Ohzawa - Piano Concerto No 3; Symphony No 3 [CD]

It is sad that the family of Japanese composer Hisato Ohzawa (1907-1953) had to, against the tides of fortune, preserve the scores of his works after his music dropped completely from sight after his death, and we are fortunate that the family preserved them so carefully for these two pieces are really worthwhile. After his death he became so obscure that he was not even remembered by very many in the Japanese music scene. He had been in the first generation of Japanese composers to study in the West and unlike many had spent several years in the US studying with the likes of Frederick Converse, Roger Sessions and Arnold Schoenberg. While in the US he was the first Japanese to conduct the Boston Symphony (in his own 'Little Symphony') before he went on to study with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. After six years in the West he returned to Japan and remained there the rest of his life. He led an active life in the Kansei district (which includes his hometown, Kobe, as well as Osaka and Kyoto). But that was a conservative part of the country and his music had difficulty being accepted (although to our ears they are extremely easy to assimilate); he was not helped by the rudimentary state of Japanese orchestras in those days.

His Third Piano Concerto has elements reminiscent of Rachmaninoff, Bart'ók and Ravel (with more than a soupç'on of jazzy Gershwin thrown in). The outer movements are virtuosic, rhythmically interesting, and brilliantly orchestrated. Their harmonic language is French cum Russian, their thrust Bartó'kian. The middle movement, which begins with a smoky sax blues, surely was modeled to some degree on the second movement of Ravel's G Major Concerto with some cross-fertilization from Gershwin's Concerto in F. It is simply gorgeous. The performance here by Russian pianist Ekaterina Saranceva is sparkling and she is ably accompanied by the Russian Philharmonic under the up-and-coming Dmitry Yablonsky, also known to us as a fine cellist. The Concerto's subtitle, 'Kamikaze,' has little to do with the Japanese suicide bombers of World War II; written in 1938 (and subtitled at least partly to give the concerto a popular tinge) it is named after the civil airplane called the 'Kamikaze,' a feat of pre-war Japanese engineering that set a speed record between Tokyo and London and of which the nation was understandably proud.

The Third Symphony, written just before the Second Concerto, was premi'red in 1937 by the forerunner of the NHK Symphony to an indifferent response from the Tokyo public. It is subtitled 'Symphony of the Founding of Japan' to celebrate the 2600th anniversary of the country. (Richard Strauss and Benjamin Britten. among others, also wrote pieces for the celebration.) In four movements, the first and longest movement is a dramatic, even brutalist, sonata-allegro which sounds a bit like Honegger with lots of pentatonic scale passages thrown in. The second movement, Adagio grazioso, is a bit misterioso, features much that sounds like French non-impressionist music (Roussel, Honegger) wedded with ceremonial Gagaku (Japanese court) music. Although mostly serene, there are some uneasy undercurrents. The charming third movement, Menuet con fantasia, is in rondo form (not the usual ABA minuet form), one section of which 'uses a bouncing pattern, called Pynkobushi' (I am indebted here to the detailed insert notes by Japanese musicologist and critic Morihide Katayama). The finale, Allegro non troppo con fuoco, bursts onto the scene with a fortissimo tutti clamor and then settles into a march rhythm until the Pynkobushi rhythm of the previous movement returns to lighten the atmosphere a bit. Another sonata-allegro (albeit rather free), this movement, with its contrasting first and second themes, subsides into a string chorale before leading to a complex and fascinating contrapuntal recombination of the original themes. Quite a feat of expert craft leading to fascinating and musically satisfying results. This work grew on me each time I heard it. If one makes some allowance for its emotional reticence (surely a carry-over of Ohzawa's French training), it is very nearly the equal of most of what was being written in Europe at the time.

Recommended for those wishing to stray from the tried and true.

TT=64:10

Scott Morrison

Interesting stuff. As might be expected, Hisato Ohzawa's music is derivative, and as the notes to this recording indicate, the sources of inspiration are different for each work. Piano Concerto No. 3, subtitled "Kamikazi," celebrates a fast Japanese commercial plane that flew well before World War II. The music's chief influences are clearly Ravel and Prokofiev. Ravel is the guiding light behind the glittery keyboard runs in the first movement, as well as the jazz-inflected second movement, though the rather saccharine sax solo of this movement also recalls Gerswhin's Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue. Prokofiev lends steel and ice to some of the keyboard writing, and the mercurial-motoric last movement seems indebted to the last movement of Prokofiev's Fourth Concerto, whose coda similarly comes out of nowhere to conclude the piece--kind of inconclusively! If Bartok is there behind Ohzawa's conception--as the other astute reviewer on this page surmises--his influence has been smoothed out a bit: Ohzawa's keyboard writing is more fluid, his writing for the orchestra more streamlined than the granitic, often blocky sound Bartok favors.

Given all these influences, it's very interesting to turn to the symphony, which, though written around the same time and certainly by a fully mature composer, draws from another well. The CD cover postulates Roussel and early Myaskovsky as influences. To this I would add Janacek, especially in the writing for winds and brass--at least, I'd be surprised if Ohzawa didn't know Taras Bulba and the Sinfonietta. Overall, this work, celebrating the 2,600th anniversary of Japan, is more soberly dramatic, more overtly public, as befits the occasion. I'm not sure if there is a program behind it--certainly it is not a clear one if there is--but Ohzawa seems to want to convey the years of internal struggle Japan had known and its hard-won victory as a world power. Ohzawa lightens up only in the third movement, a graceful minuet that, again, seems to owe something to Prokofiev, this time to Prokofiev the witty neoclassicist.

If I seem to be dismissing Ohzawa's art as a mere patchwork of Western musical influences, that's not my object. I'm trying to describe its sound world in the only way I know how. It is certainly not without its individual touches and certainly not without some daring, given that many composers of the thirties, those without ties to the centers of musical modernism as Ohzawa was, wrote throwback pieces you wouldn't want to hear today. No throwbacks, no museum pieces on this disc.

As with any music by unknown composers, it's a bit hard to judge the quality of the performances here, but it appears that Yablonsky and his forces have the measure of this music. Nowhere do I hear a mere run-through or a place where more time to get to know the music seems in order. The playing by both orchestra and pianist are polished, and Yablonsky keeps things moving just as I would hope. Tempos seem well judged to provide maximum effect. I doubt that this music will get, or need, finer performances in future. Sound is fine, too, reflecting the excellent results Naxos engineers are getting in Russia these days. This one is definitely worth a try.

What a surprise this disc is! I was expecting music that was heavily Eastern but the music of Hisato Ohzawa is as Western as one could expect from an American composer. In fact, Ohzawa studied in America in New England and even spent some time with Arnold Schoenberg. He also studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, and his music shows a strong affinity with the music of Albert Roussel, Maurice Ravel and Sergei Prokofiev.

He returned to Japan and wrote many large scale works. The Piano Concerto No. 3 (Kamikaze or Wind of God) was composer in 1938. The name given to the concerto refers to an actual civil airplane (not to a war plane) and its travels. The opening movement is energetic with a marvelous interchange between orchestra and soloist. The second movement opens with a jazz inspired solo for saxophone with the piano repeating the melody. The soloist continues to develop the blues-like melody and is later joined by the saxophone repeating the lonely opening melody; the movement drifts into silence. The final movement also has a jazz inspired opening and then takes off with brilliant writing for the soloist beautifully supported by the orchestra and ends rather abruptly.

The Third Symphony was composed in 1936 and 1937 and was subtitled "Symphony for the Founding of Japan," a reference to the 2600th anniversary of Imperial Japan which occurred in 1940. The symphony is as Western looking as the concerto and the influence of Roussel and Myaskovsky are definitely present. The second movement opens with a beguiling melody for winds (with a prominent flute part) which are joined by the strings; the music develops like (for me) a nocturne rather than the funeral march suggested by the commentator with a mysterious underpinning. The third movement also makes prominent use of the flute and makes use of Japanese folk melodies with a three note figure played by the flute (from a tune called Cherry Blossoms). The music has a playful feel and later shifts to a more traditional scherzo tempo that is reminiscent of Roussel. The finale begins with an exuberant melody for full orchestra and after developing the melody takes up a march-like theme that is a bit frenzied in expression. The music continues to explore this melody and is brought to a stirring conclusion.

The concerto is a bravura piece for the pianist and the symphony is an amazing work of color and brilliant orchestration. The performance by Dmitry Yablonsky and the Russian Philharmonic is fantastic and the pianist Ekaterina Saranceva performs the challenging concerto beautifully. I am looking forward to hearing the other Naxos disc of Oshawa's music.