By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Pianist Solungga Liu first considered titling her newest recording “Solo and Chamber Music by Amy Beach.”
Then her producer, the composer Gregory Mertl told her: “Your album is showing the strength, the power, the passion” of the American composer. Why not, he said, put that on the cover?
“It was a wonderful idea,” Liu, a professor of piano at BGSU.
“The Passionate Amy Beach: Piano Quintet and Selected Work for Solo Piano” is now available for purchase as a CD and is available to stream and download, including on YouTube.
The title is fitting because it is that passion that drew Liu to the music of Beach.
Liu had just arrived at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, to begin her graduate studies. Alan Feinberg had joined the faculty the same year, and at convocation at the beginning of the semester, he performed. One of the pieces he played was “Dreaming” by Beach. “As soon as he started, I couldn’t stop crying because the touch, the sound was so amazing and … I knew I wanted that kind of sound. I was so excited to be able to study with him.
“I would never be who I am today if I’d never met him,” she continued. “He completely changed my technique, my playing, my concept of sound. He opened my whole world.”
And he introduced her to the music of Amy Beach. He was an advocate for the music of American composers from the early 20th century, as is Liu.
Liu was struck by the power and passion of Beach’s work. She never heard of the composer.
A piano virtuoso, Beach was largely self-taught as a composer. She was considered a piano prodigy, but when at 18 she married an older physician, she had to greatly restrict her public performances, though she continued to compose. She was the first American woman to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra. She resumed an active performing career after her husband died. Beach died in 1944 at 77.
“I loved her works because they were so complex. It’s very good pianistic writing because she knew the instrument so well.”
The piano music led to Liu listening to the range of Beach’s work, orchestral, choral, chamber pieces, and the many songs she was most noted for.
Five years ago, Liu spent a sabbatical in Australia. This was a good time, she decided, to prepare her next solo album. Her first was dedicated to the music of Charles Tomlinson Griffes, a younger contemporary of Beach.
[RELATED: Solungga Liu performs musical treasures at Mother’s Day recital at Toledo Museum]
She already had included Beach’s “Ballade” in her concert repertoire, and she knew she wanted to perform “Dreaming,” recording it along with the three other pieces in “Four Sketches.”
Liu also selected “A Hermit Thrush at Eve,” which she described as “very peaceful with a beautiful open harmonic sound.”
She felt Beach’s Piano Quintet in F-sharp Minor was not well represented on record, so she wanted to make recording worthy of the piece.
The quintet was recorded with Eliot Heaton and Ran Cheng, violins, Colin Brooks, viola, and SeungAh Hong, cello, in 2017, at Stone Soup in Toledo following a performance at BGSU. The solo pieces were recorded there the following year.
The pandemic delayed the release. The editing of the quintet also took extra time. “To edit a piece of chamber music, I wouldn’t be able to do it because it’s way beyond my knowledge and ability.,” she said.
Mertl took the lead in editing the work, sending tracks to all the musicians, so they could suggest edits.
The recording comes out at a time when performers are seeking out the work composers from underrepresented groups, especially African Americans and females.
This was not in mind when Liu was first working on the recording. But then she saw how it fit with the social upheaval of the past few years.
“People are really starting to pay attention to female composers’ works,” she said. “That is so wonderful.”
