Ieva Jokubaviciute: Northscapes
Sono Luminus

Lithuanian pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute accomplishes something quite extraordinary on her debut recording for Sono Luminus. As intimated by the album title, its pieces deal with landscapes, specifically those associated with the composers' native countries. Yet as performed by her, they become what one might call inner geographies. Contrasts between the works of Lasse Thoresen, Anna Thorvaldsdóttir, Bent Sørenson, Kaija Saariaho, Raminta Šerkšnyte, and Peteris Vasks are pronounced, but each conveys the impression of a distinct physical region having been rendered into psychic form. It's a feat Jokubaviciute, currently Associate Professor of the Practice of Piano at Duke University in North Carolina and a member of Trio Cavatina, accomplishes rivetingly. Armed with a technical command that enables her to execute complex material with apparent ease, she exhibits a clear grasp of the composer's intention in her interpretation, and every performance affirms the presence of a probing intelligence.

In bookending the release, “Invocation of Pristine Light” and “Invocation of Rising Air,” the first two of Thoresen's Four Invocations (2014), bring a satisfying shape to the fifty-five-minute release; more importantly, the incantations function as portals of sorts, with the Norwegian composer basically facilitating entry into his colleagues' mystical realms. Consistent with the album theme, Thoresen's material was purposefully designed to symbolize the transition from the external world to the inner. Compared to the other settings on the recording, his reveal perhaps the strongest ties to established piano tradition; passages arise that could pass for Debussy, Ravel, and even Liszt, and the material is no less gripping for doing so.

Thorvaldsdottir's Scape (2011) aligns with her own characterization of her music as an “ecosystem of sounds,” and certainly Jokubaviciute's close reading reveals how interdependent the elements in the piece are. Expanding on its conventional sound presentation, the piano is prepared with screws between strings and the application of thimble and e-bow, and consequently the character of Thorvaldsdottir's native Iceland is conveyed through the creaks, strums, and echoes that reverberate across the piano phrases; here we witness Jokubaviciute moving farther away from the natural world and plunging deeper into abstract inner experience. Similar to it, Prelude (2007) by Finnish composer Saariaho downplays melody for atmospheric exploration and sound texture. The work spans the keyboard, ornamented as it is with sweeping cascades and plummeting glissandos, and suggests an organism slowly coming to life or clarity gradually coming to consciousness.

Two of the three parts included from Sorensen's 12 Nocturnes (2000-2014) reference the character Mignon from Goethe's Wilhelm Meister. Again we're in shadowy territory, as illustrated by the titles the Danish composer used: “Mignon - Und die Sonne geht Unter” (“Mignon and the Sun Goes Down”); “Nachtlicher Fluss” (“Night River”); and “Mitternacht mit Mignon” (“Midnight with Mignon”). Though moods differ between them, each is a fragile, intimate evocation, the first delicate, the second animated, and the third dignified. A natural companion to Sorensen's is Fantasia (1997) by Lithuanian composer Šerkšnyte, a reverie that alternates between subdued dreaminess and frenzied agitation (a parallel could be drawn to Schumann's diametric alter egos Florestan and Eusebius); forces don't simply collide here but instead entangle in ongoing tension. Geographical movement continues for Music for a Summer Evening (2009) by Latvian composer Vasks, with its title hinting at pastoral serenity and the wistful, even sometimes forlorn memories that come in its wake.

September 2021