Limelight Arts: Piano Diary (Andrea Lam)
Andrea Lam’s gemlike intimate collection has something for every piano lover.
“If you watched the recent ABC TV series The Piano you would have heard one of the judges, Andrea Lam, described as “Australia’s greatest classical pianist”. Some may dispute this, but few would disagree that her Piano Diary album is a beautifully performed gem with something for every lover of the instrument.
The 16 diverse tracks span a generous 80 minutes of pieces new and old important to Lam throughout her life. Some are explosive and fun – Earl Wild’s Etude No. 6 based on Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm or contemporary New Yorker Aaron Jay Kernis’s Superstar Etude #2, for instance. Others are superb readings of favourites – Chopin’s Ballade No. 4 and Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Schubert’s Impromptu No. 3 and a brace of Schumann delights by Robert and Clara.
Lam’s personal liner notes give pieces an added layer – the delicately handled Brahms’ Intermezzo Op. 118 No. 2 which she played over the phone from the other side of the world to her dying grandfather is unforgettable. Other works summon up the turmoil of moving abroad, going through the isolation of lockdowns or the joy at the birth of her son (I’m guessing that one is Tom Poster’s arrangement of Gershwin’s Someone To Watch Over Me).
She also unveils Bachram, a work written for her by Aussie composer Melody Eötvös, and rounds it all off with the stunning three-part Glimpses for prepared piano by Canadian Vivian Fung.
Cream and cherry on the cake? Bill Evans’ wonderful jazz classic Peace Piece and JS Bach’s Aria from the Goldberg Variations.”