The latest collaboration between pianist Cheryl Duvall and composer Linda Catlin Smith marks the beginning of a remarkable multi-volume recording project devoted to Smith’s complete piano works. Its first installment, The Plains, is an hour-long solo piece that invites listeners to enter an expansive world of sound, stillness, and time suspended.
Cheryl Duvall and Linda Catlin
The story of The Plains can be traced back to Duvall’s long fascination with time and her early experiences performing Smith’s music. In 2014, she played Smith’s Ballad for cello and piano, a 45-minute work that left a lasting impression. “I was struck by how I lost track of time while performing the work, like I was drawn into another realm,” Duvall recalls. “The audience felt the same, saying the performance seemed to last fifteen minutes rather than forty-five.” That experience deepened her curiosity about how music can alter one’s perception of time and later inspired her to commission long-form works from Canadian composers.
“I wanted to explore this idea further and also rebel against what felt like a diminishing of attention span,” Duvall explains. “So I commissioned six composers to write me hour-long works.” Among those who attended the premieres was Smith, who became intrigued by the challenge of creating her own large-scale piece. “Cheryl mentioned that one day she would like to commission a one-hour piece from me,” Smith remembers. “That idea planted itself in my mind, and at a certain point, I found I was working on material that I felt could become a long work. A suggestion often becomes an internal challenge, and I become curious about what I might do.”
When Smith presented The Plains to Duvall in late 2023, it came as a surprise. “Linda told me the piece was almost done and delivered it to me,” Duvall says. “I felt truly honoured to be gifted such a monumental new work by a composer I deeply admire and share such a rich history with.” The two worked together closely during rehearsals and the recording process. Smith co-produced the album, guiding interpretation and tone while leaving space for Duvall’s instinctive artistry. “We wanted the recording to feel alive, like a performance,” Duvall explains. “It’s music that demands total engagement and sensitivity.”
Linda Catlin Smith: The Plains (excerpt)
Smith describes composing The Plains as an act of sustained curiosity. She avoids mapping out structure in advance, instead allowing the piece to unfold intuitively. “It’s a constant conversation I’m having with the work and with myself,” she says. “In a long piece, there’s the luxury of time to explore something fully, to exhaust an idea, and to revisit it later like a remembering or misremembering. I like the sustained concentration of that.”
For Duvall, preparing and performing the work required both physical endurance and emotional focus. “Finding patience and stillness for the slower sections, shaping colours within a narrow dynamic range, and maintaining a sense of unity over an hour took time and care,” she reflects. “Playing Linda’s music is like walking on a tightrope. You have to be completely engaged, listening to the piano and the room, balancing the sound moment by moment.”
Smith’s writing, with its delicate harmonies and subtle pacing, demands that level of attention. “Linda’s music truly sounds like no other composer,” Duvall says. “Her rich harmonic language and use of resonance create suspension, and even small shifts between two harmonies can feel like movement. The challenge is not technical in a Lisztian way, but interpretive. It’s about nuance, colour, and pacing.”
Photo taken during their recording session
Their long collaboration has built the trust necessary for such intimate music-making. Smith values this relationship deeply. “A long piece requires a deeper dedication from the musician,” she says. “It really matters to have performers willing to live inside our works this way.” Duvall agrees, noting how working directly with Smith has shaped her as an artist. “It’s a luxury to have that dialogue. I’ve learned so much from Linda about sound, patience, and detail. These relationships make me a better musician.”
The Plains also serves as the first chapter of a four-volume project tracing Smith’s piano writing from 1989 to 2023. Future albums will feature early and previously unrecorded works, with liner notes by composer Nick Storring and photography by Ella Morton. “I hope listeners can spend time with each volume and build their own relationships with Linda’s music,” says Duvall. “It’s not music that reveals itself right away; it invites you to listen differently.”
For both composer and pianist, The Plains represents a shared belief in depth, reflection, and continuity in a fast-moving world. Smith’s quiet lyricism and Duvall’s immersive interpretation draw listeners into a space where time stretches, breathes, and dissolves. As Duvall recalls from one listener after the premiere, “They said it felt like being invited into the casting of a spell.” That spell now lives on in this recording, an invitation to listen, linger, and lose track of time.
Listen and purchase the album here.
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