This is the second in a series of albums issued by pianist
Sarah Cahill
under the rubric The Future Is Female.
Cahill
's concept has expanded beyond its original intention of commissioning new works to include the rediscovery of music from the past, and she correctly notes that there is plenty out there awaiting performance. Indeed,
avoids obvious choices here. The first half of the album is devoted to works from before the present day, and it includes some nice finds. Consider the
Partita for solo piano
by
Germaine Tailleferre
, a composer inexplicably neglected in the general vogue for French neoclassicism and one who faced unusually serious gender-based obstacles to her career. The work is elegant and exquisitely concise. Or the
Rhapsody for solo piano
of
Zenobia Powell Perry
, an African American composer who has not received her due; the work shows the influence of her teacher,
Darius Milhaud
, and it actually has fewer African American vernacular influences than the two excerpts from the
Colour Suite
Madeleine Dring
. The
Pieces de clavecin
of Baroque composer
Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre
transfer well to the piano, and the contemporary works are a well-chosen group with one world premiere,
She Dances Naked Under Palm Trees
, by
Theresa Wong
.
sets herself the task of presenting an entirely fresh program of music by women, and she accomplishes exactly this. ~ James Manheim