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Performing Arts Review

Individually, each selection on the Tranquillity album is a moonstone of clairvoyance and spirituality in Phillips’ interpretations. As a whole, the set transports the listener beyond consciousness.

Jonathan Phillips’ cleanly articulated, well balanced, and perfectly voiced performances confirm beyond doubt he is a pianist’s pianist. Technique is a given at this level, but Phillips takes full advantage of the modern piano’s capacity for delicacy and nuanced color.

The keyboard pieces he has selected are risky, because so well known. It is Phillips’ intimacy of messaging that elevates this album. Breaching sensitively the still pond of the composer’s already private soundscape with wonderful hesitations, lovely and relaxed executions, and discreetly meditative embellishments, Phillips transports the listener to sound imagery intractable by ordinary soul compass.

Revelatory performances on this album include Ich ruf du zir, Herr Jesu Christ (I call to you, Lord Jesus Christ), BWV 639 (track 2) – each individual note and every superb chord are somehow momentous in Phillips’ interpretation. The pianist utilizes the modern piano beautifully, with subtle dynamic shadings, wonderful interpretive hesitations, and cadential rubati that add meaning to each fraction of melodic narrative.

Prelude and Fugue in C sharp minor, BWV 849 (tracks 6 and 7) – Phillips’ magnificent understanding of sostenuto makes each note weighty with meaning. Yet there is also a finesse to this controlled energy that sets Phillips’ performance apart. Clarity, concentrated power, and control of the instrument pay off, abetted by utterly satisfying forward movement.

Organ Sonata No. 4 in E minor, BWV 528 – Adagio (track 12) – so simple, its essence stroked delicately by Phillips’ subtle comprehension of where and how the melodic line is being developed and varied by the composer. Phillips makes the piano soar with expression; his voicing is glorious. The pianist’s intuitive understanding of Bach’s harmonic movement gives the listener opportunity to enjoy fresh interpretive surprises, all nuanced in style and elegance.