For the past number of decades another Toronto percussionist has made a name for herself as a virtuoso solo artist. Beverley Johnston‘s repertoire stretches from her own transcriptions of the music of Bach, to the most intricate of contemporary works, often employing her super-sized five octave marimba. Her most recent release Finding Her Voice is “a journey through sound, history and identity … celebrating the enduring resonance of women’s voices across time.” Johnston presents works by Julie Spencer, Christos Hatzis, Samuel Kerr, Frederic Rzewski and David Jaeger, and two compellingly meditative structured improvisations of her own.
The instrumentation ranges from assorted quiet percussion in Spencer’s Angels in Arches of Hildegard’s Bingen (in which Johnston is also called upon to intone the text), vibraphone (Hatzis and Jaeger), marimba (Kerr), flowerpots (Rzewski) and temple bowls, temple bells and Thai gongs (Johnston). The Hatzis and Jaeger works also include playback of electroacoustic sounds, and in Kerr’s November we hear the haunting voice of the late character actor Kenneth Welsh reciting a poem by Robert Frost. In each case rich sound worlds are created using minimal resources, a case in point being Rzewski’s To the Earth in which the performer strikes simple clay pots while reciting words that honour the earth.
Jaeger’s Lyrics II pays homage to Canadian composer, broadcaster and co-founder of New Music Concerts Norma Beecroft, referencing her pioneering work in electronic music. We also hear a brief quotation from Beecroft’s celebrated The Living Flame of Love. The disc ends with Johnston’s vocal interpretation of Sara Teasdale’s poem The Crystal Gazer, accompanied by ever more intense Thailand gongs, providing a dramatic close to this beautifully realized album.