I believe that Rivers is Ann Southam’s masterpiece, written in her prime and showing her mastery of fast and slow music. I love performing these pieces more than any other of her works. I never tire of the changing patterns and the spontaneous and improvisatory mood of the music. There is a fluid and unpredictable counterpoint to the music, reflecting the rushing cascades, luxuriant eddies, and meditative stillness in the music, which alternates between large kinetic strokes and delicately, detailed duets.
The music is fast moving and consists of repeating and changing patterns of notes for the right and left hands. These patterns overlap and interact so as to produce small rhythmic and melodic motifs within the texture of the music. Such motifs are not indicated but are left to the performer to “Find”. Considerable freedom is given to the performer in terms of tempo, dynamics and pedaling.
The fast Rivers require brilliant virtuosic technique and control. This results in a fluid musical line which reflects the sounds of water and nature in her music. Because she gave me the freedom to shape her music, I felt very comfortable in my interpretations which change like the flow of rivers depending on the action of the piano and the acoustics of the room.
Notes by Christina Petrowska Quilico
CHRISTINA PETROWSKA QUILICO, C.M., OOnt, FRSC, Professor Emerita, Senior Scholar, was appointed to the Order of Canada “for her celebrated career as a classical and contemporary pianist, and for championing Canadian music”. She was recently appointed to the Order of Ontario She was inducted into the Royal Society of Canada “the country’s highest honour an individual can achieve in the Arts, Social Sciences” and she has received the Friends of Canadian Music Award from the Canadian Music Centre and Canadian League of Composers, and selected as one of the CMC’s Ambassadors of Canadian music She was recently awarded 2 York University Research Awards and a major Canada Council Grant and Ontario Arts Council Grant. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation named her one of “20 Can’t-Miss Classical Pianists” one of “Canada’s 25 best classical pianists” and inducted her into CBC’s “In Concert Hall of Fame”. Four of her 50 plus CDs have earned JUNO Award nominations including Glass Houses Revisited by Ann Southam and 3 CDs featuring concertos with the Toronto Symphony,Jukka_Pekka Saraste, conductor, Winnipeg Symphony,Bramwell Tovey conductor, National Arts Centre, Alex Pauk conductor,Vancouver CBC Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, conductor and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestras, Daniel Warren conductor... Solo concerts and performances of 53 concertos with orchestra have taken her across the U.S. and Canada, as well as to Taiwan, the Middle East, France, England, Germany, Greece, and Eastern Europe. Her recent CDs have landed on numerous 2021 best-of- lists in Canada and abroad. “Vintage Americana” was one of the winners in the classical category of the Global Music Awards listed on CBC’s Canada’s top 21 Classical albums of 2021, Ludwig van Toronto’s 2021’s Lesser Known Gems, (one of eight CDs), The Piano Street Team (one of five Recommended New Piano Albums) and “What a Performance” award as one of the most outstanding recordings of the year from Art Music Lounge in the US.. Her CDs also include classical works by Chopin, Liszt, Mozart, Tangos, Mozart piano concertos and the complete Mozart violin and piano sonatas, recorded with Jacques Israelievitch. She is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music in New York and performed in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln, Centre, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Halls, garnering superlatives from the New York Times, “an extraordinary talent with phenomenal ability….dazzling virtuosity” She recorded 4 CDs with her late husband, Metropolitan Opera baritone and created the Christina and Louis Quilico Awards, managed by the Ontario Arts Foundation in conjunction with the Canadian Opera Company.

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