Takashi Yoshimatsu: Piano Works for the Left Hand

Takashi Yoshimatsu: Piano Works for the Left Hand

8.579121 (Naxos Records, CD)

DDD
FIRST RELEASE (13 May 2022)

Playing time: 51'31"
Tracks: 16
Booklet pages: 4
℗ 2022 Naxos Rights (Europe) Ltd
© 2022 Naxos Rights (Europe) Ltd
Main country of recording: United States of America
Country of manufacture: Germany
Reviewer: John Dante Prevedini
Review of Takashi Yoshimatsu: Piano Works for the Left Hand published on 19 July 2022

Yumiko Oshima-Ryan, piano

Takashi Yoshimatsu (born 1953):

Tapiola Visions, Op 92 (2004)
1 Vignette in Twilight
2 Gigue of Forest
3 Pavane for Water
4 Commas of Birds
5 Toccata in the Wind

Ainola Lyrical Ballads. Op 95 (2006)
6 Romance
7 Arabesque
8 Ballad
9 Pavane
10 Mozartino
11 Pastoral
12 Carillon

Gauche Dances, Op 96 (2006)
13 Rock
14 Blues
15 Tango
16 Boogie Woogie

Recorded 2 August 2014 (tracks 1-5), 25 June and 8 August 2015 (tracks 6-12) and 20 October 2019 (tracks 13-16) at Björling Recital Hall, Gustavus Adolphus College, St Peter, Minnesota, USA.

Takashi Yoshimatsu's wide-ranging musical influences often combine jazz and rock elements with classical, folk and world music. This album focuses on a unique series of three solo piano works for the left hand, inspired by his great friend Izumi Tateno. These lyric and beautiful miniatures are saturated in nature and birdsong, as can be heard in the evocative Tapiola Visions and in the seven bouquets that form Ainola Lyrical Ballads which are dedicated to Sibelius. In Gauche Dances, we hear a sequence that includes the tango and boogie woogie, displaying how eagerly and ebulliently Yoshimatsu breaks boundaries.