EDITION WANDELWEISER RECORDS > CD catalogue _____________________________________________________________________                                                                                                     <<   >> Makiko Nishikaze Pianopera I & II order reference:    medium:              composer:           performer: EWR 0405 CD Makiko Nishikaze John McAlpine, Piano > Rezension Stefan Drees (Positionen 63) (german) What struck me most about Makiko Nishikaze’s piano music, when I heard it for the first time, was its waywardness. In a kind of musical stream of consciousness, delicate melodic strands floated quietly and unpredictably over the entire keyboard like the disconnected thoughts of a daydreamer. And yet it sounded perfectly natural and inevitable: some mysterious logic was holding it all together. Immediately I began thinking about how I would interpret this music, and in May, 2002, had the opportunity to do so when she entrusted me with the first performance of her 70-minute long “Piano Islands”. Makiko Nishikaze liked my interpretation, and decided thereupon to compose a further piano piece, the two-part “pianopera”, especially for me. Disliking technical discussions of her music - how it sounds, she says, is more important than how it’s made- all Makiko Nishikaze is prepared to divulge is that she composes system- atically, but with very flexible systems, and that the pitches, intervals and durations she uses are derived from sets of proportions. Before beginning “pianopera I” she carefully measured the lengths of my arms and fingers, the measurements obtained providing the set of proportions for the piece. I was reminded of composers like Schumann and Ravel deriving themes from the letters of their dedicatees’ names. In 2003 Makiko Nishikaze was awarded a grant to work at the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles, formerly the home of novelist Lion Feuchtwanger and a meeting-place for writers and composers who, like him, were exiles from Nazi Germany. While she was there I was invited to give the first performances of “pianopera I” and “pianopera II”, which took place on the 23rd of April in the library on an old Blüthner grand piano that had once belonged to the composer Ernst Toch. And what is the plot of this opera in two acts for piano? That’s up to you, Dear Listener. John McAlpine > top (...) Eine weitere Gemeinschaftsproduktion von Edition Wandelweiser und Radio Bremen zeugt von der Originalität der Japanerin Makiko Ni- shikaze. Ihr eigenwilliges Diptychon pianopera l & II (2002) folgt mit unvorhersehbar einander ablösenden Klanggebilden keiner erkennbaren Logik und wirkt dennoch in seiner musikali­ schen Struktur niemals beliebig, so daß die Musik trotz der großen ästhetischen Distanz durchaus der eingangs besprochenen CD Luigi Archettis verwandt scheint. Es ist das ab­ wechslungsreiche Eindringen in Klänge und Pausen, deren Dauer, Dichte, Ambitus oder Tonraumkontraste immer variiert werden, de­ ren Dynamik sich jedoch vorzugsweise in lei­ sen Bereichen bewegt. Mit großer Sensibilität für die oftmals nur minimalen Unterschiede in Anschlag und Artikulation hat sich der Pianist John McAlpine dieser zarten, unbestimmt zwi­ schen harmonischer und melodischer Entfal­ tung pendelnden Gebilde angenommen. Unter seinen Händen scheint die Musik gleichsam in einem Zustand von Schwerelosigkeit zu verhar­ ren, aus dem sich die Klänge immer wieder lö-­ sen, um sich zu neuen und anderen Figuren zusammenzufügen.     Stefan Drees (Positionen 63) > top