Following her splendid recordings of Bach’s Toccatas, released in 2021, Claire Huangci presents a complex programme, bringing together the voices of German composers Fanny Hensel (Mendelssohn) and Clara Wieck (Schumann) — the decision to separate their names from those of the composers with whom they are usually associated is undoubtedly significant — and American composers Amy Beach and Florence Price. Claire Huangci’s highly distinctive style comes across as extremely natural throughout the programme. Her touch, almost crystalline, allows the polyphony to express itself fully. Extraordinary creativity inhabits every phrase in works that are already highly narrative in themselves, which Huangci’s touch magnifies with intensity and a resolutely romantic rubato.

Fanny Hensel’s Capriccio, which opens the album, displays immense passion. The virtuosity serves the piece’s chromaticism and momentum with great fluidity. The excerpts from Das Jahr are also highly narrative, even figurative. I would also refer you to the complete recording of this wonderful work, recently recorded by Marie Vermeulin and available from Présence Compositrices. Huangci opens up her playing, thereby lending great breadth to the dynamics. In the June serenade, an unsettling glow radiates from the mysterious paths. Nevertheless, the theme remains deeply lyrical. The development, deeply nostalgic, gains expressive power through its sonic breadth. September follows in the same vein. Claire Huangci’s interpretation, which so distinctly characterises each piece, proves once again—though the fact is already well established—the greatness and significance of Fanny Hensel’s work.

Amy Beach’s Fantasia Fugata once again sounds remarkably natural. The musical texture gains in liveliness, and even in liquidity. The power of the sound is remarkable, retaining those same crystalline, almost translucent tones. Nevertheless, the virtuosity—utterly controlled yet perfectly dazzling—infuses the work with a powerful energy. In contrast, in the darker ‘Cradle Song of the Lonely Mother’, Claire Huangci’s playing, whilst retaining its crystalline tones, gains in depth, probing the pain expressed by the composer. The work is as moving as the performance, whose naturalness and drive lend it a powerful evocative force. As in every other piece on the programme – though particularly so here – Clara Huangci’s playing aims to be an embodiment, through both its narrative quality and its firmly rooted pianistic foundation.

As for Clara Wieck, the Ballet des revenants is fantastic! The lighting effects are brilliant, and Claire Huangci displays a frank, yet subtle, sense of humour in her delivery. There is a great deal of self-assurance in her performance, which her mastery grounds with complete naturalness. The disc concludes with several extraordinary pieces by Florence Price. First, the Fantaisie Nègre No. 2 with its expansive phrases, to which Huangci lends great colour, and then a true radiance, whilst maintaining a lively, almost swinging quality, which the pianist enhances through her use of rubato. The Méditation is brimming with life: it truly pulsates! The composition, stripped back, returns at the same time to the essential, with great tenderness anchored by the instrument’s deep sound. Next comes the formidable Waltz of the Spring Maid! A slightly nostalgic work, but one of a nostalgia that is in fact very luminous. Here, Claire Huangci demonstrates a very Chopin-esque rubato, in a melody that, as always under her fingers, reveals itself to be in perpetual evolution. The form expands, and each repetition gains an additional layer of expressive power. Above all, nothing ever sounds the same! ‘Your Hands in Mine’, more contemporary in style and more impressionistic too, brings out greater colour in Huangci’s playing. This fluidity—or indeed, this liquidity—is evident in a masterful legato. And then, one cannot overlook the extraordinary elegance of the performance. Yet an underlying pain is perceptible, piercing through the veil of gentleness. As for ‘The Cotton Dance’, it is quintessentially American, carried by a swing that is as light as it is lively. The clarity of each attack is incredibly precise, as it has been since the start of the album! Each variation is subject to ever-greater refinement in nuance – without, however, compromising the sonic breadth! Each phrase dances in balance, seeming to waver only to gracefully regain its footing along the way. Undoubtedly, Florence Price is one of the major composers of the 20th century!

With « Piano Heroines », Claire Huangci has produced a magnificent album. Her approach is resolutely coherent; above all, her interpretation is admirable. The compositions are each more captivating than the last, constantly oscillating between nostalgia and virtuosity, two poles that seem to form the heart which, on its own – and along with many other elements – ensures the album’s perfect coherence. A magnificent achievement!