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Title:  Women Composers Artist:  Tomoko Mukaiyama Label:  Bvhaast Format:  CD Price:  € 13.00   Mp3 samples:   1   2

other Titles by.. Tomoko Mukaiyama Hello Pop Art (CD)

Title Description:

Vital Review:

This set of works by 20th century women was composed mainly for the piano
and is remarkable for the breadth and dimension of its impeccable
selections by pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama. Galina Ustvolskaya, Sofia
Gubaidulina, and Adriana Holszky all come from Eastern Europe and began
their work behind the former Iron Curtain. In the case of both Ustvolkaya
and Gubaidulina (both students of Shostakovich), the historical,
political, and spiritual surround their lives and are inseparable from
their art. In Holszky's case (from Bucharest), form and deconstruction
are paramount. The two Americans here are also very different: Meredith
Monk composes mainly for voice, the vocal acrobatics of her "Double
Fiesta" contain all its difficulties whereas the piano is merely
accompaniment. Vanessa Lann had her work "Inner Piece" commissioned by
Mukaiyama for this recording. The most material is by the Eastern
Europeans. Holszky's two-part "Hofenster fuer Franz Liszt," is one
architecturally built by chord placed upon another as two note clusters.
They accent a defined but fluid rhythm, shading three themes by Liszt.
This is later underscored in "Part Two" by vocal grunts, shouts,
whimpers, and the steady percussive banging on the piano wood that
Mukaiyama does with gusto. Ustvolskaya's "Piano Sonata VI" is entirely
comprised of chords; they are built up, stack upon stack, until spiritual
and emotional tension require a collapse and heremetic resolve: they are
dissembled, layer by layer, each played harder than its predecessor until
the work becomes a Moebeius strip. Gubaidulina's three-movement sonata
from 1965 is one of her earlier and more tonal works. Notable is the
dexterity with which she passes through forms, interspersing the Baroque
with Classical with the Romantic pre-serialist 20th century. But she also
looks to the future ("Part III") as if new tonal and modal elements for
both construction and expression were already on her horizon.
Lann's "Inner Piece" is a meditative work. Bass notes in the lowest
register are syntactically supplemented with, and taken over by, chords
rooted in those same notes. Its fairly simple time signatures and minor
seventh chords are shoved up against almost jazz-like rhythmic structures
that enter and fade as images rather than compositional elements -- which
also lends considerable beauty to the work. It's a workout for Mukaiyama,
whose dexterous use of the left hand in playing it against the right is
remarkable. In all, a fine set of uncompromising works by an equally
uncompromising artist whose playing often uses flourish and acrobatics
instead of restraint, but it's only because her subject matter demands a
type of hearing it's never before received. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide