Kodama

The waiting has finally paid off: the complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle has finally arrived. Japanese pianist Mari Kodama is only the fourth woman to have recorded all of Beethoven's sonatas (Pizzicato). Although not the first with this achievement, the very idea that an artist can play this music and still introduce a new perspective, as Kodama so often proves with her performances, is astonishing.

Mari Kodama presents New Paths, exploring the young Johannes Brahms and his fascinating friendship with Clara and Robert Schumann. The album derives its title from Robert Schumann’s famous essay “Neue Bahnen”, in which he heralded the young Brahms as the most eminent musical voice of the future.

Messiaen, who was an enthusiastic and accomplished ornithologist, investigated for his Catalogue d'oiseaux 13 birds with their songs and their specific sound environments. "I'm very attracted by the works of Messiaen. Catalogue d'oiseaux offers a new musical language. Each bird is evoked by his singing, his travels in its environment, the surrounding landscape etc. The music changes depending on whether the bird is found in the air of morning or evening, or depending on the weather. There are many birds in the catalogue, which gives a great diversity in sounds. The work reflects the beauty of nature, but there is also plenty of humor". – Momo Kodama

Together for the first time in the recording studio, sisters Mari and Momo Kodama are scintillating on these lively arrangements from Tchaikovsky’s ballets "Swan Lake", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Nutcracker". In another first, the release contains the first ever recording of Arensky’s transcription of the timeless Nutcracker together with notable arrangements by Debussy and Rachmaninov. Conceived on a grand scale, Tchaikovsky’s colourful, often passionate scores abound with graceful melodies, arresting harmonies and exuberant orchestration. Composers such as Arensky, Debussy and Rachmaninov made arrangements of these works for piano, not mere reductions but wholesale realizations of the works, combining subtlety and insight with their own technical polish.

Revered pianist Mari Kodama shows off her pianistic technique on this program of exciting piano concertos from heavyweight composers, Loewe and Chopin. The polished instrumentalist delivers renowned interpretations of Chopin’s Piano Concerto in F Minor and Loewe’s Piano Concert in A. With superb sonic clarity, this album rejuvenates these familiar works.

Messiaen, who was an enthusiastic and accomplished ornithologist, investigated for his Catalogue d'oiseaux 13 birds with their songs and their specific sound environments. "I'm very attracted by the works of Messiaen. Catalogue d'oiseaux offers a new musical language. Each bird is evoked by his singing, his travels in its environment, the surrounding landscape etc. The music changes depending on whether the bird is found in the air of morning or evening, or depending on the weather. There are many birds in the catalogue, which gives a great diversity in sounds. The work reflects the beauty of nature, but there is also plenty of humor". – Momo Kodama

Bohuslav Martinů's distinctive musical voice, which infuses the great Czech tradition with modern idioms, is showcased in this captivating survey of his concertante works, performed by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille conducted by Lawrence Foster. The Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra is a lively and rhythmic tour de force. Breezily energetic and relentless, it is full of jazzy inflections and high speed fireworks, pausing only in the tranquillity of the slow movement for moments of serene calm. By contrast, the Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra is a warm, lyrical work in the Romantic tradition. With its intricate and interweaving solo lines, expansive melodies and dance-like syncopations it's an engaging work of considerable charm which deserves a wider audience. The Rhapsody-Concerto for Viola and Orchestra is a dreamily nostalgic work whose simple melodies, radiant lyricism and soaring viola line make it one of the 20th century's most performed viola concertos.

Mari Kodama celebrates the Bruckner bicentenary year with a collection of piano works, most of which are rarely heard. While some of them, such as the Fantasie, Erinnerung and Stille Betrachtung, reveal the serious symphonist and church composer, the many dances included on this album illuminate a lighter side of the composer.

Mari Kodama’s successful start to the 23/24 season began at the Hamburg City Hall Open Air concert with the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra under the direction of Kent Nagano performing Beethoven’s Concerto No.2. This year begins with Mari Kodama performing two piano concertos (Colin Mcphee’s Tabuh – Tabuhan for two pianos and orchestra and Poulenc’s Concerto for two pianos) with her sister Momo Kodama and the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in Tokyo.

This album, the first in Kodama’s planned Beethoven cycle, begins with the composer’s so-called “easy” sonatas. In the words of the booklet’s annotator, Franz Steiger, they represent “lyrical islands,” being less fervent or affirmative than many of his other works in this genre.