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 its 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)

CD Review: PIANO RECITAL by MIYUKI WASHIMIYA

MIYUKI WASHIMIYA Piano Recital

Alm Records 9235 / TT: 51’20”

 

Japanese pianist Miyuki Washimiya has become a familiar name in Singapore concert circles with her regular solo and chamber music recitals presented by the Kris Foundation. Her latest CD, a live recording from Inagi Municipal iPlaza Hall during the height of the pandemic in May 2021, is a pleasant and eclectic mix of mostly popular Romantic repertoire.

 

She opens with a selection of four Mendelssohn Songs Without Words, including the familiar Spring Song (Op.62 No.6) and a Venetian Gondolier’s Song (Op.19 No.6), displaying lovely cantabile  singing lines. This group is completed by the “hunting song” (Op.19 No.3), a lively galloping romp. Washimiya has a strong feeling for Chopin, his Nocturne in B flat minor (Op.9 No.1) crafted with svelte smoothness and rubato that is not overdone. Raising the roof on the early Romantic segment is Valse (Op.64 No.1) of “Minute Waltz” infamy, brilliantly (and logically) completed by the Fantaisie-Impromptu (Op.66), both being in the same key of D flat major.

 

Also very satisfying is the Latino segment heralded by Alberto Ginastera’s Three Argentinian Dances. Separating the coruscating and rambunctious outer movements is the yearning Danza de la moza donosa (Dance of the Young Maiden), with Washimiya being every bit the equal of Argerich. Ernesto Lecuona’s Mazurka Glissando is exactly as its title describes, a charming diversion that does not take itself too seriously, as is Isaac Albeniz’s unpretentious Pavana-Capricho (Op.12). The famous Tango (Op.165 No.2) in its original form is simply underrated, as Washimiya amply illustrates without Godowskian tamperings. In the spectacular category is Manuel de Falla’s Ritual Fire Dance from El Amor Brujo and Brazilian jazz legend Cesar Camargo Mariano’s Cristal, a flashy encore in moto perpetuo.

 

Closing this interestingly varied recital is Kazaburo Hirai’s Fantasy on Sakura-Sakura, a short set of variations on Japan’s most ubiquitous folksong, and Nino Rota’s very pleasant Plein Soleil as arranged by Washimiya herself. Applause after groups of works has been included, but the audience is otherwise very quiet and unobstrusive. A short but very enjoyable disc.

 

This CD may be purchased here:

Washimiya Miyuki - Piano Recital - Japan CD - CDs Vinyl Japan Store