In Mozart’s time, the art of improvisation by concert performers – especially keyboard players – was considered central to the musical experience. Harpsichordists, organists, fortepianists, were rated by how well they could improvise on a theme provided by an important person at a concert, or by themselves. It was not that different from the “cutting contests” that stride piano players held in Harlem a century and a half later.
With the coming of the Romantic period in music the art of improvisation died out, and today the typical classical performer is rated by how closely they follow the composer’s score without any departures from it. Venezuelan-born classical pianist Gabriela Montero is a noted concert artist who performs written works with orchestras around the world. But she is also an improviser extraordinaire. On this CD she takes 13 well-known themes of the Baroque period plus two she herself came up with, and creates on-the-spot improvisations on each. They are not jazz improvisations but new variations and impressions inspired by the themes in question.
Ms. Montero says in her album notes (on the rear of a poster of herself) that she sees the joy of the public’s involvement in the music at her concerts (I’m deducing it is more than at her straight piano concerto gigs). She hopes that bringing improvisation to the concert stage “will remind us of the freedom and disembodiment that was always shared and promoted by the great composers of the past when they allowed themselves to ‘just fly.’ They were not so concerned with being ‘perfect.’ They were just honest and outspoken voices defending their need to express thru sound and meaning.”
I don’t believe I have ever cringed less when hearing Pachelbel’s Canon than during Ms. Montero’s improvisation. She covers the main themes of all four Vivaldi Seasons in three separate improvisations, and the Hallelujah Chorus gets a surprising little treatment that might be by Leroy Anderson. I especially liked her improvisations on my two favorite Baroque themes: the Handel Sarabande and Albinoni’s Adagio. The latter receives the longest improvisation of all at seven minutes and is a jewel of a piece which I for one could hear over and over. Ms. Montero really has something unique going on here.
TrackList: SANZ: Canarios, VIVALDI: Autumn, PACHELBEL: Canon, HANDEL: Saraband, MONTERO: Baroque and Me, HANDEL: Hallelujah, ALBINONI: Adagio, HANDEL: Largo, BACH: Prelude, VIVALDI: Winter, HANDEL: Hornpipe, D. SCARLATTI: Sonata, VIVALDI: Spring, VIVALDI: Summer and Winter, MONTERO: Continuum
— John Sunier
