Jerry Ozipko, CD Review
| Zuzana Šimurdová, piano | VERTICAL LANDSCAPES |
Subtitled Piano Music by Canadian Women Composers, this recording is a revelation to this reviewer. When I was working on my first music degree, there were only four Canadian women composers of note: Violet Archer (1918-2000), Jean Coulthard (1908-2000),Barbara Pentland (1906-1995) and Ann Southam (1937-2010). Here we have a musical landscape of piano works from eleven representatives of the next generation of Canadian composers – all of these being women!
The pianist, Zuzana Šimurdová, is a former Czech Republic concert artist who has relocated to Edmonton, which has become her home base for performance tours and where she and her husband have established a teaching studio. On this recording her performances and interpretations of these works demonstrate the vastness of her emotional expression as well as her penchant for detail in expressing the melodies, the harmonic intentions, the specific articulations and dynamics of each composition as notated by the respective composers. There is so much depth to her playing that it is at times difficult to find the appropriate vocabulary expression to describe it. Depending upon the work, she can display delicacy so softly as to render it almost inaudible. At other times, the
bombast is almost overpowering! In her personal notes she explained her intention of “exploring the tropes, trying to find pieces whose emotional impact” would make her and the listener respond
deeply, seriously and positively. She has definitely succeeded in accomplishing that goal, and she has dedicated this recording to Canadian women in music.This disc is yet another stellar example of the judicious and tasteful planning, organization, and musical selection, recording, editing and production by Edmonton’s iconic composer and producer Dr Piotr Grella-Mozejko, who has issued this wonderfully performed music on his own PGMaudio record label. Bravo again!