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So much of Canadian art music composition sits silently on shelves, laptops and portable flash drives. The bulk of our composers\u2019 output may never be performed more than once or twice, and the possibility of recording it is even more remote, given its sales potential and the expense of studio and recording time and expertise.<\/p>\n
It may be small consolation that Canadian creations are in great company with the output from other countries and centuries, but if we don\u2019t hear it, does it really exist? It is only potential music, not the real, living, streaming kind.<\/p>\n
Kudos to people like Toronto pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico for trying to remedy this. Last month she released Soundspinning<\/em>, an album devoted to the solo piano music of the late Ann Southam. It is available on the Canadian Music Centre\u2019s Centrediscs label<\/p>\n Quilico and fellow Torontonian Eve Egoyan became friends of Southam\u2019s, and both have had success with recitals and albums featuring her compositions. Quilico\u2019s two Glass Houses<\/em> albums sparkled. Egoyan\u2019s three contributions \u2014\u00a05<\/em>, Returnings<\/em> and Simple Lines of Enquiry<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 were mesmerizing.<\/p>\n Now Quilico is back with 53 minutes of music that include nine works, of which seven have not been released on a commercial recording before. The oldest and most substantial piece on the album, Altitude Lake<\/em>, dates back to 1963, when Southam would have been 26 years old.<\/p>\n The most recent is Where<\/em>, a 1995 Christmas present to Halifax pianist Barbara Pritchard. Southam died in 2010.<\/p>\n Southam\u2019s compositional style evolved considerably over the years. The earlier pieces are atonal, adapting 12-tone writing. The more recent pieces use a variety of process or pattern music forms.<\/p>\n Quilico is an energetic, brilliant player who puts the brightest spin on the variety of short pieces on the album. But most of them are not Southam\u2019s best work. This album is a clear example of diminishing returns.<\/p>\n The album\u2019s openers are three pieces that last a total of two-and-a-quarter minutes (Sonocycles<\/em>) and eight pieces that run to seven-and-a-quarter minutes (Soundspinning<\/em>, minus Southam\u2019s original ninth movement).<\/p>\n Both date from 1979 and sound like miniature studies for later works like Glass Houses<\/em>. Listening to them is not much different from walking past a miniature abstract in a gallery. There is well-crafted work here, but not enough of it to allow genuine appreciation.<\/p>\n