ESCENAS DE LA MEMORIA / MIYUKI WASHIMIYA, Piano / Review

 

ESCENAS DE LA MEMORIA

MIYUKI WASHIMIYA, Piano

Alm Records 7291 / TT: 58’07”

Japanese pianist Miyuki Washimiya relives her youthful years of French schooling at the Paris Conservatory with this delightful recital of popular French and Spanish repertoire.

She opens with Francis Poulenc, whose piano works ought to be more familiar. His chanson Le chemins d’amour (The Paths of Love), one of his most memorable tunes, does not actually exist as a piano solo. However, the piano accompaniment to the song is sufficiently detailed to stand on its own. One imagines this melodie to be sung by the Edith Piaf, whose equally sultry homage appears as Improvisation No.15, a beguiling number in the same spirit. What follows is Poulenc’s most extended piano work, Le Soirees de Nazelles (The Evenings of Nazelles), comprising 10 short movements with Couperinesque titles.

Poulenc is a master of mood and nuance, which shifts as the wind blows. Gorgeous fleeting melodies sit cheek by jowl with vigorous gestures, and one is kept guessing as to what comes next. Miyuki’s reading is an all-encompassing one, its myriad intricacies falling well within her hands, while the cheeky anarchic spirit tinged with a certain innocence is well captured. It is certainly comparable with the famous recordings by Pascal Roge and Gabriel Tacchino.

Debussy is represented by the wistful Girl with the Flaxen Hair from Preludes Book 1. This is well compensated by the two best-known movements from Deodat de Severac’s from En Vacances (On Holiday), Valse Romantique and An Old Music Box. These miniatures are so deliciously rendered that one longs to hear the entire set.

The Iberian-Hispanic segment of the recital is shorter but no less enjoyable. Catalan great Federico Mompou’s Cancion y Danza No.6 is the most regularly-heard of his 13 song and dance tandems, contrasting lyrical melancholy with carefree gaiety. Enrique Granados’ Andaluza (Spanish Dance No.5) is very well-known, its guitar-like strumming rhythms are indelibly captured. In Escenas Romanticas (Romantic Scenes), Washimiya performs three of six movements including an atmospheric Mazurka, a very brief and rustic Allegretto, and Andantino spianato con exaltacion poetica, the last a Chopinesque nocturne distinguished by fine legato playing as its title absolutely suggests. 

The recital closes with two of Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona's most famous pieces, Andaluza and Malaguena, perhaps better known in their orchestral or band guises. Washimiya has the full measure of their Latino exuberance on the keyboard. This excellently produced album is an hour very well spent.

This recording may be purchased here:

Miyuki Washimiya【Escenas de la memòria】 (kojimarokuon.com)