Singing the Nocturnes is Elizabeth Sombart’s lustrous and inspired
tribute to the powers of Polish pianist and composer Frederic Chopin. It also
brings the 19th century giant’s work to vivid life for modern
audiences not as a relic from a bygone past but, instead, as a vigorous and
relevant piece of music that reflects the human condition in 360 degree
fashion. It’s a bold assertion, but it’s the sort of thing that artists such as
this are known for.
Elizabeth Sombart’s classical training began early. She started playing piano before her teen years and advanced with breathtaking speed as her ascent through the classical music ranks snagged several awards along the way. She won an early first prize at the National Piano and Chamber Music Awards and went on to study with several renowned classical instructors before embarking in full on her own path.
It has been music, music, music. Singing the Nocturnes serves notice of Sombart being a full-fledged artist as she inhabits each of the 21 Chopin compositions included on this release, She moves from the major and minor key exploration, the mini-suites built within the larger work, and the nearly dizzying gamut of emotions rife throughout the work with confidence and, more importantly, emotion.
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These are inert and academic exercises for Sombart. They are alive, instead, with possibility and it is a fulsome credit to her genius as a musician that she imbues a sense of go-for-broke spontaneity in what are surely structured and well-established pieces. It isn’t every classical musician who can do that. There’s a sense of overall structure with the work to that makes it best to experience this album as a whole, in a single sitting.
It does allow for listeners to dive in and out, however, as they like. Sombart, however, hails from an earlier generation where works are best experienced as a coherent and unified whole. It’s unique to hear in Singing the Nocturnes that aforementioned spontaneity reflected in different ways. The verb ‘sing’ is a good choice for the album title as her playing in both the moodier and livelier pieces alike gives listeners a musical dialogue of a sort to follow. It’s a compelling conversation full of melodic highs and lows that never fails holding listener’s attention.
21 tracks may seem like a lot, as well, but Sombart’s musical treatment of the Nocturnes makes it a surprisingly breezy experience. Her playing carries listeners away with an effortless lift and she weaves what can only be described as a dream-like suspension of disbelief that we are delighted to entertain. Her graceful and personable touch never deserts her during any of these pieces. It’s the latest creative high point in a career studded with one such moment after the next and her appetite for creating seems far from sated. Elizabeth Sombart’s Singing the Nocturnes is classical music of the highest order, passionate, and fully alive rather than some cliché. Listen today and you’ll hear magic in each of these pieces.
Joshua Beach
