Sylvie Courvoisier & Cory Smythe: The Rite of Spring – Spectre d'un songe
Pyroclastic Records

How this two-piano interpretation of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) came about is almost as fascinating as the treatment by pianists Sylvie Courvoisier and Cory Smythe itself. The versatile Courvoisier, a Switzerland native who's called NYC home for more than two decades, would often quote the work during performances with flamenco dancer-choreographer Israel Galván, in those moments specifically when his poses recalled the gestures of dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, famous for choreographing Stravinsky's work at its notorious 1913 Paris premiere. That led to a new dance project dedicated to the piece in full and subsequently the development of a solo arrangement that was thwarted by the Stravinsky family's decree that piano performances of the work be in the composer's version for two pianos or four hands.

Rather than abandon the project, Courvoisier sought out another pianist who'd be both technically able to execute the piece alongside her but also her own composition Spectre d'un songe. At Ingrid Laubrock's suggestion, Courvoisier contacted Cory Smythe, like Courvoisier a pianist comfortable in both classical and improvised contexts and capable of elevating the material with his own contributions. The pianists complement one another splendidly, both of them dynamic, innovative, and fearless players whether they're grappling with the considerable challenge of performing The Rite of Spring in a two-piano arrangement or collaboratively bringing the half-hour Spectre d'un songe to life, with aspects of Stravinsky's work refracted through the duo's impressionistic, improv-directed explorations. Rather than quoting the original directly, it emerges in the form of echoes and allusions.

Recorded over three days in December 2021 at Oktaven Audio in Mount Vernon, the release begins with “The Adoration of the Earth,” the first part of Stravinsky's landmark creation. The sensitivity with which the pianists entwine is evident from the outset, with each attentive to the notation and the other. Changes in tempo, pacing, and dynamics are carefully addressed as they navigate the work's spiraling passages and intricate embroidery. Oscillating between aggressive, rhythm-driven moments and episodes of brooding introspection, the partners render the material with authority. All of the work's iconic parts are accounted for, naturally, in the duo's inspired thirty-four-minute performance. The words energized, dazzling, and effervescent come to mind as the performance advances from its opening part through to its haunting second, “The Sacrifice.”

Stravinsky purists won't be unhappy with their version when it's generally faithful to its essence. There's nothing haphazard or slipshod about their rendering, which honours the composer in its circumspect adherence to the score. Having spent years learning, studying, and internalizing Stravinsky's work, Courvoisier now plays with it as part of her vocabulary; it hardly surprises, then, that traces of it emerge in Spectre d'un songe, as if the original's looking over the new work's shoulder during the performance and reverberating through it. The piece eases into view slowly, the piano buzzing and rumbling as its insides are strummed, and assumes shape gradually. In being less constrained by a script, Spectre d'un songe is a wilder beast than Stravinsky's, of course, and the pianists make full use of the freedom the piece affords in being so open-ended. With the performance veering occasionally into jazz-inflected territory, patterns tinkle like rain showers, sprint up and down the keyboards like mice, and swell into densely compacted masses.

A word of praise must be accorded pianist Kris Davis for supporting the project with its release on her Pyroclastic Records imprint. We said much the same about Smythe's solo project Smoke Gets In Your Eyes when its radical re-imaginings of Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach's 1933 show tune appeared in early 2023 and will probably say it again when the next unconventional release from her label crosses our path.

May 2023