The Globe and Mail

The Art of Touching the Keyboard

The Globe and Mail

Thursday, April 15, 2004

Eve Egoyan:

The Art of Touching the Keyboard

http://www.eveegoyan.com

Rating: ****

Reviewed by Elissa Poole

Pianist Eve Egoyan has a way of warming up even the coolest music, but she has also developed a more crystalline touch in recent years which allows for fire and ice as well. Both serve her well on her latest disc, where Egoyan, typically, has chosen new music that exists off the main path. In Nuevas monodias espanoles Jose Evangelista makes sparks with the glittering shards of old Spanish melodies; in Crystalline, Karen Tanaka constructs in diamond-studded Tinker Toys. Stephen Parkinson’s Trail teases us with a cryptic narrative of cowboy titles. Allison Cameron’s Corals of Valais is the piece with the lowest specific heat, but although it resists both interpretation and affection, Egoyan has led us to a point where we’re prepared to take what she offers on faith. So we do.