News Yoshio Kodama

The chance to hear instruments from Chopin's time alongside modern pianos at Third Chopin Festival Hamburg 

[…] keyboard instruments. This year's festival comes from the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg and the museum has provided the historic instruments used in the festival. This means that alongside modern pianos we get to hear two pianos from Chopin's time, an 1880 Érard, and an 1847 Pleyel plus a 1728 Zell harpsichord. The second concert will offer a direct comparison of the sound worlds of a historic and a modern grand piano, with pianist Mari Kodama performing works by Chopin, Ravel, and Dutilleux on the Érard and a 2019 Shigeru Kawai.  The concert venues in the museum will include the striking Hall of Mirrors, created in 1909 for a luxurious villa build by Henry and Emma Budge and installed in the museum in 1987. [The room has a complex and significant history, and there is a fascinating article at the Jewish History Online website] Performers at the festival include Hubert […]

Playlist for IMMORTAL 

[…] lot of piano music here, so I’ve selected several different recordings. For the early sonatas, we have András Schiff’s live recording - not least because he is one of few to play the entire first movement of the ‘Moonlight’ Sonata as indicated, in one long pedal. For the ‘heroic’ period and the final trilogy, we have Daniel Barenboim and for the ‘Hammerklavier’ the magnificent recording by Murray Perahia. In the Andante Favori I picked Mari Kodama for her clear, Josephine-like phrasing.   The utterly splendid Takács String Quartet perform all the quartet extracts - and as I’ve named the Brunsvik family coachman after them, it seems only fair. The Cello Sonata in A major is played by Miklós Perényi (cello) and András Schiff (piano). The symphonies are variously represented in a classic recordings by conductors including Carlos Kleiber, Iván Fischer and Claudio Abbado; the latter also conducts the Piano Concerto […]

CD Review. Mon ami, mon amour (Matt Haimovitz, Mari Kodama) 

Mon ami, mon amour Works by Poulenc, Fauré, Milhaud, Lili Boulanger, Nadia Boulanger, Ravel, Debussy. Matt Haimovitz, cello. Mari Kodama, piano Pentatone Oxingale Series PTC 5186 816 Total time: 61 minutes. This anthology of French works for cello and piano lands lightly on the ear but knows the way to your heart. Francis Poulenc’s quirky [...]

The pianist Karin Kei Nagano, 22, is bringing out her third recording on the Canadian label Analekta. Daughter of the conductor Kent Nagano and the pianist Mari Kodama, she was put to the piano at age three and made her debut in a Mozart concerto when she was just eight years old. She doesn’t sound […]