Pianist Inna Faliks’ new album Reimagine: Beethoven and Ravel features her performance of Beethoven's Bagatelles, op. 126, alongside works she commissioned by Paola Prestini, Timo Andres, Billy Childs, Richard Danielpour, and half a dozen others to respond musically to Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit and the Bagatelles. In our insider interview, we spoke with her about the album, the commissioning process, and connecting the past with the future.
How did you get the idea to commission composers using these particular works as a jumping off point?
I wanted to create bridges between the past and the present, but without making it feel as though the composers were being asked to recreate something or to make something that exhibits particular reverence. The works I chose were meant to be used as a jumping-off point, an inspiration. The Beethoven year was around the corner, when I started planning this, four years ago – and nothing seemed more appropriate than the Bagatelles opus 126. They are his last masterpiece for the piano, and have so much richness, whimsy, transcendence, humor, experimentation – in tiny four minute works!
As the project expanded, I wanted to also include larger works, and turned towards Gaspard de la Nuit by Maurice Ravel. The triptych itself was based on three poems, so, with my Music/Words series background, it seemed like a natural fit for this project. Gaspard was on my first recording, Sound of Verse, on MSR Classics, and is one of the staples of my repertoire. I thought it would be a fantastic challenge and inspiration for the great composers whom I asked to take part of the project. There is so much in these poems and in this music, and I knew these composers would jump in and treat the material as seed of an idea. Indeed, I feel they created profound new works for the piano repertoire.
What fascinates you about this idea of connecting the past with the future via compositions that are inspired by other works?
I love the variation form. I also love to draw connections between different artforms and have done this for a big portion of my performance career – poetry with music, theatre with monologue, etc. To me, this type of connection feels inevitable. It helps the audience make aural, sensory, literary connections between then and now, and also hopefully erases this feeling of “old” music vs. “new” music. It’s all living, breathing music – and composers who write or wrote it were and are living, breathing human beings. Sometimes we tend to forget that.
How has your understanding of the original works been informed or changed by these new works? ie, did you gain a deeper insight after this process?
I tried not to impose my interpretation or view of Beethoven or Ravel onto the new pieces, but rather approach them with total freshness. This made for an interesting dialogue. It was fun finding clues, in character, form, color, to the originals but I wouldn’t say that I tried to play the new Bagatelles like the Beethoven Bagatelles. I tried to capture the individual voices of all the composers.
Both Timo Andres and Billy Childs found underlying themes surrounding race in the original works that informed their compositions. As the person who commissioned these works, how involved were you were throughout the process? What kinds of conversations were you having as the pieces were being written?
I let the composers do what they wanted and stayed out of the process, just waiting for the completed works. I didn’t want to influence or pressure them in any way. Only when the pieces were near finished did we meet and go through them, and sometimes changed small details.
The subject matter from Timo and Billy was coincidental and therefore much more moving than if we had actually planned it that way with both of them. Both just “went there{“, because they could not NOT go there. And I found that to be overwhelmingly powerful.
You commissioned six UCLA composers – in other words, six of your colleagues. Tell us about the similarities and/or differences of the composers in this group.
These are six phenomenal voices – and all are so different. Peter Golub writes for film, primarily, but also has lots of great stand along piano music. His Bagatelle had so much playfulness – a perfect opener for the album. The piece begins, then goes off course, then back on track, then changes its mind. It’s vivid and full of whimsy, just like the entire cycle of Bagatelles.
Tamir Hendelman’s Bagatelle is jagged and jazzy – he is a jazz pianist and composer! It’s also lyrical, and takes the Beethoven idea to far out places while keeping the buzzy energy alive.
Richard Danielpour and I have collaborated a lot. He has a special love for the piano, and is a wonderful pianist himself. I premiered his Bagatelle cycle two seasons ago, with this Bagatelle as part of the cycle, and had my UCLA students play all his Preludes. In the coming seasons, I will be recording his Bagatelle cycles, along with a premiere of a Variations set written for me. His writing is sensuous, rich, gorgeous, very pianistic – it feels so good to play. This particular piece delves into much more dark realms than the Beethoven but, like the Beethoven, has elements of transcendence.
Ian Krouse wrote probably the most difficult piece of the set – it is a Fugue and an Etude, masterfully crafted, and just really wild, jagged and cool. Like the Beethoven, there are two sections that alternate – energetic and driven; and cosmic, quiet, and dreamlike. Ian’s harmonies reminded me of his Armenian Requiem, an absolutely incredible choral work he wrote a few years ago.
Mark Carlson’s piece is dreamy, beautiful, shining – it’s such a pleasure to play. It seamlessly weaves into the Beethoven which is sweetly innocent.
Finally, David Lefkowitz kept the form of Beethoven’s original, but his harmonic language is so surprising and interesting that it feels entirely new. It works wonderfully as a pairing with the last Bagatelle, and the ending to the group.
What do you hope listeners will take away from this album?
I hope they will fall in love with the new works like I did. I also hope they can hear Beethoven, recorded many times already, in a new way. Finally, I hope they seek out my Gaspard de la Nuit recording and hear it as well!