Marina Baranova
White Letters
Album · Classical · 2022
Pianist and composer Marina Baranova, a native of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, evokes memories of Christmases past to rouse feelings of loving kindness in the present. White Letters recalls a saying of Rabbi Levi Isaac of Berdychiv, among the great early Hasidic visionaries, who urged people to search for life’s meaning between the lines of black type. As the great-granddaughter of a rabbi herself, Baranova’s reflections offer fresh perspectives on Christmas and its power to unite people of all faiths and none. Her delicate playing of classical miniatures and new works creates a mood of sublime stillness, intensified by her heart-melting Homeland, meditation on a movement from Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël, and tender arrangement of Debussy’s Carol of the Homeless Children, originally composed in December 1915 to raise awareness of civilian lives upended by war.
White Letters
Marina Baranova
Pianist and composer Marina Baranova, a native of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, evokes memories of Christmases past to rouse feelings of loving kindness in the present. White Letters recalls a saying of Rabbi Levi Isaac of Berdychiv, among the great early Hasidic visionaries, who urged people to search for life’s meaning between the lines of black type. As the great-granddaughter of a rabbi herself, Baranova’s reflections offer fresh perspectives on Christmas and its power to unite people of all faiths and none. Her delicate playing of classical miniatures and new works creates a mood of sublime stillness, intensified by her heart-melting Homeland, meditation on a movement from Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël, and tender arrangement of Debussy’s Carol of the Homeless Children, originally composed in December 1915 to raise awareness of civilian lives upended by war.
