Iris Elezi: A Scarlet String of Fire
Iesous Records

On A Scarlet String of Fire, Albanian-American pianist Iris Elezi delivers a wide-ranging programme of works by Chopin, Debussy, Schubert, Scriabin, and others, but as significantly the release includes three compositions of her own. In addition to the titular work, the recording features her Proclivity Love and Improvisation on Albanian Folk Songs, the former a piece she's also arranged as a duet for vocalist and pianist and violinist and pianist and the latter a work inspired by the folk music she absorbed as a child and in the years after. As a sampler spanning baroque, romantic, impressionist, and original pieces, A Scarlet String of Fire flatters her as both pianist and composer. Whether it's a piece by her or another, Elezi's interpretations are insightful, nuanced, and engaged.

A graduate of the Boston Conservatory and CUNY (The City University of New York) who's performed at renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall and Tilley Center, Elezi's preference is to package the composers into mini-sets rather than disperse their pieces throughout the album. To that end, she follows three Chopin pieces with two by Debussy, a three-part sonata by Haydn, and the three she composed herself. Rounding out the set are four standalones by Rachmaninoff, Schubert, Schumann, and Scriabin. An 1835 piece from Chopin's Waltz Op. 69 inaugurates the set hauntingly, the performance marked by Elezi's assured handling of rubato and the overall fluidity and poise of her playing. Having beguiled the listener with the waltz's carefully calibrated lilt, she progresses to his Etude Op. 25 No. 1 (1836), which builds dramatically as notes ripple across the keyboard, and his posthumously published Fantasie Impromptu Op. 66 (1834), a commanding statement that advances from a forceful intro to a lyrical central expression. That lyrical component provides a natural lead-in to Debussy's florid Arabesque No. 1 (1891) and, from his Suite bergamasque, Clair de lune (1905), both poetic works delivered by the pianist with a clear understanding of their nuances and shape.

The recording leaps back in time for Haydn's Sonata Hob. XVI. No. 31, which dates to approximately 1776 and amplifies contrasts as it moves from one movement to the next. The robust and adventurous first calls on Elezi's virtuosity, but she's more than up to the task. The contemplative central movement explores counterpoint in a manner reminiscent of Bach, after which the third reinstates the animation of the first with a series of bright and lively variations. As demanding of the pianist's technical command is Schubert's Impromptu Op. 90 No. 2 (1827), but here too Elezi delivers its sweeping, roller coaster-like triplets with no apparent difficulty whatsoever.

As it segues from an ultra-dramatic opening section to a subtly melancholic second, Rachmaninoff's Prelude Op. 23 No. 5 (1901) is instantly identifiable as material by the Russian composer. The album's penultimate piece, Schumann's Papillons Op. 2 (1831) is also, at eleven minutes, its longest. In a bravura rendering, Elezi confidently powers her way through a scenic travelogue sprinkled with passages of romantic lyricism and ebullient dynamism. Ending the album memorably is Scriabin's Four Preludes Op. 37 (1903), whose parts, while contrasting in mood, collectively exude the kind of exoticism for which the composer's known.

May 2025