Carolyn Enger: Resonating Earth
Métier

Beyond being a collection of contemporary solo piano works, Carolyn Enger's Resonating Earth is also, as its title implies, a statement about the climate crisis affecting the planet and our role and responsibilities as earth's stewards. The release therefore showcases her pianistic artistry while also expressing her commitment to environmental activism. Of course one might reasonably question what significant difference such an album could conceivably make when the world's experiencing ecological disasters daily and at a global scale. Operating on the belief that the individual choices we make can have a cumulative impact, Enger fashioned Resonating Earth with that principle in mind. As the urge to articulate her concerns for the planet intensified, she embarked on gathering material that would convey that message. Dovetailing with the thought-provoking tone of the project are compositions conducive to contemplation and reverie. Enger, who studied at the Manhattan School of Music, recorded the material at the school in its Myers Recording Studio between 2019 and 2022.

Pieces by artists of long-standing such as Meredith Monk, Philip Glass, John Cage, Wolfgang Rihm, and John Luther Adams are woven into Enger's seventy-five-minute tapestry with ones by younger composers, some now solidly established and others still making names for themselves. Caroline Shaw, Missy Mazzoli, and Nico Muhly are perhaps the best-known of that group, but Marcos Balter, Sean Hickey, and Iman Habibi are strongly represented on the release too. It's gratifying to see Enger framing the release with two Monk selections and including two Cage pieces as well when his work isn't typically featured on such collections. Some listeners might be taken aback by the tranquil prettiness of his In a Landscape, which he composed in 1948 for dancer Louise Lippold. As stirring, the second Cage work, Dream, was composed in the same year but for a dance work by Merce Cunningham.

Admittedly, some pieces are tangentially related to environmental issues; John Luther Adams, on the other hand, is a composer whose work has long been distinguished by its concern for the natural world. A case in point is Nunataks, whose title derives from the Inuit word for “solitary peaks,” specifically the jagged mountains that rise from ice fields and glaciers. Stillness and solitude are evoked by spacious chords in Adams's reverberant setting, with the mountains standing alone alluding to human isolation. Naturally some pieces will resonate with listeners more than others and leave a greater mark. Perhaps because it arises in a context where many a piece is contemplative, Glass's Etude No. 2 registers memorably for its wistful tone and lyrical melodies, and Shaw's Gustav le Gray shows why she's recognized as one of her generation's greatest composers. The piece evolved out of a student exercise that involved creating a piece in response to an existing one. Having chosen Chopin's Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17, No. 4, Shaw crafted her treatment to begin, like his, with a haunting motive that through repetition and elaboration grows progressively more bewitching. Deepening the music's spell are a series of key transitions that Enger executes elegantl, such that this longest of the album's works at twelve-and-a-half minutes never loses its seductive lustre.

Given that many of her works were created in response to global events and social issues, Monk is a fitting choice to open (and close) the album. Her softly chiming Quarry Waltz and Ellis Island provide haunting entry and exit points, while Balter's l.v., written for a 2013 Beethoven celebration in Chicago , is one of many settings to use space and silence to induce a contemplative state. While it's as restrained, Muhly's aptly titled Lilt arrests the ear with ascending figures and hymnal dignity, and the delicacy with which Enger delivers the material speaks to her artistry and authority as an interpreter. Tickling the senses too is Mazzoli's Orizzonte for the near-subliminal sine wave textures that accompany unfurling sprinkles of piano. Shifting the focus to the COVID-19 pandemic and the probing inner reflection it encouraged, Habibi's in the brittle quietude uses gentle voicings to emphasize the fragility that was brought home to us by the experience. Whereas the 9-11 attacks inspired the writing of Hickey's poignant meditation The Birds of Barclay Street, his heartfelt second piece, Reckoning, memorializes a friend killed by a bombing in Morocco.

October 2024