Fire On All Sides

Album review

Pianist James Rhodes has written extensively about the trials of his upbringing, which included sexual abuse, and his subsequent journeys inside and outside the mental health system. He discusses these episodes in concert, and the album Fire on All Sides (the title comes from a stage direction in Don Giovanni) is intended as an accompaniment to a book of the same title. It's a bit ironic, therefore, that Rhodes' straight-up-the-middle repertory is a good deal less unorthodox than his presentation of it, and even more ironic that it can quite profitably be listened to on its own without any indication of the surrounding events. The program, with a late Beethoven sonata surrounded by Romantic character pieces, is novel to begin with, and Rhodes brings a distinctive, strongly lyrical character to the Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major, Op. 110. He maintains this throughout, and when you learn that he feels this music has kept him going through his various difficulties, you'll accept that. Try playing some of the pieces for friends who don't know about Rhodes, and you'll likely get the response that his playing is technically quick and remarkable in its ability to sustain a mood, even if that mood is not, in this case, varied much. Recommended, whatever you think of Rhodes.
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