TT 372: Miharu Ogura -- Plays Ogura
formidable pianist records her own fully-notated scores
There have been times when I’ve wondered if new generations would take up the resolutely modernist gauntlet. Of course, one way to ensure the continuation of the tradition is for true believers to play the sounds themselves.
Ogura Plays Ogura is engaging new recording from a pianist born in 1996 in Tokyo and now living in Frankfurt. An obvious highlight is “Labyrinthe,” which is perhaps a bit in the Bartók to Ligeti lineage.
Other Miharu Ogura compositions are comparatively diffuse in argument. Ogura has released a critically acclaimed Stockhausen recording, and I hear that line — Stockhausen cut with Feldman, perhaps? — in the substantial “Nijimi,” which comes with an admirable professionally-made video:
Jonas Olsson writes in the liner notes, "‘Nijimi” is a remarkable work, of a seriousness and expansiveness that is unusual among recent works for solo piano. It manages to be both deeply serious and playful, often at the same time, while showing interestingly similar ways of transitioning between very different materials."
Olsson is also a significant pianist, and performs Ogura’s “Sillage de lignes” in a scrolling score video. Like “Labyrinthe,” this piece is of a perpetual motion or toccata nature, and therefore absolutely right up my alley.
I’m looking forward to hearing more from this new and vital corner of the musical world.