Luisa Guembes-Buchanan: Small Forms
Del Aguila

Luisa Guembes-Buchanan is no stranger to large-scale projects, her formidable six-CD box set Complete Late Beethoven Piano Music (2008) proof enough of that. But the Lima, Peru-born pianist is no less drawn to miniatures, as shown by Small Forms. On this beguiling set, she bookends Schubert's Impromptu, D 899 (Op. 90/4) in Ab Major with Schumann's Kinderszenen, Op. 15 and Beethoven's Eleven Bagatelles, Op. 119, the eight-minute duration of the middle setting making it seem an opus of epic proportions next to the others' vignettes. No matter the scale of the work, Guembes-Buchanan distinguishes her interpretations with insight, conviction, finesse, and sensitivity. The fluency of her expressions and command of dynamics and touch are exquisite.

Her booklet commentaries are no less rewarding. In discussing Schumann, she mentions his talent for creating short pieces that he then assembled into larger works, his 1838 Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood) an example. Certainly one of the work's strengths is its acknowledgement of the wide range of emotions a child experiences; to that end, there are rollicking, lighthearted pieces (“On the Rocking Horse,” “Blind Man's Bluff,” “Hobgoblin”) but melancholy, lyrical, and reflective ones (“Pleading Child,” “Reverie,” “In Slumberland”) too. In this collection, wistful moments (“Almost Too Serious”) partner with jovial (“A Curious Story”) and cozy (“By the Fireside”) ones. The mercurial moods to which a child is prone is captured in the tonal shifts from one piece to the next. Her comment that the extreme brevity of some of the thirteen makes them “not really sustainable on their own” might be extreme, but she's correct in arguing that when they're combined a substantial work forms, and one that effectively documents an eventful, day-in-the-life portrait. The essence of each part is captured by Guembes-Buchanan in her rendition.

Schubert's Impromptu is familiar, to be sure, but no less engaging when performed by Guembes-Buchanan. Her observation that throughout the 1827 piece the composer plays with “alternating the horizontal and the vertical, turning the melodic arpeggiation into chordal accompaniment and vice-versa” enhances one's appreciation for the material and enables it be heard anew. The ornate flourishes and trills with which it begins instantly command the attention, as does her execution of the piece's lilting rhythms, cascading runs, and haunting themes.

Beethoven's Eleven Bagatelles is actually the second set of three he published, the first composed in 1801-02 and the last 1825. While the date affixed to the middle one is 1823, Guembes-Buchanan contends that its eleven were written over a thirty-year period, from the 1790s to the 1820s. Each is a fleeting statement, yet Beethoven's personality illuminates all. After an absorbing “Allegretto” initiates the adventure, the mood grows playful for the “Andante con moto” and exuberant for the “a l'Allemande.” The “Andante cantabile” and “Moderato cantabile” exude a sweetly rhapsodic character, the declamatory “Risoluto” passion. Blink and you'll miss “Allegramente,” at sixteen seconds the shortest of the album's twenty-five tracks.

March 2024