OzzMusic.net Articles Section
| A joint piano recital at Kathmandu | ||
| Kishor Gurung | Viewed: 445 | |
Recently, a joint piano concert was held at the residence of the Japanese Ambassador in Tahachal, with the initiative of HE Tsutomu Hiraoka and his wife Rie Hiraoka. The invitees, numbering around 60, were mostly Japanese, some Nepalis and a few Caucasians. Since the residential hall was adequate, its lavishly furnished carpets and drapes had no ill-effects on the overall acoustics. The Yamaha piano looked and sounded its best, and faithfully produced the distinctly identifiable tones of the two performers. Yoshihiro Akita opened the first half of the program by playing two pieces by Yanni called One Man’s Dream and Until the Last Moment. These pieces had New Age Music tilt. Yanni was followed by six pieces of somewhat similar nature by George Winston. All the pieces Akita performed had descriptive titles like Colors/Dance, Woods, Sea, Joy, Moon and Longing/Love. Such titles were indicative of the general intention of the composers to cater to laymen rather than seasoned audience. Cleverly interwoven within Joy was J. S. Bach’s (1685-1750) Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desire from Cantata No. 147. Similarly, in Moon, a 12-bar blues was interpolated in the middle section. This piece also implied the technique of rapidly playing a single note, called "tremolo". The scale was based on an oriental mode of Japanese nature. After Longing/Love, Akita obliged to an encore by improvising in the same spirit and style as the preceding pieces. The piano sounded minutely out of tune on the higher register. I make this remark because George Winston is known to take extreme care in tuning his piano before a performance. In fact, he makes an autocratic demand that his piano be tuned exactly to his specifications before he touches it.
David Ward opened the second half by playing two pieces by Claude Debussy (1862-1918) called Le Petite Negre and An Clair de la Lune. The choice of these pieces appropriately fitted with what had been performed in the first half. Debussy, along with Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), was an important innovator of impressionistic movement in music and did not hesitate to use titles to suggest his musical intentions.
These two composers were influenced by an eccentric composer named Eric Satie (1866-1925) who played piano in Parisian cafes. Satie is known for not only his stylistically "light" piano works but also for his uniquely unhelpful titles and instructions. Some read as Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear, Bureaucratic Sonata, Pieces to Make You Run Away, Dehydrated Embryo, and his instructions for playing his piano pieces are Don’t be Proud; Pianissimo; Short of Wind; Wonder about Yourself; With Much Difficulty; Be Clairvoyant. David moved on with the third piece, Impromptu No. 4 in A Flat Major, Opus 90, by Franz Schubert (1797-1828), in which he came closer to improvisational style. The remaining four pieces were by Frederic Chopin (1810-1849); all were well known works. The Nocturnal, Opus 9, No. 2 in E Flat Major, seemed to lack the gusto at the cadence where an extended chromatic run occurs, but the Polonaise, Opus 40, No. 1 opened with a big sound, appropriate to the piece. We could feel the orchestral colors through the fingers of David. When the last piece ended, the audience gently clamored for more, which was obliged with Summer Time by George Gershwin (1898-1937).
What is remarkable about this joint recital is that both Akita and David are "non-professional" when it comes to music. By choice of his livelihood, Yoshihiro Akita is a Buddhist art creator, piano tuner and specialist in body balancing treatment, who has made Nepal his home by a marrying a Newari lady Laxmi from Patan.
Wife Laxmi was the page-turner during the first half of the concert. Clad in long flowing sari, she "knowingly" turned the pages as her Japanese husband ran his fingers on the piano. After the concert, I asked her if she read music notes, to which she replied, as expected, "No." I have known this family for sometime and I knew she did not read music. How then could she manage to turn the pages at the right moments? She replied, "I know the melodies in my head and my husband's body language helps me." Aha! That too is remarkable, I thought. And Mr. David Ward is by profession an executive diplomat at the British Embassy here in Kathmandu. How could he find time for the needed practice demanded of any classical pianist? "I have no family of my own," he replied. So, soft-spoken David is single, an aspiring pianist with interest in fine arts like classical music, employed in a good position with prospects of further rise, open to many transfers around the world as his job dictates but somehow hanging onto his passion for music.
These are remarkable people living in Kathmandu today. To say the least, they are an inspiration! I, myself having embarked on a concert life, could only admire their high spirit and courage. I am glad that I attended the concert that gloomy Sunday afternoon; and for a brief moment, forgot the many plights of our embattled nation.
Reviewed by Kishor Gurung
more will follow....