Lara Downes & Friends FOR LENNY

Could there be a more perfect pairing than Leonard Bernstein and Lara Downes? Each incarnates the American spirit in resplendent manner, the former in his magnificent writing and the latter in her captivating piano playing. True to her generous nature, Downes has shared the credit for her tribute to Bernstein on the occasion of his hundredth birthday with “friends,” four of who accompany her on four of the twenty-eight tracks. But said credit could be extended beyond those participants to the many composers, among them Stephen Sondheim, Marc Blitzstein, and Ned Rorem, whose own Bernstein tributes appear. One of the more surprising things about the release is that while a generous amount of his own material is included, world premieres written by others appear too. Selection details aside, two things in particular distinguish For Lenny, Downes's always exquisite playing, of course, but also the audacity of Bernstein's lyrical writing and his bountiful melodic sensibility. In her hands, his songs sing.

A mere scan of the set-list reveals one of the project's greatest strengths: rather than exclusively feature well-known Bernstein material, Downes instead chose less familiar pieces, seven of them “Anniversaries” he wrote for family and friends on their birthdays, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, and Sondheim among the latter. In an imaginative move, that gesture's returned in kind by figures such as John Corigliano, Daron Hagen, Shulamit Ran, Theo Bleckmann, and Eleonor Sandresky, whose personal Bernstein tributes were written in some cases during his lifetime and in others were newly composed for this project. Such an inspired programme is the kind of thing we've come to expect from Downes, a justly admired artist whose discography includes homages to another great American artist, Billie Holiday, as well as America itself.

As mentioned, four pieces feature guests: Kevin “K.O.” Olusola (a member of the a cappella group Pentatonix) beatboxing on “Something's Coming”; clarinet prodigy Javier Morales-Martinez (whom Downes discovered through the national Young Artists program she founded at the Mondavi Center, UC Davis) on “Cool”; and roots singer Rhiannon Giddens and baritone Thomas Hampson on “So Pretty” and “A Simple Song,” respectively. Each collaboration is memorable in its own way, Olusola's for the fresh spin his treatments bring to one of Bernstein's better-known songs and the vocalists' for the contrast their radiant presence adds to an otherwise instrumental collection. While all four pieces would no doubt have impressed had they been performed by Downes alone, the inclusion of the extra colours the guests provide is hardly objectionable.

Most of the twenty-eight pieces are miniatures (only three edge past the four-minute mark), but they never feel slight; Downes's urbane execution and bright articulation make even the most fleeting piece seem substantial. Bernstein's own material ranges from saloon-styled blues (“Big Stuff”) and playful reveries (“Anniversary for Craig Urquhart”) to chromatically adventurous explorations (“Anniversary for Nina”); the tributes likewise differ in tone, many of them, including those by Corigliano, Urquhart, Sandresky, and Sondheim heartfelt, tender, and wistful; the ones by Stephen Schwartz and Michael Abels, on the other hand, are declamatory, emblematic of Bernstein's high-spirited side (Abels's is even titled “Iconoclasm/for Lenny”).

Among the standouts are poignant renderings of justly beloved Bernstein settings such as “The Story of My Life” and “Some Other Time” and Ricky Ian Gordon's “What Shall We Remember?”; never is Downes's artistry more evident than during her debonair treatments of such elegiac fare. One would have to be hard-hearted indeed not to be inspired and galvanized by her example. At a historical moment when an abundance of ills makes despair a not unreasonable choice, her music-making symbolizes an unwavering belief that the world and its people have the capacity to make things better. Such an infectious and life-affirming stance makes resignation seem like a cowardly choice.(Textura / March 2018)