Mari Kodama

Mari Kodama – Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 11-13, 15, 22 & 27 (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:48:22 minutes | 1,75 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PENTATONE

“This sonata has had a wash …” With these words, Beethoven gives a very clear description of his Sonata in B flat dating from 1799-1800 in a letter to his publisher. But how are these words justified? By means of which innovations or developments? At first glance, Op. 22 is nothing more than a well-organized and structurally flawless sonata. But precisely therein could lie the key to Beethoven’s words. After the rather more experimental work in his Op. 10 and Op. 13, here the composer again finds his way back to the original model of the genre. However, this should not be considered a step backwards, precisely because formal and sonic experiments in the form and sound fail to materialize. A close proximity to Mozart in general – and to his Sonata K. 333 in particular – has been established, espe- cially in the development of the themes. The absence of a coda in the otherwise brilliantly formulated first movement is also typical of Mozart. The Adagio “con molta espressione” calls for expressive playing; however, the character of the movement is determined by a painfully opulent sound. The Minuetto is thematically linked to the Adagio, after which the trio, with its insistent semiquavers, offers a shrewd contrast. In the final rondo, harmonic surprises and graceful thematic associations await the listener.

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Mari Kodama – Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 5, 6 & 7 (2011)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 59:20 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PENTATONE

One could succinctly describe the Piano Sonatas Op. 10 – composed between 1796 and 1798 – as a “trilogy of contrasts”. As he had already done in Op. 2 and Op. 27, here Beethoven has collated various works in a single opus number. And his reason for doing so was not purely based on com- merce; in fact, he was motivated mainly by the musical content. These three works from his early sonata period exhibit artistic development, extensive contrasting, and independent formulation: not until his later works, in fact, do these three factors reap- pear at this same level. He dedicated the sonatas to the Countess Anna Margarete von Browne, a society lady in Vienna.

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Mari Kodama – Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Opp. 78, 79, 14, 49 (2010)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:07:40 minutes | 1,14 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © PentaTone

This album, the first in Kodama’s planned Beethoven cycle, begins with the composer’s so-called “easy” sonatas. In the words of the booklet’s annotator, Franz Steiger, they represent “lyrical islands,” being less fervent or affirmative than many of his other works in this genre. The two-movement sonatas Nos. 19 and 20 served an educational purpose, and every budding young pianist has studied them. I remember the wonderful moment when my teacher “graduated” me from these to the bigger No. 25, with its brusque humor and brisk tempos—and then, a bit later, to the wonderful No. 24, which is full of technical and musical problems.
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Mari Kodama – New Paths (2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:00:43 minutes | 2,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © PentaTone

Mari Kodama presents New Paths, exploring the young Johannes Brahms and his fascinating friendship with Clara and Robert Schumann. The album derives its title from Robert Schumann’s famous essay “Neue Bahnen”, in which he heralded the young Brahms as the most eminent musical voice of the future. The programme brings together Brahms’s first piano sonata, his Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Op. 9, as well as his Theme And Variations, Op. 18B, made at Clara Schumann’s request. The final word is given to Clara’s arrangement of Robert’s song Widmung. New Paths not only explores the unique bond of these three remarkable composers, but also shows the energetic self-confidence of the young Brahms, so different from his later melancholia. Kodama performs these works on a brand new Yamaha piano that almost sounds like a period instrument, coming much closer to Brahms’s sound ideal.
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Mari Kodama – Kaleidoscope (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:00 minutes | 874 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone

After having recorded and performed all thirty-two of Beethoven’s Sonatas in concert, Mari Kodama, the Japanese pianist who grew up in Paris and was a student of Geneviève Joy-Dutilleux has now made a rather original contribution to the “Year of Beethoven”, with a selection of relatively unknown transcriptions, almost all of which are first recordings.

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Mari Kodama – Beethoven: The Complete Piano Sonatas (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 10:22:28 minutes | 10,54 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © PentaTone

The waiting has finally paid off: the complete Beethoven piano sonata cycle has finally arrived. Japanese pianist Mari Kodama is only the fourth woman to have recorded all of Beethoven’s sonatas (Pizzicato). Although not the first with this achievement, the very idea that an artist can play this music and still introduce a new perspective, as Kodama so often proves with her performances, is astonishing.

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