Canadian Composers Portraits: Ann Southam
Released: 2005
Label: Centrediscs/Centredisques
Order No: CMCCD 10505

Christina Petrowska Quilico, piano

A complete recording of Ann Southam's minimalist work, Rivers. Southam said, "I didn't think anyone would play this piece. But when Christina performed it, I loved the sound and what was happening as the hands interacted. And I loved the little tunes and motifs that could be heard in the interaction between the hands. It takes a whiz-bang pianist to make those heard. I don't how she does it!"

Reviews of Canadian Composers Portraits: Ann Southam

"Christina Petrowska Quilico gives an outstanding performance of these intricate minimalist works that range from contemplative to ebulient." - David Olds, Wholenote

"Southam is a minimalist, but her music resists all but the most superficial comparisons with Reich, Glass and the rest: she manages to be process-oriented and classical at the same time. Rating: 9 out of 10."
- Jerry Bowles, Sequenza21

Reviews of Christina Petrowska Quilico's performance of Rivers, May 2005 at The Music Gallery

"Toronto virtuosa Christina Petrowska Quilico becomes the first pianist to perform Ann Southam's Rivers cycle in its entirety tonight. The 19 solo piano pieces, written from 1979-1981, last a total of two hours, and demand extraordinary physical stamina from the player; Petrowska, whose recording of the cycle has just been released on the Centredisc label, has the monster technique to pull it off. Built on intricately and unpredictably interlocking melodic patterns, the pieces carry the listener into shimmering, at times ecstatic, realms...Petrowska did an exceptionally beautiful job of the slow pieces, casting a spell with her quiet, bell-like sound. I also liked the strong confident flow she gave not just to the fast pieces, but also the slow fast ones...Although the last piece -- the final one of the cycle, in fact -- was the longest, I kept hoping it would never end." - Tamara Bernstein, National Post

"Ann Southam, a composer in her mid-60s, has been quietly writing music in Toronto for decades now, without drawing too much attention to herself. But she made a big splash on Tuesday night at Toronto's Music Gallery, thanks to pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico, who dove into the first complete performance of Southam's Rivers with rare intensity and commitment...Rivers was in the right hands. Petrowska Quilico knows this music -- all million-or-so notes of it -- backwards and forwards...More importantly, she knows how to draw forth all the colour and expression that Southam has put in her score...there was a powerfully cumulative effect to this performance. Both the composition and Petrowska Quilico's playing seemed to gain in strength as the recital unfolded -- much like tributaries joining together to form a vast estuary, flowing together into the sea. This is astonishing music." -- Colin Eatock, Globe & Mail

Canadian Composers Portraits: Ann Southam is available through the Canadian Music Centre CD Boutique at www.musiccentre.ca. If you enjoyed this recording, you may also like Northern Sirens. More free classical music. Download an MP3 file from one of Christine Petrowska Quilico's CDs.