As we step into the cold, removed melody of “Nocturnes, Op. 9 No. 1 in B-Flat Minor” with only the piano play of one Elizabeth Sombart to guide us through this familiar excerpt from the Nocturnes, there’s a sense of angst hanging in the air that no amount of pristine play can dispel. Wandering through this six-and-a-half-minute opus, we soon find ourselves on the other side of the track in “Op. 9 No. 2 in E-Flat Major,” by no means evading the dark melancholy that has spilled over from the previous movement. It isn’t until we’re in the guts of the allegretto, “Op 9 No. 8 in B Major,” that we’re truly basking in a feeling of certainty, but I get the impression this was the concept Sombart was going for all along.
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The three parts of “Nocturnes, Op. 15;” “No. 1-4 in F Major,” “No. 2-5 in F-Sharp Major,” and the lento “No. 3-6 in G Minor,” comprise the most sophisticated sounds you’re to hear on Singing the Nocturnes, but the technical prowess that Elizabeth Sombart so eagerly dispenses in these tracks doesn’t remain isolated to “Op. 15.” On the contrary, it’s a mere sneak preview of the tension that will soon fill our speakers to the brim in “Nocturnes, Op. 27 No. 1-7 in C-Sharp Minor,” one of the most hauntingly raw performances I’ve ever heard this artist give inside of a recording studio. She’s really on her game here, and those who have been following her career are going to agree.
“Nocturnes, Op. 32” is a four-part venture that contributes a bit of buoyancy than “Op. 48” and “Op. 55” just aren’t able to divvy out, and although it feels a little longer than it should comparative to the other movements in this record, it doesn’t drag on past the point of relevancy - nothing in Singing the Nocturnes does. Elizabeth Sombart has gone to such painstaking lengths of giving us the meatiest - and moodiest - that the Nocturnes have to offer here, and although there’s a case to be made that nothing is quite as cutting as what we hear in the latter half of “Nocturnes, Op. 62 No. 2-18,” I can’t imagine listening to fragments of this album rather than the entire piece as one cohesive work of art.
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Elizabeth Sombart wraps up Singing the Nocturnes with the likes of “Nocturnes, posth. No. 20 in C-Sharp Minor” and the posthumous follow up “No, 21 in C Minor,” but by now one is likely to be so bewitched by what they’ve just heard that listening to the record over again feels more appropriate than simply letting these tracks grind to a solid stop. As a lifelong classical lover, this is one of those LPs that’s particularly hard to set aside once given that all-important first spin, and relative to the other Chopin tributes I’ve heard in 2022 and 2021 the same, this stands out as a required listen, and perhaps the best we’ve heard from its creator in a while.
Winston Hennessey III
