Duncan Heining writes:
“Carol Lian is a hugely gifted classical pianist… However, the main point of interest
to JAZZWISE readers lies in her explorations of improvisation within an otherwise
classical framework… What strikes immediately is the quality of the pianist’s touch
and the way in which this opens out and makes these (Schumann) compositions
relevant today. …the 12 miniatures that follow are equally vital.
We often impose our own points of reference onto improvisation, but what I hear
in these pieces is Lian drawing on her knowledge of the classical repertoire
to create music that owes some debt to other composers but which avoids any
suggestion of pastiche. So I hear hints of Debussy and echoes of the jazz – inspired
syncopations of Prokoviev and Stravinsky alongside the harmonic language of the
late romantic composers.
Intriguing and ripe with possibility."
Listen to SCHUMANN’S AN EVENING, SOARING and WHY?.
“Her performances of the first three of Schumann’s Fantasiestücke Op.12 are
fascinating and persuasive”.
Listen to LIAN’S DANCE OF THE SUN
“ a lyrical, swirling piece… very moving emotionally; there is just something so
haunting, so deeply feminine about it in the best sense of the word, ”a reaching
into in”, you might say. In the last moments of the piece she gives us a lovely,
almost exotic melody that fades into nothingness.”
Lynn René Bayley
Fanfare Magazine
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