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Japanese pianist returns home for concert tour
2008-04-01
Not content with wowing audiences across Europe, Spanish-based pianist Azumi Nishizawa returns to her native Japan this week for a concert tour, including an unprecedented performance at Kyoto's famed Kiyomizu Temple. The 30-year-old musician will be accompanied by Geneva's Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the orchestra of French-speaking Switzerland with which she regularly tours as soloist. Nishizawa, who is based in Madrid but also shuttles between Paris and Geneva, will wind up the tour de force Saturday at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan hall, after first performing in Nagoya's Denki Bunka Kaikan and the Kyoto concert hall as well as the Kiyomizu Temple. Nishizawa, the 2002 winner of the distinction of virtuosity at the Geneva Conservatory, sees the temple concert on Wednesday as a rare honour since the ancient venue dating back to the eighth century has apparently never before hosted a European orchestra. One of Kyoto's iconic landmarks, it is famous for its veranda with 139 wooden pillars built on a cliff, Kiyomizu no butai, which has also spawned a popular metaphor for bravery. Saying someone "jumped off the veranda at Kiyomizu" is a synonomous with hailing them for a courageous act. "It is so difficult to get permission and I think it is the first time that permission has been given for a European orchestra to play there," Nishizawa told AFP. "To play in this temple for a Japanese person is simply marvellous." The program will include works by Brahms (variation on Haydn's St Anthony), Mozart (Quintet for piano, oboe, clarinet and horn), Bizet (Jeux d'Enfants), Bizet, Ravel and Spain's Falla. Nishizawa chose the second moment of the Ravel piano concerto, which she said is "considered one of the finest pieces of French music" and reflects her longtime love affair with this genre. "From when I was very small, I just loved French music, of course. And I adored the Orchestre Suisse Romande from the start," said the pianist, who is a fluent speaker of French, Spanish and English. Her return to play back home "is something very emotional for me," notably the opportunity to play at Kiyomizu temple. After taking up piano aged six, Nishizawa studied under Michiko Okamoto at Toho Gakuen Music Conservatory in Tokyo then under Dominique Merlet at the Geneva Conservatory. After that followed a long period with Spanish Baroque specialist Mariano Martin, who heads the department of ancient music of the Real Conservatorio Superior de Musica in Madrid. The pianist, who collaborated in the score of a 2003 Japanese comedy "Fukumimi", is signed as Yamaha's artist in Spain and Portugal and is also honorary lecturer at the Shanghai Normal University in China.
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