Black Swan Yuko Miyagawa & Aki Kuroda

• Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887 - 1959):
• 1 O canto do cisne negro, W122 02:52
• 2 Divagação, W461 03:07
• Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 66, W103:
• 3 Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 66, W103: I. Allegro moderato 07:33
• 4 Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 66, W103: II. Andante cantabile 06:48
• 5 Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 66, W103: III. Scherzo. Allegro scherzando 05:43
• 6 Cello Sonata No. 2, Op. 66, W103: IV. Allegro vivace sostenuto 07:26
• Ciclo brasileiro, W374:
• 7 Ciclo brasileiro, W374: II. Impressões seresteiras 06:26
• Pequena Suíte, W064:
• 8 Pequena Suíte, W064: I. Romancette 02:35
• 9 Pequena Suíte, W064: II. Legendária 00:56
• 10 Pequena Suíte, W064: III. Harmonias soltas 02:37
• 11 Pequena Suíte, W064: IV. Fugato (all'antica) 01:12
• 12 Pequena Suíte, W064: V. Melodia 02:37
• 13 Pequena Suíte, W064: VI. Gavotte-Scherzo 03:30
• Bachianas brasileiras No. 2, W250 & W254:
• 14 Bachianas brasileiras No. 2, W250 & W254: II. Aria (O canto da nossa terra) 05:02
• 15 Bachianas brasileiras No. 2, W250 & W254: IV. Toccata (O trenzinho do caipira) 04:09
• Total Runtime 01:02:33

Info for Black Swan

Black Swan is a rich and vibrant collection of music for cello and piano by Heitor Villa-Lobos, the 20th century's most significant Brazilian composer of art music, performed by cellist Yuko Miyagawa and pianist Aki Kuroda, artists who are widely-known and celebrated in Japan, with growing international reputations.

Yuko Miyagawa is a household name in Japan; she has received widespread acclaim and numerous awards for her musicianship, with the Tokyo Mainichi newspaper praising her "heart-touching" performances. Besides performing as a soloist with orchestras and in solo and chamber recitals, she often appears in collaboration with artists from diverse genres, while also visiting juvenile re-education homes and hospices to give performances, which she feels is her life's vocation. She hosts her own radio programme in Japan and is a regular guest on radio and television at the Japanese broadcasting company, NHK. Aki Kuroda's Odradek debut Firebird was praised as "wondrous" by The Arts Desk: "Kuroda's fearless precision pays huge dividends in such mercurial music"

Villa-Lobos, who was a fine cellist as well as composer, combined European models with idiomatic Brazilian styles in a way that has shaped the course of Brazilian culture – and others besides – ever since. The works on this release span a fascinating period, from the 1910s to the 1940s, charting the trajectory of the composer's development. The 'Pequena Suíte' ('Little Suite') of 1913 is Villa-Lobos' earliest published work for cello and piano, and reflects his love of Bach, which developed at an early age. This album's title comes from the lyrical 'O canto do cisne negro' ('The song of the black swan') of 1917, adapted from the composer's tone poem of the previous year. Villa-Lobos' Cello Sonata No. 2 dates from a similar time and blends romanticism and impressionism, with both instruments acting as equal protagonists. The love of Baroque music, and of Bach in particular, that germinated in early works such as the 'Pequena Suite', came to fruition in Villa-Lobos' series of nine 'Bachanias brasileiras'. 'Bachianas brasileiras' No. 2 dates from 1930; this album features the noble second movement 'aria' and the glorious final movement, which vividly evokes the acceleration of a small locomotive in Caipira, São Paolo. There is an arrangement of one of the 'Ciclo brasileiro' for piano from 1936, the shimmering 'Impressões seresteiras' ('Evening impressions'), and a later work in the form of 'Divagação' ('Wandering'), from 1946. This quirky piece includes ad lib percussive effects, and is remarkable for its jaunty rhythms, sparse allusions to tonality, and improvisatory, recitative-like cello writing.

Yuko Miyagawa, violoncello
Aki Kuroda, pianoforte

Yuko Miyagawa
was born into a well-known musician family in Tokyo. After receiving her Bachelor at the renowned Toho Music Academy she completed her cello studies at the Mozarteum Salzburg and Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where she studied with Heidi Litschauer and Arturo Bonucci. She has also attended master classes with Geringas, Pergamenschikow and Pleeth, among others. In the field of chamber music, she has been strongly influenced through musical contact with such artists as Menahem Pressler, Hans Leygraf, Hagen Quartett and Szymon Goldberg.

She is winner of 1st prizes at the 6th International Chamber Music Competition in Tokyo, as well as at the cello competition of Calabria and the cello-piano duo competition of Pinerolo, Italy. At age 19, she was invited by Alexander Schneider to perform at the New York String Seminar at the Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington.

Miyagawa performs regularly around Europe and Japan as a soloist and chamber musician. She is also known for her collaboration with famous representatives of traditional Japanese arts, such as the Noh-Theatre. In 2005, her debut-CD, recorded by Victor Entertainment Japan, quickly climbed on the top of the classic charts in Japan. In 2006, she released her 2nd album with music by Grieg and Sibelius.

In 2007, Miyagawa founded the “Aqua Trinity”-trio together with two distinguished soloists. This rare formation consists of harpsichord, violin and cello, and performs repertory from the early baroque to modern arrangements, in concerts and on radio and TV throughout Japan. In 2010, the trio released a CD that received enthusiastic reviews.

Recently she has been heard in recital series at the Suntory Hall and Kioi Hall in Tokyo, as well as soloist in Elgar’s cello concerto with the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and in Haydn’s cello concerto with the Royal Symphonic Orchestra.

Aki Kuroda
After graduating from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts, pianist Aki Kuroda went on to further her studies in Italy with Bruno Mezzena, receiving a degree in twentieth-century piano music with distinction from the Accademia Musicale Pescarese AMP. Aki performs extensively as a soloist and a chamber musician both in Japan and in Europe, especially in Italy.

She won first prizes in the 1993 French Music Competition and the 1997 Contemporary Music Competition. In 1995, she was awarded the Xavier Montsalvage Prize for Performance of Contemporary Piano Music in Spain. Besides the classical repertoire, Kuroda has performed pieces by many contemporary composers, such as Ligeti, Xenakis, Donatoni, Boulez, Campo, Mochizuki and Takemitsu. In 2003 she gave a brilliant performance in the Teatro Regio di Parma, playing Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and a composition dedicated to her by Maurizio Pisati. She subsequently performed Michael Jarrell’s “Modifications” at the Ticino Musica Festival.

In 2004, Kuroda gave a wonderful performance of Schoenberg’s Kammersymphonie Op. 9 in its piano solo version in Tokyo and Osaka. At present Kuroda is working with renowned musicians such as the clarinetist Alessandro Carbonare and the Prometheus Quartet. She has devoted special attention to Astor Piazzolla’s works, to whom her first solo albums are dedicated (Japan Victor). Kuroda is acclaimed not only as a classical and contemporary music pianist, but also as a tango and jazz music performer.

Her videogame music recording Final Fantasy X. XIII, Piano Collection has been universally praised. In 2004, she released the album Tarkus and Pictures at an Exhibition, dedicated to the works of Keith Emerson. In 2008, she performed Sylvano Bussotti’s new composition “The Poetic Keyboard” at the Cagliari Spaziomusica Festival. Aki Kuroda’s 2014 disc ‘Firebird’, released by Odradek Records, has also earned her considerable critical acclaim, receiving 5 stars from the BBC Music Magazine among various other distinctions.

Kuroda is also a member of the Tokyo Gen’On project and the commission of the Piano Teachers’ National Association of Japan (PTNA).

This album contains no booklet.