Bach To Black: Suites For Piano, Volume II
Albany, 2022
8/10
Listen to Bach To Black: Suites For Piano, Volume II
The pianist Rochelle Sennet returns with more interpretations of works by Bach and black composers, and this time it’s spread out across 3 discs that includes pieces by black woman composers, i.e. Florence Price, Montague Ring, and Joyce Solomon Moorman.
Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Paritita No. 3 in A Minor, BWV 827” starts the listen with meticulous, fascinating playing that’s quite mesmerizing and full of plenty of melodic progressions, and further on “From The Southland Suite”, by Harry Thacker Burleigh, emits both beauty and playfulness in its very charming delivery.
The middle disc offers us the dreamy elegance of Florence Beatrice Price’s “Seven Descriptive Pieces”, as well as the animated and upbeat dynamics of “Carnival: Suite of Five Dances”, which indeed seems like it could soundtrack a day under the The Big Top.
Nearing the end, the emotive and stirring “Piano Suite”, by Joyce Solomon Moorman, is one of the best selections and certainly is cause for reflection, and George Theophilus Walker’s “Guido’s Hand: Five Pieces for Piano” is particularly distinct, where Sennet’s finger acrobatics are nothing short of stunning.
Sennet is a performer, teacher, and scholar, and you’d be hard pressed to find anyone else who can play a piano and interpret music like this. Three discs might seem like a lot of piano music to absorb, but in these capable hands it never out welcomes its stay.
Travels well with: Allen Shawn- Fantasia & Other Pieces; Victoria Bond- Blue And Green Music