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Review by Bill Binkelman Born in a Yugoslavian refugee camp in Germany in the years after World War II and immigrating to America with her parents in 1951, Radmila Jandrich (now Rada Neal) came to playing piano almost by accident. Neighbors of the Jandrich family in northern Indiana left them an upright model when they (the neighbors) moved away. Young Radmilla was fascinated with the instrument and her mother wisely found her a teacher. As the saying goes, "the rest is history." In this case, it's the history of a woman who developed her love of the piano into a career teaching students and passing on her love of the piano, as well as playing it professionally. The results of the latter, so far at least, are two recordings from Rada Neal of which this is her latest. Influenced by classical music, as well as the more romantically-themed new age pianists, Neal plays with heart-on-her-sleeve feeling and her softer pieces exhibit a warmth and flow that is easy to enjoy. Almost all of her compositions maintain a strong sense of structured melodic sensibility, sometimes quite stately in fact, hence the comparison to classical piano. Second Steps contains thirteen instrumental tracks, some solo pieces and others featuring various electronic keyboard embellishments (strings and more new age-like textures). When Neal uses electronic accompaniment, it is usually sparsely applied and with discretion, such as the opening strings at the start of "We're Free" which serve more as a prelude to the main thrust of the muted but still powerful piano. The album's mood and tone varies from reflective and somewhat somber, such as on "Remembering When," to almost childlike and joyful ("An Irish Lass") to darker emotions, yet played out in faster than usual tempo (the haunting "Taken Away," which is another selection flavored with synth strings). I prefer the more optimistic tracks, purely from a standpoint of personal taste, such as the lively "My Mother's Garden" although some of the softer ones caught my fancy as well ("Summer Breeze" has a nice nostalgic glow to it, much like Jim Chappell's work on releases like Acadia and Living the Northern Summer). Neal even has a few tricks up her sleeve, as when she drops in some sampled accordion on "Tomorrow's Dream" which, for me, conjures up the image of walking down a small street in Paris, hand in hand with my wife, Kathryn. This track also features some of her better synth work with flowing new age style sounds offering the perfect amount of support. It's always hard to come up with something to say about yet another new age piano recording so as to differentiate it from the many others out there without grasping for some obscurity. Obviously, after hearing as many CDs as I have, there are similarities between many of them. Rada Neal doesn't offer anything so revolutionary or original that I can state "You have never heard this before" However, she does play with solid technique and obvious feeling and her compositions are never trite or run of the mill, although her music is accessible and inviting. If your tastes run toward a blend of classical and traditional melodic new age styles in piano music, sometimes adorned with sparse keyboard accompaniment, Second Steps is going to please you and find a place on your shelf. It's perfect sunny afternoon or evening meal music, but also stands up to direct listening well enough. |
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