Divine Intervention
The premise ofDivine Interventionis as follows: Steven Halpern performs 10 piano improvisations (plus an eight-minute piece for electronic keyboards, the disc-closing "Rest in the Light") in the presence of Starr Fuentes, a woman identified in the liner notes as a "healer and master teacher" and a "Bishop of 64 Divine Intervention congregations." As Halpern plays, Fuentes's contribution is "anchoring and transmitting multidimensional energy fields." What is the result of all this focused energy? Nothing quite as revelatory as the recording's title might suggest. The disc opens on a promising note, with a gentle, sweetly melodic charmer simply titled "Opening Theme." What follows thereafter is more formal-sounding, serious-minded music, as if Halpern is searching the piano's lower ranges for notes suitable for the ostensible profundity of the occasion. On the Halpern functionality scale, this would be a disc (at times a well-played one) more appropriate for reflection and rumination and less for incandescent bliss.--Terry Wood