A Nation Echoed. A Note Missed.

On April 8th at the UW Meany Center, the black Steinway piano and the iconoclastic pianist Lara Downes stood solitary on stage. Yet, as the classical composition began, it would turn out she was far from alone, accompanied by echoing ghosts of American history and identity.

Covering 14 songs plus one encore in two acts, Downes’ album This Land takes viewers on a cross-country road trip of American roots by paying homage to various musical greats of different time periods, from Scott Joplin’s energetic ragtime to Geroge Gershwin’s jazz-infused classical music to Paul Simon’s folk narratives. By “Reflecting a wide diversity of voices, both new and familiar, illustrating the beauty that resides in the broad landscape of American music,” Downes paints an honest picture of the complexities and beauties of American history. Especially considering the current political climate of the U.S., the arrangement feels like a poignant reminder of what it means to be American and explores a sense of pride that emerges even in a country that has undergone. Perhaps Downes said it best in her opening, right after playing a rendition of Paul Simon’s “America”: “The best place to find America is in music.”  

There’s often a disconnect when using classical music to express contemporary themes, as the style never feels relevant enough or inadequate. But in the case of This Land, Downes subverts this idea through her choice of music and explanations for songs like “Rhapsody in Blue.” Instead, even for a song celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, Downes argues that “Rhapsody in Blue” is precisely relevant to reflect today’s ideas of American identity because these are the same questions expressed in the songs played. She achieves this, in part, through contextualizing each song before she plays it. For example, before playing Scott Joplin, she noted that “despite his sad life, his music was never sad” and paralleled him to Margaret Bonds by adding that “despite the hard times American music was coming out of, there was always a degree of hope.” In this sense, This Land became less of a performance and more of an education. 

These underlying connections between her music choices to each other, and then the music pieces to the audience culminated best with Downes’ performance of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” (also notably the inspiration for her album’s title). Explaining that Guthrie’s song was a 1940s protest song—a response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America," which Guthrie found to be overly patriotic and unrealistic considering the trauma of the Great Depression—instead of a superficial summer camp song, Downes drew our attention to its historic relevance. In doing so, her piano playing worked to subvert the historic role the piano tends to take as an image of classical elitism and high-class society by instead using it as a tool of resistance and social commentary. Playing on stage underneath an image of Guthrie above wearing his iconic guitar with “This Machine Kills Fascists” written on the side, Downes’ performance shifts the piano from an instrument of aristocratic refinement to one of unity and American diversity. If that wasn’t enough, one of the renditions of “This Land is Your Land” she played involved an entire audience sing-along, led by choir director Amelia Kisher. 

Looking across the rows of audience members, some in tears, there was no doubt that Downes had accomplished her mission of American connection. Yet what she achieved through themes and parallels was marred significantly by technique. Jumping into her opening number, Simon’s America, Downes’ first few notes were aggressive in a way that felt jolting to the audience instead of commanding. Her approach to Price’s “Spiritual Suite” in the second act felt muted, like the notes had been mushed together, and thus what should’ve come off to the audience as a strong spiritual instead felt like a watered-down version. The fact that her playing felt simultaneous and underwater can only be attributed to an overuse of the pedal, a tool that is typically made to blend notes but instead in the case of Downes, obscured them. Whereas Downes subverted the idea of the piano as a singular instrument unable to play other forms of music with “This Land is Your Land” she reinforced it with her playing of Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday.” Iconized as a slow jazz song, there was a level of musical dissonance between the song’s famous slow, almost mournful tempo and the tender nature of Black spirituals and the sudden, fast playing of it during the concert. Her finale, “Rhapsody in Blue,” should’ve been the culminating piece to the collection. Instead, it felt choppy and the transitions stilted, almost overcompensating for the fact that it’s typically played with an entire orchestra to accompany the piano as the focal instrument and not the sole one as we see in “This Land.” 

These critiques aren’t to say that Downes failed in her goal of celebrating and commenting on the American spirit, but only that she left something to be achieved through her playing itself. In a performance that already straddled the line between education and art, a sharper technical execution would have ensured that the music spoke just as clearly as the ideas behind it. After all, Downes was trying to showcase the power of this nation. I only wished the power of her playing matched it. 

Lead photo: Lara Downes. Image courtesy of Meany Center.

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