ABC AU: Andrea Lam - Piano Diary
Fresh from the hit ABC TV series ‘The Piano’, which she will be co-hosting with Harry Connick Jr,
star Australian pianist Andrea Lam steps into the spotlight with her own album Piano Diary. With this deeply personal selection of piano favourites, she shares the music that means the most to her, from the sublime beauty of Bach and Chopin to the spectacular fireworks of contemporary composers and mellow Gershwin favourites.
The piano, says Andrea, has been her most constant companion, through life’s changes and adventures, its highs and lows. “Saying goodbye to my grandfather. Indescribable depths of love after having my child. Overwhelming feelings that come with moving to a new country. Isolation from a worldwide pandemic. Nostalgia for childhood. Times you just want to yell at the world or squeal with joy. These are some of the moments when I have turned to the piano; the moments I most needed art. This album is a diary of those moments, from childhood to adulthood, and the music that gave solace, hope, inspiration, challenged and transported me to a different place: my very own Piano Diary.”
On this album, she brings her flair and verve, her unique blend of passion and lyrical beauty, to the intimate world of the solo piano. Andrea treats us to the poetry of Chopin, the comforting warmth of Brahms and Schubert, the tenderness of Granados’ The Girl and the Nightingale, the exquisite beauty of the Aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations; dreamy romance from Clara Schumann and swirling emotions from her husband Robert Schumann; the dazzling virtuosity of Aaron Jay Kernis’ Superstar Etude #2 and the boisterous yet whimsical joy of Bachram by Australian composer Melody Eötvös, commissioned by Andrea and receiving its world premiere recording on this album. She caresses every note of Bill Evans’ transcendent Peace Piece and takes wholehearted delight in two of Gershwin’s most irresistible melodies, I Got Rhythm and Someone to Watch Over Me. And to close the album, she takes the piano into whole new soundworlds with Vivian Fung’s Glimpses, written for ‘prepared piano’ where items as unexpected as hair clips, plastic clothes pegs, popsicle sticks, metal rulers, sticky tape, sake bowls and even butcher’s twine placed inside the instrument transform the piano into its own percussion section.