Classical Music: Olivia Belli Daimon

Olivia Belli: Daimon

Daimon Piano Concerto; Ithaca Suite; Sonatina for Nausicaa.

Olivia Belli piano
Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin/John Metcalfe.
Raphaela Gromes (cello), Eldbjørg Hemsing (violin), Jess Gillam (saxophone)
Sony Classical 19802962832
More information here


Greek mythology has long exerted a powerful hold on composers, and the Italian pianist and composer Olivia Belli is no exception. Her debut piano concerto, Daimon, takes Homer's Odyssey as its imaginative springboard, and what emerges is a poetic work that blends classical tradition with her own unmistakably personal musical signature.

Cast in three movements — The Departure, The Journey and The Return—the concerto unfolds as a continuous musical narrative, drawing on the spirit of the Italian Baroque while remaining entirely Belli's own voice. As Dagmar Lexischow observes in his admirably lucid liner notes, the opening movement captures the shifting moods of the sea with mesmerising effect: one pictures waves breaking unhurriedly against the shore, the horizon inviting speculation about what lies beyond. The journey grows more dramatic, the lower strings of the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin initiating a narrative that listeners are free to interpret according to their own present circumstances. Belli handles the built-in tension with considerable skill, and the orchestra under John Metcalfe shapes each crescendo with real control and conviction. The Return opens with repeated string figures suggesting that the sea is rarely as benign as it appears, before a palpable sense of homecoming relief gradually emerges. As Belli herself has said, "It was Odysseus' fate to return to his homeland, Ithaca. That's where his wife and son were — everything that defined him. " It is a sentiment the music articulates with authentic feeling.

The seven-movement Ithaca Suite offers a series of musical portraits of the figures Odysseus encounters on his disguised return—Proci, Telemachus, Eumaeus, Penelopeia, Eurycleia, Laertes, and Pax Athena, with Belli joined by three distinguished soloists. While Raphaela Gromes, Eldbjörg Hemsing, and Jess Gillam each contribute their unique voices, Gillam's saxophone stands out as the most hauntingly expressive, its timbre perfectly complementing Belli's distinctive compositional intensity. A sombre quality pervades several of the movements, conveyed through rhythm-driven minimalism and a consistently refined command of textural colour. The album closes with the Sonatina for Nausicaa, transporting the listener to Scheria, the island home of the Phaeacians, with music that is simple, evocative, and gently empathetic.

The result is undeniably a lovely album — meditative, unhurried, and possessed of a tranquil beauty that makes it ideal listening for quieter moments. Yet repeated hearings reveal a certain sameness of expressive temperature: the waters here, however beautifully rendered, rarely depart from their characteristic calm, and one eventually finds oneself yearning for a squall or two to ruffle the surface. As a musical companion for reflection and repose, Belli's Odyssey is a pleasure; as a journey into the full dramatic scope of Homer, it perhaps offers smoother sailing than the original voyage warranted.