A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
For her latest album, "Salt," cellist Maya Beiser draws an arc of female longing and defiance through the centuries.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SALT")
HELGA DAVIS: (Singing) Mourn for my girls who would never know love (ph).
MARTÍNEZ: She told my colleague Leila Fadel how she began her journey with the biblical story of Lot's wife. The woman, who is unnamed, disobeys orders from the heavens and looks back at the destruction of Sodom. She then turned into a pillar of salt as punishment.
MAYA BEISER: It's a very short story, but somehow, it just haunted me for years since I heard it as a little girl 'cause I kept thinking, why was she not supposed to look back? And then the idea that she was turned into salt for eternity as this sort of punishment for all to see - right? - just always felt really cruel and unjust to me. So the album explores that with many other mythical women who experienced grief. That's where it began for me.
(SOUNDBITE OF MAYA BEISER'S "MELODY FROM ORFEO ED EURIDICE")
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Now, the first piece "Salt 1," "Salt 2," these are different movements of the same piece, a mini opera. If you could just talk about the way they connect to each other.
BEISER: Yeah. You know, so the actual work is a collaboration with some wonderful women, the composer Missy Mazzoli and the writer extraordinaire all around, Erin Cressida Wilson. It also features the incredible voice of Helga Davis. And it's based on the text that Erin wrote. The beginning of the story is really just kind of the story of her as a woman, you know, with her husband in the desert.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SALT 1")
DAVIS: (Singing) Of looking back at a city.
BEISER: And then the second, "Salt 2," is really about, what does it feel like being thrown out of your home with your girls and what you take with you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SALT 2")
DAVIS: (Singing) He photographed me. He photographed me 'cause we were poor (ph).
FADEL: Which is so resonant right now, the idea of even if it means saving your life, how bittersweet it is to leave the place you know that has always been home.
BEISER: Exactly.
FADEL: And the oldest composed piece on the album is from the 1600s, right?
BEISER: Yeah. So it's the story of Ariadne, who is left behind on the island of Naxos, forgotten, after she helped save Theseus. This Monteverdi opera, most of it is lost, but there was this beautiful lament of Ariadne. So I arranged it for multitrack cello.
(SOUNDBITE OF MAYA BEISER'S "LAMENT D'ARIANA")
FADEL: Now, you constantly push the boundaries of how the cello is played and thought about, and even the sounds it produces. In this album, I'm thinking especially of "Salt Air, Salt Earth" by Clarice Jensen, which is being recorded here for the first time.
(SOUNDBITE OF CLARICE JENSEN'S "SALT AIR, SALT EARTH")
FADEL: And the melody isn't clear. What were you trying to achieve there?
BEISER: Yeah. Clarice Jensen, she really thought much more about the element of salt than sort of the story of Lot's wife. As I was recording it, I literally had those images of the Dead Sea, the salt. I think about it as sort of a sonic desert.
FADEL: I love that - a sonic desert.
BEISER: Yeah. And the score - there is a visual score, which is basically this drawing that she made. And then there's the actual score, which is really just one page, and it has some written notes, but it has a lot of also open improvisatory moments.
FADEL: You talk about hearing this story of Lot's wife as a child and it really sticking with you as something that bothered you. Is there anything in your own life when you think about the price of looking back that you think of as you play this music?
BEISER: Yeah. You know, as an artist, I've always felt that I wanted to create things that have a really powerful emotional residue, and it wasn't always welcomed. That was particularly difficult as I was going through adolescence, and I was really trying to find my way as an artist and trying to find my language in, particularly the classical music world, where it's very rigid and stiff. I think things have changed somewhat, but - and also being a woman in that world, I do think that that has changed as well. There's this one song in this album, Leila, that is called "Shedemati."
FADEL: I was just going to ask you about that.
BEISER: Yeah. It's a song that I just remember from my childhood.
(SOUNDBITE OF MAYA BEISER'S "SHEDEMATI")
BEISER: It's a Hebrew song.
FADEL: Yeah.
BEISER: It's about working the land. But for me, I was sort of, like, - thought about it as sort of like this reverse idea, you know, which is, we're not really owners of this land. This soil does not belong to us. If anything, you know, we belong to it, right?
FADEL: A hundred percent. I mean, I think for people who don't know, I mean, you were born in Gazit, a kibbutz in northern Israel. And as you're talking, I'm thinking about this epic, really, battle that has been going on about who has claim to the land, who belongs, who does not belong.
BEISER: Exactly. Yeah.
FADEL: Is that where you're going with this?
BEISER: That is where I'm going. People ask me, is this a political album, and it's not. It's human. It's like a mirroring. All we can do is take care of this land that was given to us for a brief moment, and that's kind of what I wanted to convey more than anything, I think, with this album.
FADEL: Beautiful. That's cellist Maya Beiser. Thank you so much for this, and congratulations on your album.
BEISER: Thank you, Leila.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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