Pianist Jonathan Phillips: Tranquillity - watch the interview, read the review
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Watch my interview with pianist Jonathan Phillips about his Chopin CD
The Philosopher Pianist
Every note is an intoned contemplation of sound and its meaning - overtone, harmonics, spatial intention. Each phrase, no matter how short the narrative journey, is given expressive clarity, denouement, and completion. The pianist's deliberate pace allows the listener ample intellectual room for introspection and fresh discovery.
Each of the Bach keyboard performances on pianist Jonathan Phillips' Tranquillity album are enchantments. The artist has subsumed with intuition and patience, the far-reaching cosmos that was Johann Sebastian Bach’s creative playground.
Superb pianism utterly without ostentation, together with a delicacy of touch and temperament emanating from within his own contemplative world view, offers listeners comfortable access to a unique sensibility that levitates the mind. As performed by Jonathan Phillips, the works on Tranquillity are individual gems. But as a carefully curated musical arc, they are far more rewarding.
A graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK, where he studied with Sulamita Aronovsky, Jonathan Phillips engaged in postgraduate mentoring with Alexander Kelly in London, and later under the baton of Tamás Vásáry, who recommended he take part in the 1990 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
Since then, Jonathan Phillips has broadcast for the BBC, Russian, Italian, and Swedish TV and radio, and given recitals all over the UK, Europe, and the former Soviet Union. The artist maintains a piano studio in the Cotswolds region of England.
Perhaps it’s the natural beauty and frozen-in-time Medieval villages scattered about the rolling hills of the Cotswolds, or the powerful energy of the area’s Celtic history that makes the landscape so magical. Oxford, the River Severn, and three national nature reserves have contributed mightily I suspect, to the deeply meditative aura of this recording.
The peace and quiet of his rural setting has allowed Phillips opportunity to re-explore these works and other familiar repertoire, music he has known throughout his musical career. For thoughtful listeners to Tranquillity's overall structure, it's progress from one piece to the next, the beautifully performed portfolio of 21 jewels from Johann Sebastian Bach’s enormous keyboard output become a unified cathedral of sound.
When given breathing room and fresh colors (the modern piano) Bach's music reveals subtle sonic delights. Purists might take momentary pause. The selections have been garnered; single movements from larger works, some (gasp!) are transcriptions by other composers. Jonathan Phillips has thought a great deal about balance and structure, and the revelations he wishes to share are as worthy as his editing.
In his program notes, Phillips quotes Emmanuel Kant with a cheeky word volley in defense of his choices for the Tranquillity album. “I made this work principally for myself, so it agrees exceedingly well with my constitution. If any man has a mind to take part with me, he is very welcome to do so." My takeaway quote after listening to Tranquillity is from Italian filmmaker Roberto Rossellini. “Neorealism does not stop at the surface but seeks the most subtle aspects of the soul."
Jonathan Phillips’ recording process for Tranquillity has been neorealist. As a result, he has been able to free his subconscious mind of conscious worries, to explore beneath the surface of Bach's music. The program was played through and recorded once. No splicing, no repeated takes. Done.
Presumably after a tea break, the entire program was played through and recorded once more. Editing was about making choices between the two stream-of-consciousness versions. Phillips has been able to eliminate mind clutter and distractive worry by going with the flow. The result is an epiphanic musical arc with 21 connective tissues.
Rossellini had it right about not allowing ripples on the surface to distract from the wonders below. By simply playing each piece completely through without the baggage of conscious worry over mechanics, Phillips “seeks the most subtle aspects of the soul” through felt response, and the absence of rules of engagement.
Addressing critically each of these tracks would have been a silly and boring waste of time. Instead, I offer an overview of Tranquillity as gesamtkunstwerk, a total work of art. Individually, each selection on the Tranquillity album is a moonstone of clairvoyance and spirituality in Phillips' interpretations. As a whole, the set transports the listener beyond consciousness.
Jonathan Phillips’ cleanly articulated, well balanced, and perfectly voiced performances confirm beyond doubt he is a pianist’s pianist. Technique is a given at this level, but Phillips takes full advantage of the modern piano’s capacity for delicacy and nuanced color.
The keyboard pieces he has selected are risky, because so well known. It is Phillips’ intimacy of messaging that elevates this album. Breaching sensitively the still pond of the composer’s already private soundscape with wonderful hesitations, lovely and relaxed executions, and discreetly meditative embellishments, Phillips transports the listener to sound imagery intractable by ordinary soul compass.
Revelatory performances on this album include Ich ruf du zir, Herr Jesu Christ (I call to you, Lord Jesus Christ), BWV 639 (track 2) - each individual note and every superb chord are somehow momentous in Phillips' interpretation. The pianist utilizes the modern piano beautifully, with subtle dynamic shadings, wonderful interpretive hesitations, and cadential rubati that add meaning to each fraction of melodic narrative.
Prelude and Fugue in C sharp minor, BWV 849 (tracks 6 and 7) - Phillips’ magnificent understanding of sostenuto makes each note weighty with meaning. Yet there is also a finesse to this controlled energy that sets Phillips’ performance apart. Clarity, concentrated power, and control of the instrument pay off, abetted by utterly satisfying forward movement.
Organ Sonata No. 4 in E minor, BWV 528 - Adagio (track 12) - so simple, its essence stroked delicately by Phillips’ subtle comprehension of where and how the melodic line is being developed and varied by the composer. Phillips makes the piano soar with expression; his voicing is glorious. The pianist's intuitive understanding of Bach’s harmonic movement gives the listener opportunity to enjoy fresh interpretive surprises, all nuanced in style and elegance.
Daniel Kepl | Performing Arts Review
Daniel Kepl chats with British pianist Jonathan Phillips
Bach Busoni "Ich ruf du zir" F minor
Tranquillity in music from J S Bach.
Prelude & Fugue in C-Sharp Minor, BWV 849: I. Prelude
Prelude & Fugue in C-Sharp Minor, BWV 849: II. Fugue
Organ Sonata No. 4 in E Minor, BWV 528: I. Adagio (Arr. for Piano)
Siloti E MINOR Youtube
Italian Concerto in F Major, BWV 971: II. Andante
Prelude & Fugue in E-Flat Minor, BWV 853: II. Fugue
Keyboard Concerto in D Minor, BWV 974: II. Adagio (After A. Marcello's Oboe Concerto in D Minor)