Engaging solo piano works by John Carbon given strong performances by Steven Graff

I have reviewed Chicago born pianist Steven Graff playing piano works by fellow Chicago composer John Carbon (b.1951) before (here), as well as a disc of Carbon’s orchestral works (here). On his latest disc, Graff has recorded two solo piano works by Carbon. The first is a set of 24 short pieces, Short Stories, composed over a period from 2013, with the whole set being revised in 2017-2018. Although there was an original intention to follow Bach in terms of rigorous coverage of major and minor keys, and a prelude/fugue alternation, Carbon eventually moved away from that rigour, but nevertheless still aimed for a broad range of chromatic, tonal, atonal and modal languages throughout the 24 miniatures, mostly around one or two minutes long each. The ‘stories’ are enigmatic – more of a suggestion of mood, with titles such as Quantum Hobgoblin, Convocation and Paean not revealing a great deal about any programmatic meaning. Quantum Hobgoblin is playful, with cartoonish perpetual motion, whilst Convocation, with its tolling first 3 notes and fugal entries building in insistence to a dramatic, declamatory ending. Paean has a simple bare melody, and like the gently turning, pastoral Heather Bells that opens the set, reminded me a little of some of John Ireland’s solo piano works. There are pieces that reference composers, such as the lilting Tea with Claude and Maurice, full of impressionistic seconds and rippling sweeps, and Czerny’s Id, its jumpy rhythms like a slightly off kilter exercise. George Sand’s Dream is the longest piece, at around seven and a half minutes, and is a beautifully conceived piece, from a circling idea at the start, rising and falling, through a slow waltz with ringing high notes, moving into a dreamy wandering central section, before tonality finally brings certainty at the end. A winding tune emerges from dancing octaves in Guadeloupe Calypso, whilst Joplin’s Tic is spiky, and pushes the sense of ragtime into a less tonal harmonic world, before winding down to a slow stop. There is such a variety of styles and sound worlds here, and Graff is alert to every change of mood, with grand weight in the thicker textures of Momentum, as well as soft-toned, dripping smoothness in Chocolate Velvet. Coming in at just under an hour in total, this is a set packed full of interest, and Graff brings the stark stylistic shifts to life throughout. The disc then ends with a single movement work, Icarus. Dating back to 1988, it is a highly virtuosic piece, and captures a sense of the danger and folly of the Greek myth. From a glassy, atmospheric opening, the rippling rises and falls, and driving rhythmic energy builds in intensity to thundering and crashing at the midpoint. There is a sense of falling, then a more rhapsodic episode, before the thundering returns, building to a final, scarily viruosic display at the end. Highly dramatic, it is much more overtly virtuosic than the Short Stories, and shows another side to both Graff and Carbon’s command of the instrument. All in all, this is another great insight into Carbon’s varied and engaging music.

Carbon, J. 2023. Short Stories. Steven Graff. Compact Disc. Convivium Records CR085.