Although her catalog of works is small -- admittedly because of the time and care she expends to get things right -- Elizabeth Bell's music is rich in sonorities, varied in approaches, and expansive in spirit, quite the opposite of the miniatures one might expect of such a fastidious composer. The pieces on A Collection of Reflections, Bell's 2005 release on North South Recordings, are almost neo-Romantic in mood and emotional impact, despite the apparent atonality of her harmonies and the angularity of her lines. Bell creates beautiful pitch combinations and long-breathed, flowing phrases that soften the effect of the dissonances and lend the music a haunting mystical quality, not unlike that found in the music of
Charles Ives. Invoking his name is appropriate, at least in connection with the eight Loss-Songs (1983), which share much of
Ives' nostalgic atmosphere and, in a few places, some of his quirky prosody. Soprano
Elizabeth Farnum and pianist
Max Lifchitz render Bell's settings of poems by Sylvia Plath, John Berryman, Denise Levertov, Galway Kinnell, Hilda Morley, and her own verses with gentle articulation, a subdued attitude, and little theatricality. Interestingly, the Fantasy-Sonata for cello and piano (1971) provides the drama that is largely missing in Loss-Songs, and its propulsion and forcefulness present a welcome change of direction. Cellist Stephen Drake, with
Lifchitz as accompanist, delivers a compelling performance that emphasizes the work's warmth and lyricism, and supplies the Soliloquy for solo cello (1980) with much of the same passion and heat. In his solo turn,
Lifchitz performs the powerful Piano Sonata No. 2 (1972) with a considerable range of expressions and subtle characterizations, and through his depth of interpretation, makes the strongest impression of the album. The weakest piece, however, is River Fantasy for chamber ensemble (1991), which is flat in its repartee and strangely heavy-handed, especially when compared with the album's otherwise skillfully wrought compositions. Bell's energies are not well-focused here, and what seems to be a hybrid between a run-of-the-mill academic composition and an avant-garde free-for-all doesn't really hold together. But considering the success of the rest of her pieces, this one awkward track is not enough to ruin an otherwise fine CD.