Chelsea Guo, Chopin in My Voice

 

Music that has withstood time's entropy is never out of season. Any new artist that devotes herself to the music is potentially worthwhile, of course. There is necessarily room for multiple interpretations. That means we should recognize the worthy ones when we come across them. Pianist-soprano Chelsea Guo is unquestionably one of those. She comes to us with poetically heartfelt readings of Chopin for solo piano, and then she further astonishes with ravishingly beautiful performances of two works for voice and piano, played and sung by Ms. Guo simultaneously and wonderfully well.

It is as good an example of any of why one must listen to a new offering without presumption. Chelsea Guo's Chopin in My Voice (Orchid Classics ORC 100167) gives us an idea  of what to expect in the title wording. The "voice" reference is key--first off because Ms. Guo's pianism gives us Chopin (his Preludes, Fantasie, etc.) with considerable concentric and insightful phraseology.

She makes the piano sing, with subtle shadings, authentic feeling, focused beauty. Hers is perhaps less extraverted that some readings, especially from the early days of the LP--the fifties. In any event her versions hold up remarkably well with a lot of listens. Her style is brilliantly fluid. Chopin would have been pleased, I think She handles it with all warmth, and poetic precision. without the overblown gush of some grandstanding versions from the past.

And then her soprano comes to us with a tender lyricism while she accompanies herself nicely on the piano. Chopin's "Etude Op. 10 No.3" appears here in a version with a soprano line emerging out of the original piano part and lyrics by Ernst Marischko. It and the ensuing Rossini aria from La Gazza Ladra stand out with a stunning presence. If Ms. Guo's voice was not disarmingly lyrical, lovely, there would be less reason to appreciate the melding. But in fact her voice is every bit as good as her piano playing! And all that makes the album special. This album. We are immersed in the timeless beauty of the music and we begin to appreciate that we have something very gratifying to hear, indeed. Chelsea Guo is special.

Duo Shu, Yi-Wen Zhang, Nanyi Qiang, Play Faure, Schumann, Rachmaninoff, Dvorak, Gao and Bartok

 

Great music is a matter of  the experiencing, of course. So in the course of one's musical life one ideally remains open to whatever music one comes across. So when a CD by Duo Shu (BGR581) arrived in the mail the other day, I was not entirely sure what to expect, since I did not know of them. But I was ready to give it my full attention. They are excellent, as it turns out.

It is made up of Yi-Wen Zhang on cello and Nanyi Qiang at the piano.

The program is a very full one, quite well suited to show the duo's expressive strengths and ways that draw one into the music and keep creating a lovely sense of movement and growth throughout. Maestros Zhang and Qiang founded their Duo in Ohio in 2019 but their first musical interactions date from 2002. Both hail originally from the Chengdu region of Western China. The end result is that both thrive together in how they share both a Chinese childhood locality and the Western Classical heritage. Their considerable musical interpretive skills and disposition add to that commonality to create a most magical musical presence on this CD.

The program has an expressive penchant party by thriving in a minor mode Romantic and Post-Romantic, from Schumann to Faure and on to Eastern Europe (Rachmaninoff, Dvorak and Bartok) and happily further on to Chinese living master composer Weijie Gao and his moving "Longing for Shu."

The substantial yet tempered warmth of Yi-Wen Zhang's cello is a thing to relish. She gives every phrase a feelingful weight and luscious tone, with beautifully true intonation and a dramatic thrust that feels just right for this repertoire and our current-day appreciation of clarity as well as push. Pianist Nanyi Qiang has a remarkably uncluttered delivery that pares all down to its essence and provides a thoughtful, singing, ringing blanket of sound to enfold the cello effusions in a well deserved royal carpeting true to how these musical possibilities feel today.

Something a little unexpected is the Luigi Silva cello-piano arrangement of six Bartok "Romanian Folk Dances," which sound quite ravishing in this format as the Duo Shu plays through them doubtless with the same utter delight one feels in hearing them. The Weijie Gao work is also a special highlight with its mysterious contemporaneity and beautifully expressive gestural depth.

It is one of those albums that not only wears well with age, listens that is, it makes connective sense and works together for a fine experience first-to-last. This one can give your season, any season really, a bright floating bubble to adorn the day. Warmly recommended.