Katelyn Bouska - Women and War and Peace (2023) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Gustave Le Gray
02. Mazurkas
03. Fantasie
04. Fragments from a Woman’s Diary
05. Prague Imaginations
06. Dubnova preludia
07. Shadows and Ghosts

Neither pianist Katelyn Bouska nor the Yarlung label for which she records here are household names, but this is one of the most compelling releases of 2023 thus far. With one exception, Bouska performs works by women composers displaced by 200 years of war in Europe. Even with increased attention to music by women, the pieces here are all but unknown, and they are, without exception, startling. Given Bouska's theme, it may seem odd that she begins with a piece that does not fit, Caroline Shaw's Gustave Le Grey. However, it is easy to see why she did this; Shaw's work is a fantasy of sorts that converges on and then departs from Chopin's Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17, No. 4. It is an inward-looking fantasy, perhaps, that introduces the other music on the album. The other works range from early 19th century Poland to Shadows and Ghosts, by Ukrainian composer Ludmila Yurina, who recently fled her war-torn country. Perhaps the most revelatory works are by Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831, and apparently unrelated to Karol Szymanowski), who died of cholera as Russian troops devastated Warsaw in 1831. Szymanowka's influence on Chopin is obvious but all too rarely acknowledged. Viteslava Kaprálová died on the run from the Nazis in 1940, and her Dubnová preludia was one of the distinctive works she wrote in the few years during which she was active. Despite having been dedicated to Rudolf Firkusny, it is hardly known. Another revelation is the Fragments from a Woman's Diary by Ruth Schönthal, a Jew of Austrian background who ended up in the U.S. after World War II. Written late in Schönthal's life, it is nothing less than a 27-minute musical autobiography, and one can only marvel at the fact that it has been overlooked until now. Bouska is a scholar as well as a pianist, and likely her research deserves the credit for this altogether fascinating, beautifully performed repertory.

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