MusicWeb International, Mark Sealey
“This is a sumptuous, relaxed, languorous CD of nine spare – yet also explosive – Japanese contemporary pieces for piano. It is as much an act of love as it is of exposition of new music. The composers have been chosen by Hiroaki Takenouchi to represent work from that country of the last half century or so. They reveal an intensity with – and, really, a sort of authority over – melody, texture, rhythm and what the instrument can do. This intensity, this sense of command, can amaze, if we enter this sound-world as receptive listeners”
“a recital of real depth and interpretative strength […] here is beautiful, accomplished and truly delightful music.”
“Miyoshi’s and Nodaïra’s pieces are in contrast with what comes immediately before and with Hosokawa’s “Haiku”, which follows it, in that they have more pace, more evident animation. The “Haiku” homage to Boulez shares some of the latter’s sound-world: clusters, vertical groupings, a love of sound for sound’s sake, sporadic interjections which serve to imply the melodic lines, rather than define them in linear fashion. Here Takenouchi is at his poetic best. Pauses, attacks, holding of notes – such techniques seem aimed at stretching the limits of pianism, without self-consciousness. In fact they plunge us right into the essence of best practice and great creativity for the instrument.”
“This is emphatically and unashamedly modern, at times dissonant and aggressively uncompromising playing of honest, crystalline music. Takenouchi (just 30 years old) is based in London, where he studied with the late Yonty Solomon. He will go far. His sureness of touch and dramatically clear and clean insight are ideally suited to this music and to the world it inhabits. For something new, different, yet essentially full of integrity, beauty and creativity, this CD is well worth a look.”