WHOLE HEART | TEXTURA REVIEW
Texture
November 2022
Whole Heart offers an instructional guide in how to obtain maximal results from minimal resources. The seven pieces on Claire Bryant's debut album feature her cello and little else; further to that, no trickery—looping, electronics, or otherwise—was applied to expand on the instrument's natural sound. That was a canny move on her and producer Nadia Sirota's part: nothing more is needed when the material allows the cello and her playing to be heard in all theirresplendent glory.
Recorded at the University of South Carolina School of Music Recital Hall in October 2021, the recording does include contributions from others on two pieces, however. An acclaimed solo artist in her own right, Sirota plays viola alongside Bryant on Caroline Shaw's Limestone & Felt, and JACK Quartet violinist Ari Streisfeld joins the cellist for Jessie Montgomery's three-part Duo for violin and cello. Those appearances aside, Whole Heart is all Bryant, who brings the same passion to this project as she does teaching and activism. The Camden, South Carolina native spent many years in New York before returning home for a post as Assistant Professor of Cello and Coordinator for Community Engagement to the University of South Carolina. Indicative of her desire to give back to the community, the first three album release performances were conducted at South Carolina venues and institutions, including the Lee Correctional Institute.
The title of Andrea Cassarubios's SEVEN (2020) derives from the nightly ritual of NYC residents clapping andbanging pots and pans to show appreciation for frontline workers. In the opening part, ghostly harmonics, plucks, and impassioned bowing combine to give poignant voice to the sadness of the time and the isolation felt by so many. The second's livelier, as if to convey determination and the will to overcome. In being presented alone, the cello's capacity for emotional expression is amplified, as is Bryant's remarkable command of the instrument. In Shaw's Limestone & Felt (2012), the cellist and violist alternate between percussive rhythmic thrust and peaceful folk-tinged expressions, with the music advancing through multiple stylistic episodes during the six-minute performance.
The first piece Bryant commissioned as a young cellist at Juilliard, Adam Schoenberg's Ayudame (2004) sees her ascending into the cello's uppermost registers and counterbalancing that with aggressive plucks and bewitching double-stops. In contrast to the intensity of Schoenberg's creation, Jessica Meyer's Delta Sunrise (2017) exudes a serene, even gentle character intended by the composer to capture in musical form her impression of a first-time visit to New Orleans. Whereas Tanner Porter's And Even These Small Wonders (2020) likewise conveys optimism in the spirited joy of its expression, Reena Esmail's Varsha (2019) distances itself from the other pieces in featuring keening melismatic phrases derived from Hindustani raga.
The movement titles in Montgomery's Duo for violin and cello help suggest the mood and stylistic character of each part, with “Meandering” playful and explorative, “Dirge” naturally sombre and contemplative, and “Presto” a churning dynamo of stabbing, Glass-like patterns. Of course with Streisfeld joining Bryant, the sound mass expands noticeably when their strings blend into a shimmering, glorious mass out of which individual voices emerge. That Whole Heart should end with a paean to friendship and collective expression is, of course, in keeping with the project's thematic design.