vikingur Olafsson is an unknown around this neck of the woods, but he has been voted ‘Musician of the Year’ in his native Iceland four times, is the music director of two major music festivals and is now a featured artist on Deutsche Grammophon. You start to get the idea that he might be one of the ‘next big things’ in classical music.

Released to coincide with Philip Glass’s 80th birthday, Olafsson’s debut recording on DG is an homage to Glass’s many piano works and is a delightful celebration of one of the most influential composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. Handpicked by Glass, Olafsson featured in the Barbican performance of Glass’s complete Etudes and was considered by many of the reviewers to be the stand-out performer of the night. When you listen to this recording you can understand why. As I listened I kept thinking, ‘Gosh that was a clever little harmonic twist’ or ‘I love that rhythmic pattern, isn’t Philip Glass a fabulous composer’. But of course, the composer is nothing without the performer with the skill and insight to bring out these clever ideas and take us along on the musical journey.’

– Kate Rockstrom