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 sound-world 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 sup�rieur de musique in Paris. Later there were studies with great pianists including Murray Perahia, Andr�s 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-J�sus and Catalogue d'Oiseaux for Triton have received high critical acclaim.
Personnel: Momo Kodama (piano)
