Elizabeth Bell: A Collection of Reflections (2005)

Although her catalog of works is small -- admittedly because of the time and care she expends to get things right -- Elizabeth Bell's music is rich in sonorities, varied in approaches, and expansive in spirit, quite the opposite of the miniatures one might expect of such a fastidious composer. The pieces on A Collection of Reflections, Bell's 2005 release on North South Recordings, are almost neo-Romantic in mood and emotional impact, despite the apparent atonality of her harmonies and the angularity of her lines. Bell ... Read More

Although her catalog of works is small -- admittedly because of the time and care she expends to get things right -- Elizabeth Bell's music is rich in sonorities, varied in approaches, and expansive in spirit, quite the opposite of the miniatures one might expect of such a fastidious composer. The pieces on A Collection of Reflections, Bell's 2005 release on North South Recordings, are almost neo-Romantic in mood and emotional impact, despite the apparent atonality of her harmonies and the angularity of her lines. Bell creates beautiful pitch combinations and long-breathed, flowing phrases that soften the effect of the dissonances and lend the music a haunting mystical quality, not unlike that found in the music of Charles Ives. Invoking his name is appropriate, at least in connection with the eight Loss-Songs (1983), which share much of Ives' nostalgic atmosphere and, in a few places, some of his quirky prosody. Soprano Elizabeth Farnum and pianist Max Lifchitz render Bell's settings of poems by... Read Less