La Vallee des Cloches: Momo Kodama

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[Messiaen’s] distinctively pungent harmonies and ecstatic resolutions are all here, but in a span which takes us through a rich range of places and times of day, from nocturnal mystery to the... — MusicWeb International, 8th January 2014 More…

Release Date: 21st Oct 2013
Catalogue No: 4810426
Label: ECM
Series: New Series
Length: 65 minutes

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Ravel: Miroirs, M.43

Work length29:05

$5.50

$7.50

$10.25

Momo Kodama (piano)
Recorded: 2012-09
Recording Venue: Historischer Reitstadel in Neumarkt In der Oberpfalz

1. Noctuelles

Track length5:15

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

2. Oiseaux tristes

Track length3:56

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

3. Une barque sur l'océan

Track length7:31

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

4. Alborada del gracioso

Track length6:59

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

5. La vallée des cloches

Track length5:24

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Takemitsu: Rain Tree Sketch

Work length4:08

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Momo Kodama (piano)
Recorded: 2012-09
Recording Venue: Historischer Reitstadel in Neumarkt In der Oberpfalz

Messiaen: La Fauvette des jardins

Work length32:23

$1.10

$1.50

$2.05

Momo Kodama (piano)
Recorded: 2012-09
Recording Venue: Historischer Reitstadel in Neumarkt In der Oberpfalz

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Momo Kodma’s first ECM New Series album is a marvel, a mesmerizing journey from the shimmering surfaces of Miroirs, Ravel’s piano cycle of 1904-45 to Messiaen’s Fauvette des jardins (written in 1970), a late masterpiece of piano music from the visionary composer. Kodama’s insights into Messiaen’s soundworld are remarkable as she conveys his religious feeling for nature, birdsong transformed into spiritual utterance, through the compelling, insistent piano figures.

Linking these two pieces like a walkway is Toru Takemitsu’s Rain Tree Sketch (1982), music from the East informed by Western experiment. “Its opening bars” writes Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich in the liner notes, “evoke not only the rapturous crystalline chord progressions of Messiaen, but also the flashing, glittering sophistication of Ravel.” Kodama has a personal perspective on dialogues of Orient and Occident. Born in Osaka, she spent her early childhood in Germany, moving to France at 13 to enter the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique in Paris. Later there were studies with great pianists including Murray Perahia, András Schiff, and Tatiana Nikolayeva. At 19, Momo Kodama was the Munich International Competition’s youngest prize winner. A major part of Momo Kodama’s performance schedule is dedicated to contemporary music, and Messiaen has been a special focus. In 2006, at the urging of Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen, she premiered, with Isabelle Faust, Messiaen’s Fantasie for violin and piano, a piece written in 1933 but never previously performed, and in the Messiaen centenary year 2008 she received awards in Japan for a concert series dedicated to the composer. Her recordings of Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus and Catalogue d’Oiseaux for Triton have received high critical acclaim.

Reviews

8th January 2014

[Messiaen’s] distinctively pungent harmonies and ecstatic resolutions are all here, but in a span which takes us through a rich range of places and times of day, from nocturnal mystery to the energy of choruses of birds, each given distinct character and brought to life with startling virtuosity by Momo Kodama...By the end you are gasping in wonder, and the half-hour has passed as if by magic.

27th October 2013

An ECM disc is less a compilation than a recital by other means...Kodama plays exquisitely.

La Vallee des Cloches: Momo Kodama

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