MAHANI TEAVE

Rapa Nui Odyssey:Works by Bach, Chopin, Handel, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Scriabin Rubicon RCD1066 (2CD) ★★★★★

Picture the scene. Rapa Nui (Easter Island), population about 8,000, remotest place on earth. Holidaying American film producer attends recital. Local music teacher, on battered old upright. Gobs are smacked. She’s sensational! He invites her to Seattle to make a proper recording – and the result justifies every last ounce of faith. How’s that for a backstory? Turns out Mahani Teave (born 1983) had given up a promising international career, to move to her father’s homeland to teach schoolchildren. Their gain is the rest of the world’s loss. In Late Romantic blockbusters (Chopin Barcarolle, Liszt Vallée d’Obermann, Scriabin Prelude and Nocturne for Left Hand, et al) Teave has an idiosyncratic and free-spirited poeticism which is beguiling and captivating: it’s as if she really doesn’t care whether you like her or not – she’s just going to do her own wild and passionate thing. She sounds less invested in Bach, but the rest is awesome.