Ann Southam: A 30 year friendship: A recital performed by Christina Petrowska Quilico at the Glenn Gould Studio in memory of Ann Southam
The Governor General Announces announced the appointment of
Christina Petrowska Quilico, C.M.
Toronto, Ontario “For her celebrated career as a classical and contemporary pianist, and for championing Canadian music.” The Order of Canada is one of our country’s highest civilian honours.
Ann Southam was my friend for over 30 years. We shared a mutual love of art and the environment. Working with Ann resulted in my recordings of Rivers 2 CDs, Pond Life 2 CDs and Glass Houses 2 CDs, and Soundspinning, her early works. (available on Centrediscs/Naxos) Aiko Suzuki’s painting Spatial View of Pond inspired Ann to write Pond Life. The cycle exemplifies the stillness of a pond on the surface and the vibrant life beneath. Rivers represents all the tempi of running water. When Ann gave me the score in 1981, I found the music too much the same. I had envisioned Rivers in many shifting tempi, reflecting a wide range of flowing water, from the roaring river to a gentle brook. I figured that Ann wouldn’t yell at a nine months pregnant lady, so I played them at many different speeds. Ann loved it, and so began a very creative musical relationship. I stress the importance of reading the score with more than correct notes and good tone in mind. Imagination and risk-taking are crucial in making multi-faceted and exciting performances that probe deeply into the composers’ psyches and intentions. Ann revised her 15 Glass Houses in 2009 and asked me to record them. Unfortunately, lung cancer made it impossible for her to correct all of the notational errors. She wrote everything by hand. In fact, in her dedication to me in several of the pieces from Pond Life, she wrote, with her usual cheeky wit, “written by hand to be played by hand.” With Southam’s support and encouragement, I further revised and edited them in 2010. We chose the new title Glass Houses Revisited, and I was able to play them for her a few days before her death. She loved all my changes and wanted me to add my name as “co-creator.” While moved by her trust in me, I agreed only to a credit for editing and revising. Her exquisite and luminous creations were her very own. She was working on program notes for the pieces and in one of her last emails to me on November 15th, 2010 wrote these words. “Hi Christina, It was wonderful to see you yesterday and I’m still blown away by the way you play Glass Houses. They’re your pieces, for sure!!! Many thanks and lots of love, Ann.” While Southam’s piano music is described as “minimal music”, the term refers more to the composer Philip Glass and his music of gradual changes. Southam’s pieces, in fact, are fiendishly difficult etudes with shifting patterns and moods, and dizzying tempi. Any loss of concentration or lack of focus on the performer’s part can derail the performance! Glass Houses are a positive journey, weaving and embroidering various melodic cells that, as Southam herself said, “reflect the nature of traditional women’s work – repetitive, life-sustaining, requiring time and patience.” Despite the technical difficulties, these pieces are a testament to the composer who always treasured joy at the heart of music.
