The first recording of the pianist Lara Downes was 13 WAYS of Looking at the Goldberg: Bach Reimagined; Tritone Records (2011). It was at once a solo piano recording and a collaborative project, with an impressive roster of prominent composers volunteering their own variations on the Goldberg Variations of J. S. Bach.
On Exiles' Cafe, Lara Downes is a meta-composer of sorts. She has collected 21 tracks of miniatures by composers who are mostly major figures in classical music. Often the pieces have been overlooked in the classical repertoire. The pianist provides this introduction:
“THIS ALBUM'S INSPIRATION – and title track - is American composer Michael Sahl's 'Tango from the Exiles' Cafe,' which I heard years ago and which captured my imagination. I began to fantasize about this cafe as a place both real and metaphorical, a place where individuals gather from all over the world to find a home away from home.”
“The music collected here reflects that transformative passage of what is left behind and what is discovered ahead. The miniatures speak to vanished worlds and altered lives, to the fragility of destiny and the possibilities of new beginnings: postcards from the Exiles Cafe.”
The pianist's mastery of the role of meta-composer manifests itself immediately. Brief and obscure fragments of music from unrelated periods and places are artfully assembled into an uninterrupted musical narrative.
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