Jane Antonia Cornish, Sierra, Vicky Chow

 

The music of Jane Antonia Cornish is no stranger to these pages. Type her name into the index box above and you will see that there have been three reviews of as many albums over the years. Today, another, Sierra (Cantaloupe Music CA 21174) as nicely performed on piano by Vicky Chow. 

The piano and echo effect goes as far back as Ussachevsky's 1952 "Piece for Tape Recorder" if I am not mistaken. As if to take the idea further in time and place we get a full-throated piano sonance and a light echo-like repetition or drone at times in this Cornish work for solo piano. Arpeggios, tremelo-ed trills and pedal pointed centers give us beautiful pause in this multipart and at times seemingly multiple tracked work. It has that kind of early, cosmic Terry Riley feel to it and so also a kind of maximal lyricism. 

It follows the genre but in creative and inventive ways. The more I hear it the more welcome it becomes to me. Happily recommended.