Fantasy

Album review

Pianist Ursula Oppens is a specialist in contemporary music, and she has worked closely with composer Laura Kaminsky. This album grew out of performances marking Oppens' 75th birthday. That milestone marks no diminution in her powers, and the music here is played confidently and fluently. Kaminsky's music is distinctive, and this release may make a good introduction to it for many listeners. It is difficult to classify according to modern "schools," for it may be transparently tonal or entirely dissonant, but this is the key to enjoying it. Tonal relationships here are decorative rather than fundamental to the structure. Instead, it is rhythm that organizes Kaminsky's music, and here her range of influences is wide. "Anthem," the first movement of the Piano Quintet, draws on Kaminsky's experiences hearing drums while teaching in Ghana in 1992 and 1993. Other pieces show jazz influences or are animated by extramusical ideas, including the political climate of the U.S. in the late 2010s. The concluding Piano Concerto, which would be ideal for performance by small university orchestras, evokes the composer's views of the Hudson River and the Neva River in St. Petersburg, Russia. An attractive release from the Cedille label, whose artist-and-repertory managers have an ear for interesting American music of the most diverse sorts.

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