Elizabeth Sombart - SINGING THE NOCTURNES (2022)

Elizabeth Sombart first fell in love with the piano at seven years old and entered the Strasbourg Conservatory soon after. She quickly distinguished herself on the instrument and snared numerous awards early on a well, such as the National Piano and Chamber Music first prize. Studying with Bruno-Leonardo Gelber in Buenos Aires, the University of Mayence’s Sergiu Celibidache, and Vienna’s Hilde Langer-Rühl furthered deepened her skills and discipline before she fully emerged on the classical music scene.

Her latest album release Singing the Nocturnes highlights the work of popular and respected composer Frederic Chopin. Chopin is a well-known name, even carrying cachet with casual classical music fans, but his work hasn’t been exposed and explored with the same thoroughness we see with the canons of Bach, Mozart, or Beethoven, for instance. She brings enormous sensitivity to her role. There isn’t any obvious re-invention of Chopin’s pieces for contemporary audiences, that isn’t her job, but she has chosen a series of works that are primed for connecting with listeners.

The melodic strengths of the pieces are ample. Tracks such as “Op. 9 No. 1 in B-Flat Minor” and its successors conjure melodic ideas in a variety of ways. The pacing of these tracks never rushes their development and the threads running through each of the Opuses achieve their goals through a process of accumulation. These are never compositionally obvious. Unexpected cascades of notes are common in the aforementioned track and others such as “Op. 9 No. 2 in E-Flat Major” and “Op. 15 No. 1 in F Major”, among others. There are wild cards scattered throughout the album.