Schumann: Fantasie, Kreisleriana & Arabeske Hideyo Harada

• Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Fantasie C-Dur, Op. 17:
• 1Durchaus phantastisch und leidenschaftlich vorzu Tragen15:04
• 2Mäßig. Durchaus Energisch08:40
• 3Langsam getragen. Durchweg leise zu Halten11:33
• Kreisleriana, Op. 16:
• 4No. 1: Äusserst Bewegt02:50
• 5No. 2: Sehr innig und nicht zu Rasch09:54
• 6No. 3: Sehr Aufgeregt05:15
• 7No. 4: Sehr Langsam03:36
• 8No. 5: Sehr Lebhaft03:18
• 9No. 6: Sehr Langsam04:11
• 10No. 7: Sehr Rasch02:26
• 11No. 8: Schnell und Spielend04:19
• Arabeske, Op. 18:
• 12Leicht und Zart07:48
• Total Runtime01:18:54

Info for Schumann: Fantasie, Kreisleriana & Arabeske

Following the highly successful releases of works by Grieg, Tchaikovsky / Rachmaninov and Schumann, the Japanese born pianist Hideyo Harada now presents her fourth SACD.

Two main works from Schubert’s piano music, two solutions for the great form, two approaches in composing musical time. From the outside, they appear as contrary poles in Schubert’s pianistic œuvre: energetic, resolute and sometimes boastful in the case of the Wanderer Fantasy, whereas the final piano sonata is restrained, elusive and at times faltering. That, at least, is the impression given by the outer movements. The common elements are in the slow movements. No other Romantic addressed so radically what is brought into focus here: the notion of time. In the Wanderer Fantasy it is reflected as rhythm, as “measured time”: Schubert developed the piece from a central rhythm. The sonata questions the course of time itself, the elementary medium of life in music, by breaking off and starting afresh, roaming and stretching, with an agility which mistrusts itself. The great question marks are in the central, slow pieces. They lead to a central motif in Schubert’s thinking and feelings: the wanderer to whose symbolic character he dedicated an early song.

In her interpretation, Hideyo Harada elucidates the contrasts as well as the common undercurrent which forms a link between the works.

“She begins with the Wanderer Fantasy, revelling in the colouristic possibilites of its slow section, and proves more than equal to the work's considerable and frequently unpianistic technical demands.” (Gramophone Magazine)

Hideyo Harada, piano

Hideyo Harada
was born in Japan and first studied in Tokyo with Toyoaki Matsuura before she continued her musical training in Stuttgart (Lieselotte Gierth), Vienna (Hans Kann / Roland Keller), and Moscow (Victor Merzhanov). She has won, among other distincions, the Geneva International Music Competition (CIEM), as well as the 1st prize at the International Schubert Competition in Dortmund. The pianist was also a prize-winner at the International Rachmaninov Competition in Moscow.

Hideyo Harada is a welcome performer at many festivals and in famous European concert halls. She performed at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, the Brunswik Classix Festival, the Beethovenfestival Bonn, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Mozart Festival Würzburg, the Heidelberg Spring Festival, the Ludwigsburg Festival, the Musikfest Stuttgart, the Festival International des Jeune Solistes in Antibes, the Yokohama International Piano Festival, the Prague Proms Festival, and the Grand Piano Festival in Amsterdam. Hideyo Harada has performed solo recitals in the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, in the Musikverein in Vienna, in the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, at the Alte Oper Frankfurt and at Victoria Hall in Geneva. The pianist has played with famous orchestras such as the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, the Kurpfälzisches Chamber Orchestra, the Solistes de Bourgogne, the Orchestre de Cannes, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra Bucharest, the Bulgarian State Philharmonic Orchestra, the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the State Symphony Orchestra of Russia, and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Hideyo Harada also tours Japan on a regular basis, where she has played with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic, and the Japan Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to solo repertoire, Hideyo Harada also performs chamber music. Her partners are, among others, the Borodin Quartet, the violinist Mikhail Simonyan, the cellist Jens Peter Maintz, and the baritone Roman Trekel. Yet another activity of this versatile pianist are her musical-literary programs, which she stages with the performing artists Corinna Harfouch, Katja Riemann, Esther Schweins, Ulrich Noethen, Christian Quadflieg, and Hanns Zischler.

In addition to recordings with international broadcasting and television companies, she has recorded CD’s with works by Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Samuel Feinberg and Michio Mamiya, available on European and Japanese labels.

This album contains no booklet.