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Click here to listen to Robert Cassidy play Grave, quasi recitative from Joel Feigin's Four Elegies

Pianist Robert Cassidy’s new solo piano CD Pathways - MSR Classics/MS1604/$12.95/ www.msrcd.com - takes the listener on an unexpectedly intriguing and intellectually satisfying musical journey. Matching seemingly disparate composers Chopin, Debussy, and Joel Feigin to reveal their mutual commonality, Cassidy has assembled a recording that should be in every serious classical music lover’s collection. Debussy’s Preludes Pour Piano, Livre II serves as the major work on the album, but it is American composer Joel Feigin’s Four Elegies for Piano: In Memoriam Renée Longy that connects the dots and enlightens on this CD. Feigin’s moving homage to his ear-training teacher at Juilliard speaks to her unequivocal French character through implied colorations and tonal resting points that hint, not surprisingly, of Debussy. Cassidy misses none of this interconnectedness, further rewarding the listener with Chopin’s super romantic, pre-impressionist Barcarolle in F-Sharp Major, Op. 60.

Daniel Kepl | Performing Arts Review