If Grief Could Wait (ECM)
Susanna Wallumrod / Giovanna Pessi
Released November 4, 2011
The Guardian 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2011
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About:
“If
Grief Could Wait” is an intimate album of very special character, the outcome
of a collaboration between harpist Giovanna Pessi and singer Susanna Wallumrød.
Given impetus also by the nyckelharpa of Marco Ambrosini and Jane Achtman’s
viola da gamba, the project has Pessi’s arrangements of Henry Purcell songs at
its core. It begins with “The Plaint” (from The Fairy Queen of 1692) and
continues with “If Grief Has Any Pow’r To Kill”, and “O Solitude” (from The
Theatre of Musick), as well as “Music For a While” (from Oedipus) and “An
Evening Hymn” (from Harmonia Sacra)
But Purcell’s music has never been heard quite like this. Threaded between his
songs and instrumental pieces here are works of singer-songwriters Leonard
Cohen and Nick Drake, as well as songs by Susanna Wallumrød herself. “If Grief
Could Wait” is neither a project that adheres rigorously to ideals of
historical performance practice, nor one that strives self-consciously to
“cross over”. Pessi and Wallumrød offer music that they love, and all of it is
played with commitment by the participating musicians. Purcell and Cohen are
respected on their own terms, and Susanna’s pure voice and Giovanna’s subtle
and evocative arrangements bring continuity to the repertoire. And, as Pessi
points out, Cohen and Drake songs from the last century are also, from a
contemporary perspective, ‘old music’.
Recorded in three days in Lugano last November, this fresh-sounding album has
some years of history behind it. Giovanna Pessi previously recorded for ECM
with the Rolf Lislevand Ensemble (Lislevand’s “Diminuito”, recorded 2007/8,
includes also Marco Ambrosini), and also with the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble,
the hard-to-categorize group led by a ‘jazz’ pianist but inspired by
contemporary composition and folk music. Wallumrød Ensemble albums with Pessi
include “The Zoo Is Far” and “Fabula Suite Lugano”, recorded respectively in
2006 and 2009. It was while rehearsing in Oslo with Christian that Pessi first
met the pianist’s younger sister, Susanna Wallumrød, then just beginning to
shape her own musical career.
Susanna subsequently invited Giovanna to play harp on one of her albums
(“Sonata Mix Dwarf Cosmos”, issued by Rune Grammofon in 2007), and when
producer Manfred Eicher invited Giovanna to come up with a proposal for an ECM
recording of her own, the idea of working further with Susanna’s voice had
become a priority. “I have played with so many ‘early music’ singers with
perfect, trained classical voices and I knew that I didn’t want that kind of
sound, not this time. So I asked her if she would like to try.” Susanna
Wallumrød had already recorded Purcell’s “Dido’s Lament” (“When I Am Laid In
Earth”) from Dido and Aeneas on one of her own albums; the musical territory
was not altogether unfamiliar, but finding the appropriate approach to it was
the challenge.
Both singer and harpist recognised that the project needed time, if they were
to grow together musically. Pessi: “We come from such different places – Susanna
with her pop music background, me with my baroque background. I needed to get
closer to her feeling for rhythmic playing and singing, and she needed to
develop her sense of line and phrasing. We worked a long time on preparing the
material. Every time I was in Oslo – which was often when I was playing a lot
with Christian – we’d get together and play, and she visited me in Switzerland
also.”
Susanna suggested attempting Leonard Cohen’s “Who By Fire” early in the
process, and Pessi countered by proposing one of her favourite Cohen songs,
“You Know Who I Am”. Once those had found their place in the repertoire, the
way was open to add “Which Will” by the late Nick Drake, as well as “The
Forester” and “Hangout” from Susanna’s pen. After a year of duo rehearsals,
Marco Ambrosini was added at Manfred Eicher’s suggestion and Giovanna drafted
in Jane Achtman, Swiss based viola da gamba player. “They both brought a lot to
the music, in the depth and the movement of the lines, and underlining the
baroque side of it. Marco I knew well from the Lislevand group, and I’ve always
enjoyed working with him. Jane had previously played almost exclusively in
early music contexts, but was very open to the spirit of this work.”
Track Listing:
1. The Plaint (Henry Purcell) 06:17
2. Who by Fire (Leonard Cohen) 03:56
3. If Grief has any Pow’r to Kill (Henry Purcell) 03:05
4. The Forester (Susanna Wallumrød) 09:51
5. A New Ground (Henry Purcell) 03:02
6. You Know Who I Am (Leonard Cohen) 04:05
7. Hangout (Susanna Wallumrød) 05:35
8. O Solitude (Henry Purcell) 06:14
9. Which Will (Nick Drake) 04:00
10. A New Scotch Tune (Henry Purcell) 01:21
11. Music For a While (Henry Purcell) 04:06
12. A New Scotch Tune (Henry Purcell) 01:41
13. An Evening Hymn (Henry Purcell) 04:22
Personnel:
Giovanna Pessi: baroque harp
Susanna Wallumrød: voice
Jane Achtman: viola da gamba
Marco Ambrosini: nyckelharpa
Recorded
November 2010, Auditorio Radiotelevisione svizzera, Lugano, Switzerland
Engineer: Stefano Amerio
Produced by Manfred Eicher
Review:
Not quite a jazz album, this exquisite performance for voice, harp and period fiddles joins Susanna Wallumrød’s light-touch singing and the evocative, interweaving lines and stately enunciation of Henry Purcell’s 17th-century church and theatre music, some Wallumrød originals, two Leonard Cohen songs and Nick Drake’s Which Will. It’s a unique and audacious collaboration with baroque harpist Giovanna Pessi that has the makings of an unlikely cross-genre hit. Wallumrød’s subtle delivery of contemporary lyrics such as “Who by barbiturate/ Who in these realms of love/ Who shall I say is calling” from Cohen’s Who by Fire, or his chilling call-of-fate lines in You Know Who I Am, have an astonishing impact when set against the steady turns and rolls of Pessi’s harp, Marco Ambrosini’s keyed-fiddle nyckelharpa and Jane Achtman’s viola de gamba. The latter has a cello’s resonance at times, the harp a guitar’s, and the quiet force of Wallumrød’s personality within such a formal early-music structure is mesmerising.
John Fordham (The Guardian)
