Mari Kodama - New Paths (2022/2024) [Official Digital Download 24/192]

Mari Kodama presents New Paths, exploring the young Johannes Brahms and his fascinating friendship with Clara and Robert Schumann. The album derives its title from Robert Schumann’s famous essay “Neue Bahnen”, in which he heralded the young Brahms as the most eminent musical voice of the future. The programme brings together Brahms’s first piano sonata, his Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 9, as well as his Theme And Variations, Op. 18B, made at Clara Schumann’s request. The final word is given to Clara’s arrangement of Robert’s song Widmung. New Paths not only explores the unique bond of these three remarkable composers, but also shows the energetic self-confidence of the young Brahms, so different from his later melancholia. Kodama performs these works on a brand new Yamaha piano that almost sounds like a period instrument, coming much closer to Brahms’s sound ideal.

Mari Kodama is one of the most extraordinary pianists of our age, and has an impressive Pentatone discography, featuring Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas (2003-2014), piano concertos of Loewe and Chopin (2003), Tchaikovsky Ballet Suites for Piano Duo (2016), De Falla’s Nights in the Gardens of Spain (2017), Martinů’s Concerto for Two Pianos (2018), Kaleidoscope, Beethoven Transcriptions and MON AMI Mon amour (both 2020).

TRACKLIST

1. Mari Kodama - I. Allegro
2. Mari Kodama - II. Andante
3. Mari Kodama - III. Scherzo. Allegro molto e con fuoco - Più mosso
4. Mari Kodama - IV. Finale. Allegro con fuoco
5. Mari Kodama - Thema. Ziemlich langsam
6. Mari Kodama - Var. 1, L'istesso tempo
7. Mari Kodama - Var. 2, Poco più moto
8. Mari Kodama - Var. 3, Tempo di tema
9. Mari Kodama - Var. 4, Poco più moto
10. Mari Kodama - Var. 5, Allegro capriccioso
11. Mari Kodama - Var. 6, Allegro
12. Mari Kodama - Var. 7, Andante
13. Mari Kodama - Var. 8, Andante
14. Mari Kodama - Var. 9, Schnell
15. Mari Kodama - Var. 10, Poco adagio
16. Mari Kodama - Var. 11, Un poco più animato
17. Mari Kodama - Var. 12, Allegretto, poco scherzando - Presto
18. Mari Kodama - Var. 13, Non troppo presto
19. Mari Kodama - Var. 14, Andante
20. Mari Kodama - Var. 15, Poco adagio
21. Mari Kodama - Var. 16, Adagio
22. Mari Kodama - Theme & Variations in D Minor, Op. 18b
23. Mari Kodama - No. 1, Widmung (Arr. C. Schumann for Solo Piano)



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