As in her fantastic
Debussy in Resonance recording, Ms Goodale here mixes some of her own works and transcriptions of Sufi composers with works by Bach and famous transcriptions of Bach by Busoni, Siloti, and Kempff, as well as one transcription of Marcello by Bach. The results sound fantastic.
The artist's stated goal in her own works is to take Bach's themes and infuse them with Sufi rhythms. (She also goes into short technical detail about how it is impossible to do so using a piano given that Turkish makams have 1/9th tone intervals, so only approximations can be used.) Her playing in the straight Bach pieces focuses on rhythm above all, though she also coaxes nothing but
gorgeous sounds from her instrument. In her pieces, she ventures much farther afield. Part of this comes from her occasional use of prepared piano, though not in the John Cage sense; the preparation means to evoke eastern sounds directly. At its most extreme, the opening to the Sufi Chaconne, electronically altered, creates a dreamy soundscape that transitions to the famous Chaconne, before fading out. She then switches to an almost absurdly beautiful BWV974 as the follow up. Think of it as Bach infused with the spirit of Debussy, Mompou, and minimalism. A few pieces later, Goodale’s
After Bismillah blends beautiful middle and upper register playing with mysterious accompaniment in a beguiling way. The recording ends with Goodale’s transcription of Shahram Nazeri’s
Man Che Danam, where Goodale boogies, adds in some more prepared piano playing and percussion in a one woman mini-band. It’s a perfect closer.
Ms Goodale has essentially joined the ranks of Isabel Bayrakdarian, Marie-Luise Hinrichs, and David Greilsammer for me. All of them are artists who pursue their own things, their own visions, and bring moving insight and often unyielding beauty to the mix. I will follow Ms Goodale with some interest.