Marta, the Tempest

Chronique

Pianist Marta Brankovich has an interesting background, having studied not only piano but also music marketing in her native Serbia before coming to the U.S. This release seems to try to embody new ideas about the marketing of classical music with its inclusion of Denver Cooper's electric guitar in the last two selections. Listeners may debate how well the whole thing fits together, but Brankovich appears to have given some thought as to how to make it work. The ground is prepared for the electric guitar, heard in a selection from The Phantom of the Opera and a piece by Clint Mansell; Brankovich opens with standard works by Rachmaninov and Chopin and then broadens out to contemporary works, one of which depicts her own experiences during wartime in Serbia in the 1990s. Two of these, Jan Jirasek's Soulmate and Fredrick Kaufman's The Whole in Parts, themselves contain the structure of the whole, combining disparate elements. Moreover, the electric guitar pieces do not force the guitar into a classical framework, as is sometimes done, but give it primacy, with the piano playing an important but ornamental role. Will this release draw new audiences to classical music, piano music, contemporary music? That remains to be seen, but it is a unique offering.
© James Manheim /TiVo