Voices for Solo Piano - Hanni Liang
DCD34326 (Delphian Records, CD)
FIRST RELEASE (25 October 2024)
Playing time: 77'11"
Tracks: 26
Booklet pages: 16
℗ 2024 Delphian Records Ltd
© 2024 Delphian Records Ltd
Main country of recording: Germany
Reviewer: Geoff Pearce
Review of Voices for Solo Piano - Hanni Liang published on 22 October 2024
Hanni Liang, piano
Ethel Smyth (1858–1944):
1-3 Sonata No 2 in C sharp minor
Errollyn Wallen (born 1958):
4 I Wouldn’t Normally Say
Ethel Smyth:
5-13 Variations in D flat major on an Original Theme (of an Exceeding Dismal Nature)
Sally Beamish (born 1956):
14 Night Dances
Chen Yi (born 1953):
15-25 Variations on 'Awariguli'
Eleanor Alberga (born 1949):
16 Cwicseolfor
A pioneer of new concert formats, using music to communicate and bring people together, Hanni Liang was long sceptical about the traditional role of recording in progressing an artist's career. It was her discovery of Ethel Smyth – both as a composer and as a person and a woman, fighting without compromise – that sparked the inspiration that led to Voices. In this album she has created a programme that both champions women's voices that, without the determination of Smyth and others like her, might otherwise have been silent, and allows her to raise her own voice, reflecting both her European birth and upbringing and her Chinese roots.
Recorded 7-9 November 2023 in Sendesaal Bremen, Germany.