Konbanwa...
...and greetings from a graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook (1985). I was back on the campus tonight for a piano recital featuring Junko Ueno Garrett. She has been touring with a "Piano Journey in Japan - 100 Years of Japanese Piano Music" programme for several years, and tonight she brought her programme to Stony Brook.
Actually, I should say that it was a "lecture/recital" (light on the lecture) as she surveyed the Japanese piano music scene from 1900 (when Kousaku Yamada composed his "Minuetto") through at least 2000. Most of the evening was devoted to impressionist pieces (Fumio Hayasaka, Hisatada Otaka, Yoshinao Nakada). She did include some Toru Takemitsu (most notably his last piano piece, the "Rain Tree Sketch II" from 1992). The programme almost ended with some work from one Karen Tanaka (the not-too-convincing "Techno Etudes"), but Ueno-Garrett-san wisely chose to close the evening with "On a rainy night" (1948) by Yoshinao Nakada, which was one of my faves for the evening.
I need to upload a report with pictures on my homepage soon <www.yougasa.net – このドメインはお名前.comで取得されています。>; one great snap came when she received a gift of some music written by Masaru Takeshita, a chap who happens to live in Stony Brook himself! Whether or not his work makes it into her repertoire remains to be seen. At least he got the pianist's attention...
Not a bad evening, plus it was a free event. A very nice dessert reception afterwards. I came home with some Japan Information Network (Web Japan) fliers and three cans of UCC ice oolong and green tea (two oolong, one green - no one seemed to mind).
Oyasumi nasai,
Philip David
2006.03.28-29