"Maire Carroll's new recording of the complete piano etudes embraces and articulates all the key Glass components - energy, beauty and imagination. Glass wrote these 20 minimalist studies both as a means of improving his own piano technique, and of channeling his more private thoughts on an intimate scale. That’s not to say they eschew the impatient, power-driven obsessiveness that defines so much of his music. Carroll’s performances have all of that when asked for, vitalised by electrifying fingerwork. She also enhances those trademark low-set timbres and subterranean gloom with a sublime radiance, and captures an endearing reflectiveness through her personable, eloquent lyricism. She does everything Glass asks for, then applies the expert pianist’s touch ..."

"Combining the clockwork proficiency required by a set of Etudes with a personal interpretation that brings them to life as pieces is a rare challenge. That Máire Carroll still holds the attention after two hours of listening is testament to her achievement in this regard, in performances that also always stay true to the spirit of the composer"

★ ★ ★ ★

'Carroll is explicit there about her keenness to hew close to the score rather than treat it as a showcase for virtuosity (her tempi, for example, are closer to the ones indicated in the scores than many other pianists ... Carroll knows exactly what she is doing, and her approach gives me continued food for thought. Perhaps ironically for a CD of études, there is an egolessness about this recording that makes it perhaps the most accurate picture on record of what exactly Glass wrote ... '

JOURNAL OF MUSIC

"Máire Carroll has an immaculate technique: you would not know, for example, when a repeating figure moves between hands, and she is fully responsive to the expressive qualities which increasingly dominate the later etudes. Her performances bring out all the playfulness, the expressive qualities and the latent seriousness of these etudes. The sound is excellent."

MusicWeb International

read the full review here

"Máire Carroll takes Etude No l's dynamic gradations on faith, and truly sings out the rising and falling right-hand melody. The 'bell' tones framing No 2's alternating duplet and triplet phrases are placed in perfect perspective ... It's not easy to make every note count in the relatively simple No 5, yet Carroll does so with the utmost expressive economy. Some may prefer Yuja Wang's beguiling colorations in No 6, although these draw more attention to the pianism than the music, whereas Carroll's slightly slower and more literal-minded conception reveals the architecture behind the expanding and contracting repeated notes ... Carroll takes assertive and powerful charge throughout the large-scale No 11, while her focused tempo and suave control of voicing allow the quasi-ragtime syncopations to establish a cumulative momentum. Ólafsson's No 13 may be more ear-catching on the surface by virtue of his speed but Carroll's more scrupulous phrasing and dynamic scaling ultimately prevail. She digs into the unintentionally humorous dissonances in No 14's right-hand chords and casts No 15 in Lisztian light ... the best of Carroll's playing on this well-engineered album serves Glass's aesthetic with sincere and masterly integrity. Pwyll ap Siôn's excellent annotations include a perceptive essay and a discussion with the pianist"