Rush Paul on August 22, 2023

This is an engaging, thoughtful and rather contemplative traversal of works for solo piano by a variety of late nineteenth and twentieth century composers, including Erik Satie, Arvo Pärt, Federico Mompou, Philip Glass, John Cage, and others. The works are lovingly played, with deep sensitivity to the expressive content of each. It is such a pleasure to hear these more modern compositions rather than yet another traversal of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. There is nothing jarringly atonal here, all of the works have a charming tonality, frequently with great wit, and always with innovative rhythms and phrasing. 

As someone who tends to play whole albums from start to finish, I value an artist who develops a true “recital program” when assembling the included tracks. Here, Marcia Hadjimarkos has done a very nice job of complimenting and contrasting the various pieces she has selected. Her choice to insert Germaine Tailleferre’s Pastoral Inca (1929) in the middle of the complete set of Erik Satie’s Gnoissienes (1897). It makes such a nice contrast and the variety adds interest. And then she delivers another nice complementary contrast with Frederic Mompou’s Música Callada IX following the Satie. And then from Mompou, she slides us into John Cage and Philip Glass—just delightful! Marcia’s intentionality of programming adds so much to my enjoyment of her album.

The works span and slightly overlap the 20th century, with Satie’s Gnossiennes and Danses de Travers dating from the tail end of the 19th century (when the piano used on this recording was built) to Pärt’s Für Anna Maria written in 2006, and the works of Cage, Monk, Tailleferre, Glass, Mompou and Skempton falling in between. All are associated with minimalism to a greater or lesser degree, born in the United States, France, England, Spain, and Estonia. Eight approaches to resonance, pattern, repetition, layering, phrasing, form, color, touch, texture, and volume on the piano. In the end, all brought together, in Marcia’s words, “by own reactions to the mesmerizing qualities of this music in all its diversity, and the way it pulls me in time and again.” 

In the enclosed booklet, we read that Marcia Hadjimarkos performs, records, and teaches on a variety of keyboard instruments from the earliest Florentine piano to its modern  counterpart, with particular interest in clavichords and historic pianos both grand and square. A native of Oregon, she has lived in Burgundy for many years. She studied fortepiano with Jos Van Immerseel at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieurde Musique after earning degrees in piano performance and French from the University of Iowa. Recent career highlights include song recitals with Emma Kirkby, Beth Taylor, and Julianne Baird. 

The sound she achieves from her piano is surely reflective of her training and experience. There is a clarity and delicacy of touch that I find so often in recordings on early keyboard instruments, and I suspect her training and experience infuses the sound she achieves with the 1889 New York Steinway B that she plays on this recording. It is just lovely all around and a pure pleasure to hear. This is an album to which I am sure to return many times and I extend readers with any interest in solo piano performance my highest recommendation.

And the excellent sound quality of the recording is simply the cherry on top of this engaging album. Recording with a single stereo microphone, the image is completely solid and three dimensional. Plus, the sound heard by the microphone is then captured directly to DSD128 with no PCM processing. It is a pure sound, and a pure delight to hear. Well done!