Lara Downes is a classical pianist who, in addition to the traditional repertory, has been exploring unappreciated Black composers. While Scott Joplin can hardly be considered “unappreciated,” Downes, who has been aware of Joplin since her early childhood days when she saw The Sting and learned to play The Entertainer, feels there is another dimension to Joplin that should be explored. That is why, on this CD, she “reconsiders” Joplin.
What does she mean by “Reconsidered”? In the CD notes we read: “Pianist Lara Downes reflects on the music of Scott Joplin through a 21st-century lens, revealing its many layers of genre-blurring subtlety and nuance. . . . His story is ready to be retold.” That’s an intriguing statement, but leaves us wondering how a 21st-century lens may lead us to reconsider Joplin’s music. In various interviews about the CD, we find a few more hints, such as in the New York Times (2/24/2022), in which Downes says that she will filter Joplin’s music through musical experiences available to her that could not have been available to him: “What I know now came after him. He didn’t hear what William Grant Still was going to do, what Ellington was going to do. He heard none of it. But I have.” Such statements increase our interest in what she does, but still without clarity. So let’s see what her performances reveal.
The CD has seventeen sele
