Hope – Nat Bartsch

Hope is an album for piano, strings and electronics built around Nat’s distinctive blend of gentle melodic improvisation, jazz harmony and cinematic neoclassical composition. The suite was composed in 2020, first with the smell of bushfire smoke in her home from the Black Summer fires, and later during Melbourne’s long covid lockdowns. Hence the title is an abbreviation of hopefulness and hopelessness, and music exploring the space between. The intention is for the listener to immerse themselves in the music, reflecting and acknowledging all we have endured in the past few years, but ultimately, by the final piece, be looking to the future with a sense of hope. The album reached #1 on the iTunes Classical Australia charts and #3 on the ARIA classical charts. A jazz/post-rock re-interpretation, Hope Renewed, was released in March of this year.