Australian pianist
Tamara Anna Cislowska is a known quantity within Australia and a very popular performer there; at age 14, she won the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Young Performer Award and was the youngest to do so at the time.
Cislowska has recorded a number of discs for ABC Classics, and ABC's The Ghost Ship combines two items
Cislowska recorded in 1998, her 21st year. The title really only applies to the second disc, a striking recital based around themes of the supernatural and of death that features a thundering, ominous performance of the underappreciated Carl Tausig work that serves as this collection's title. The first disc consists of short Russian pieces, including many preludes of
Scriabin and
Rachmaninoff, and the highly flexible nature of this music is a good match for
Cislowska, who tends to maximize rubato and never met a dramatic flourish she didn't like. Both discs make for very engaging listening, though particularly the second one; young pianists and generalist listeners in classical music will get a lot of use out of The Ghost Ship owing to its immediacy, emphasis on expression, and essentially popular orientation. The only caveat -- and admittedly one that has little to do with the recording itself -- is that one wonders how well
Cislowska would do in music outside of her comfort zone, simply as this collection is so centered in a limited realm of endeavor. That said, within it,
Cislowska is absolutely at home, and listeners are encouraged to seek out ABC Classics' The Ghost Ship in order to bring her artistry into yours; it is an exciting, entertaining, and satisfying pair of recitals. ABC Classics sound is loud, very present, and faithful to the piano, if at times a little over-reverberant.