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Akiko Ebi's 2001 Liszt Recital · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

• 0:09
  This is Jed Distler, and welcome to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  And I hope you will consider taking out a subscription
• 0:20
  to The Piano Maven podcast, and there's a link
• 0:24
  to do so for my Substack page, which I've included.
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  in the episode comments, so I really hope you
• 0:32
  will do so to help keep this podcast alive and
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  afloat and in production through the rest of
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  the year. I really did not know that much about
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  the Japanese -French pianist Akiko Ebi before
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  stumbling on this really wonderful live recital
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  that I'm going to be talking about on this episode.
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  About 50 years ago, at the age of 22, Akiko Ebi
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  won the Grand Prix in the International Marguerite
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  Long Competition in Paris. And then in 1980,
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  she won the fifth prize in the International
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  Chopin Competition in Warsaw, where jury member
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  Martha Argerich took notice of her and she became
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  her mentor. Most of Akiko Ebi's commercial recordings
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  are hard to source in physical format, although
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  if you go on streaming services, you can find
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  her Chopin Nocturnes that were issued on the
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  Pierre Vernet label, and she recorded the Chopin
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  Etudes for the Camerata label. I actually haven't
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  heard that, I must admit. And for the Frédéric
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  Chopin Institute label, there's a version of
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  the 24 Preludes on a period instrument, which
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  is really quite good. But I want to focus on
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  a recital that took place in Paris on January
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  19th, 2001, at the Théâtre Musical du Châtelet.
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  It was originally a video production directed
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  by Benjamin Blaton, and it was produced by Carl
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  Moore Productions. And I've enclosed a link where
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  you can access the video. However, the audio
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  only for this recital was posted on archive .org,
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  and that's how I first became acquainted with
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  it. And I'll be discussing the audio because,
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  honestly, I have not seen the video, but it probably
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  doesn't matter all that much because I think
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  the playing speaks so highly for itself that
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  I think the audio is really quite sufficient.
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  This recital... contains three selections from
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  Franz Liszt's cycle, the Harmonie Poétique et
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  Religieuse. And in the Invocation, right off
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  the bat, you notice Akiko Ebi's rich and golden,
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  liquid tone. Notice I use those three words as
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  clichés almost all the time. But if you listen,
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  I think you will agree with me. This is liquid,
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  pianistic gold. And you'll notice how she builds
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  the climaxes in large and shapely paragraphs,
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  rather than all of a sudden banging them out
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  hysterically, the way one hears from certain
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  modern -day list players. And I won't identify
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  them by name, but you know who they are. Their
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  initials are, well, okay, I'm not going to go
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  there. And also... In this next piece from the
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  cycle, the Benediction de Dieu dans la Salitude,
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  you will notice the gorgeous melody and accompaniment
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  separation and the flexibility of tempo that
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  just carries this music along with such naturalness
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  and ebb and flow. And my God, am I resorting
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  to critical clichés again. I guess so. But look,
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  this is a performance that's so fluid and unified
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  and heartfelt. And, you know, this piece, in
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  the wrong hands, it can just seem so static and
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  boring. But here with Akiko Ebi, it's just magical
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  music making. And you can say the same thing
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  for her interpretation of the funerai from this
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  cycle. you'll notice the way that the big octave
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  section in the middle so organically expands
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  and contracts. And it comes off really more like
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  a tone poem than an Olympic stunt. So, you know,
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  when the main theme comes back after the climax,
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  it sounds intensely inevitable. And, you know,
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  a lot of pianists play that octave section as
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  if they're at the Olympics, but not here. Now,
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  interestingly, the poetic and introspective sections
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  of Liszt's big B minor ballade come off more
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  convincingly than the virtuosic parts, like the
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  agitated broken octaves, where I think Akiko
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  Ebi kind of rattles them off rather than inflecting
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  them with... you know, the kind of anguish and
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  emotional unrest that you hear in Claudio Arrau's
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  studio recording, for example. And I wish she
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  would have taken more time in the final pages
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  where that second theme, the one in the major
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  key, when it comes back for the last time, she
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  just kind of... gets through it in a way where
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  it seems like she just wants to get the performance
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  over with. I wish it had a lot more breathing
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  room and repose. But this is very accomplished
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  and thoroughly seasoned piano playing. And the
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  last piece in this recital is Chopin's Op. 48
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  No. 1 Nocturne in C minor. And it does relate
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  to the list pieces. that we heard before, because
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  you have this brooding opening section, although
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  Akiko Ebi plays it in a very songful way, rather
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  than with the kind of starkness and austerity
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  that you often get. And when she arrives at the
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  central section, featuring those big cascading
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  double octaves, again, the octaves become a part
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  of the longer line and the bigger picture. I've
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  heard way too many pianists who arrive at these
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  octaves and then they just put on the accelerator
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  and they're off to the races as if they're inserting
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  an octave etude in the middle of a nocturne rather
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  than integrating these gestures into the overall
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  fabric and the overall context of the music.
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  So I highly recommend that you check out this
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  recital by Akiko Ebi. And again, the link to
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  obtain the video is in my episode description,
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  along with the link to the audio, which you can
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  find now on archive .org. This is Jed Disler,
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  and you've been listening to The Piano Maven,
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  your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  I look forward to being with you for the next
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  episode. Take good care.