Pianist Magazine

A palimpsest is a manuscript on which further writing has been overlaid. According to Australian pianist Rob Hao, however, the term also encompasses every act of interpretation, because ‘the performer’s understanding is layered upon the composer’s intentions.’ Hmm. Fortunately Hao’s music is much more exciting than his woolly hermeneutics. The USP of this album is found in his own short, haunting completion of Schubert’s Sonata D571. He rearranges Schubert’s themes and twists them with a strange polytonal melancholy. His gorgeously transparent performances of two Chopin nocturnes are later matched by the dazzling control he displays in spare, taut pieces by Alison Kay and Michael Finnissy. I was particularly drawn to Kay’s oneiric Lullaby for Isabelle performed with conviction, beauty and imagination. He finishes with a rollicking crash-bang account of Finnissy’s Come Beat the Drums. Not sure about the gobbledygook liner notes, but a great debut nonetheless.

—Warwick Thompson