C A D O G A N
5S L O A N E

T E R R A C E ,H A L LS W 1 X

9 D Q

Motoki Hirai Piano Recital
In Aid of the Japan Society Tohoku Earthquake Relief Fund

Wednesday 25 May 2011

PROGRAMME £2.00

*Would patrons please ensure that mobile phones are switched off.
Please stifle coughing as much as possible and ensure that watch alarms andany other electronic devices which may become audible are switched off.

PROGRAMME

J.S.Bach:French Suite No.2 in C minor, BWV813
I.
AllemandeII.
Courante
III.
Sarabande
IV.
Air
V.
MenuetVI.
Gigue

Schumann:

Arabeske in C, Op.18

Schumann:

Sonata No.2 in G minor, Op.22
I.
So rasch wie möglich
II.
Andantino. Getragen
III.
Scherzo. Sehr rasch und markiertIV.
Rondo. Presto – Etwas langsamer –Prestissimo (Quasi Cadenza)
INTERVAL

Motoki Hirai:

Valse Pathétique (1993)

Motoki Hirai:

Three Recollections (UK première)
Recollection No.1
Recollection No.2
Recollection No.3

Motoki Hirai:

Hommage à Chopin (1999)

Chopin: Polonaise in C sharp minor, Op.26-1
Chopin: Mazurka in A minor, Op.67-4
Chopin: Lento con Gran Espressione, Op. posthumous(Nocturne in C sharp minor)
Chopin: Scherzo No.3 in C sharp minor, Op.39

Programme Notes

J.S.Bach (1685-1750)
French Suite No.2 in C minor, BWV813(c.1722)
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.

Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Air
MenuetGigue

The centenarian musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky once memorably
described Johann Sebastian Bach as ‘the great lawgiver ofmusic’, a profound observation which has more than the ring oftruth to it. But Bach would not have so regarded himself: ateacher, perhaps, especially of his many surviving children (andof his second wife, Anna Magdalena), but above all he would
have thought of his work as being that which provided the city ofLeipzig with the music it needed for over a quarter of a century.
None the less, Bach was certainly aware of what he attempted,
and succeeded, in doing, and the range of his achievement
continues to astonish us today: from the ‘48’ of ‘The WellTempered Clavier’ and the Goldberg Variations, at one level, tothe ‘Anna Magdalena Notebook’ at another, and from thePassions of St Matthew and St John and the Mass in B minor, tothe short secular arias of the ‘Coffee’ and ‘Wedding’ cantatas.
Yet Bach never remained a provincial composer, cut off from thelatest developments: he was always interested in the latest music(especially from Italy, that of Antonio Vivaldi) and in thedevelopment of new instruments: of his generation, he was oneof the first composers in German-speaking Europe to possess the
new fortepiano, and as he was also an inveterate transcriber of
his own and other composers’ music for new instrumental
combinations, he would have been fascinated by ‘trying out’ his
earlier harpsichord or clavichord music on his new piano.
But Bach’s music remains the same, no matter in what form, andon which instruments, we hear it. In his keyboard music,
especially in the suites, which either predate or coincide with his
move to Leipzig in 1723, it was the Italian influence in terms ofstructure which doubtless set off his creative imagination: theputting together of a work made up almost entirely of dance
movements – in his case more subtly so, in terms of key
relationships (despite all of the movements in a particular suite
being in the same key) and in melodic cross-quotations, so thatthe results remain forever among the highest combinations oftechnique and feeling in the history of keyboard music.

Bach’s keyboard suites may comprise dance movements, butthey were not meant to be danced to: perhaps that is what gives
this music such wonderful inner life, and its eternal fascination.
We can experience that in those works of his which are called
English or French suites. The titles were not given by Bachhimself to these works, although he first published them as
Suites pour le clavessin (‘Suites for harpsichord’, with afashionable title in French).
If the ‘French’ title was first applied 12 years after his death byFriedrich Marpurg, it is useful in differentiating between them,and has for 250 years been universally applied. The C minor
French Suite is one of the greatest of them all (in terms of style,it is perhaps more Italian than French, apart from in one or two
instances, but no matter). It opens with a stately Allemande,always rather processional in character and here expressively
florid. This is followed by a lively, flowing, Courante, in turnsucceeded by a slow and dignified Sarabande, in this suite
almost as a beautifully expressive song without words.
Before the final movement, Bach would insert differing dance
movements – in this instance, an attractive Minuet, although healso used the Gavotte, Boureé or Polonaise from time to time –and the suites invariably ended with a lively Gigue. This one iscertainly French in character, of a type called ‘canarie’ because
its fast-moving 3/8 tempo style originated in the Canary Islands.
It ends the suite in a brilliant manner.
© 2011 Robert Matthew-Walker

Robert Schumann (1810-56)
Arabeske in C, Op.18
Sonata No.2 in G minor, Op.22
V. So rasch wie möglich
VI. Andantino. GetragenVII. Scherzo. Sehr rasch und markiert
VIII. Rondo. Presto – Etwas langsamer –Prestissimo (Quasi Cadenza)
There is no doubt that Schumann’s love for Clara Wieck provided
the inspiration for the greater part of his solo piano music, muchof which dates from the years of their courtship in the late1830s. His Arabeske was written in 1838, two years before theirlong-delayed marriage, and contains hints of a falling five-note
figure that came to be associated in Schumann’s mind with Clara(it had formed part of a theme of hers he had earlier borrowed as
the subject of the variations movement in his F minor Piano
Sonata). The Arabeske is in a rondo form, with a suitably florid

Programme Notes
theme in C major alternating with minor-key interludes andculminating in a coda in a slower tempo.
For all the Romantic poeticism that imbues the bulk of his pianomusic, Schumann maintained a yearning for Classical purity ofform which led him to that most abstract of instrumental forms,
the piano sonata. In the mid-1830s he wrote three such works
almost concurrently. The G minor, which was eventually
published as No. 2, goes back the earliest, to June 1830, when
Schumann began the slow movement, basing it on his 1828 song
to Kerner’s poem ‘Im Herbst’ (In Autumn). Next, two summers
later, came the first and third movements and, in October 1835,
the finale. But it did not quite end there: Schumann was
persuaded to rewrite the finale three years later at Clara’s request– his then fiancée found the original ‘much too difficult’. ‘You areright about the last movement of the sonata,’ Schumann wrote
back. ‘It displeases me to such a degree (with the exception ofcertain passionate moments) that I have discarded it altogether.’
For all the evident struggles with this work, it is the mostsuccessful of Schumann’s three sonatas and the one in which hecame closest to mastery of first-movement sonata form, here in a
movement marked ‘As fast as possible’ and with its thematicThree Recollections (1991)
The Japanese title of the piece is slightly different, with the exacttranslation being ‘Prelude Reminiscence’ which was in fact how
I had originally named Recollection No.1. I later adjoined
Recollections No.2 and No.3 with No.1 as a set of three pieces
for the solo piano, renaming it ‘Recollections’.
In hindsight, a large number of my works is based on what I callthe ‘Music Diary’ which I kept as a teenager. In the Music Diary
I kept my impressions, inspirations, feelings and at times
illusionary images which I had or created from my everyday lifeand recorded as poetic fragments. Recollections No.1 and No.2
were both based on such fragments of composition from myMusic Diary.
Recollection No.1 was used in the film ‘The Emperor’s Tram
Girls’ (2005) which, coincidentally, is a film depicting thetragedy surrounding the atomic bombs in Hiroshima in August1945 at the very end of World War II.
Recollection No.2 had originally been named ‘Dialogue’ or‘Echo’. It was composed as an image of a dialogue taking placein the mythical world, where the left hand denotes the young man
who pursues the goddess symbolized by the right hand.

material derived, as in so much of his music during his courtship,by the descending theme of Clara’s that also appears in the
Arabeske. The songful Andantino provides a lyrical interlude
before the return to fast and furious music in the scherzo andfinale, which, like the first movement, culminates in a race forthe finishing line marked ‘always faster and faster’.
© 2011 Matthew Rye

Motoki Hirai (1973-)
Valse Pathétique (1993)

Recollection No.3 had originally been named ‘Prelude“Illusion”’. The ocean-like arpeggio by the left hand marks thetranquil start of the piece, which gradually gains momentum
eventually leading to the dramatic climax.
In contrast to No.1 and No.2, Recollection No.3 was completed
almost instantly in my mind, and naturally configurated itself
into a single piece of music.
© 2011 Motoki Hirai

Hommage à Chopin for solo piano (1999)

I will be playing five of my own compositions this evening, with
one common theme - which is ‘hommage’.
The Japan Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami that occurred on
11th March 2011 (which as a sad coincidence happened to be
my birthday) took the lives of and left eternal scars on many of
my friends and acquaintances, leaving a huge sense of loss
within me. I would like to dedicate tonight’s performance to the

Since my childhood, I have had the greatest respect andaffection for the music of Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)
alongside Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann.
The core part of ‘Hommage à Chopin’ was composed while I was
still a teenager; about ten years later in 1999, I added theIntroduction and Coda to complete the work, commemorating the150th anniversary of Chopin’s death.

victims and those left behind to suffer.
‘Valse Pathétique’ was originally dedicated to my best friend,
Masato David Yoshimatsu who died in the summer of 1993 at the
tragically early age of 21.

Thereafter, to celebrate Chopin’s bicentennial in 2010, I tookgreat pleasure in paying tribute to his genius through the
publication of the sheet music of ‘Hommage à Chopin’ for bothsolo and piano duet versions. (The piano duet version was
arranged in 2008 and revised two years later for the publication.)On the day of his funeral I composed and improvised it at the
piano during the ceremony at the church in Tokyo.
As its title suggests, this piece is a kind of Waltz with the third

The composition is structured in traditional ABA form with an
Introduction and Coda. At the end of the piece, a reflection of thetheme appears reminiscently, incorporated with a short Cadenza.

beat of the left hand missing, and through that, a sense of loss
may be subtly felt.
© 2011 Motoki Hirai

There are in fact no direct references to any of Chopin’s
compositions in the piece at all, but I am hoping to convey
aspects of the spirit of his music together with an impression of

Mazurka in A minor, Op.67-4 (1836)

the elegant and liberal atmosphere of the era in which he lived.
I hope that by performing this piece, the pianist will be reminded
to ‘make the piano sing’, transcending the confines of the
instrument, as Chopin was greatly influenced by singers andoperatic works.
© 2011 Motoki Hirai

in that country which embraces Warsaw – so it is likely that

Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849)

The dance is in three-four time, with the emphasis largely falling

For many people, Chopin’s Mazurkas, of which he composed no
fewer than 63, lie at the heart of his output. The dance itself, likethe Polonaise, is quintessentially Polish; it comes from a region
Chopin must have been familiar with the genre from boyhood.

When, at the age of 18, Chopin left Warsaw and first visited
Vienna, settling in Paris two years later, the impact of those
European musical capitals upon him must have been
considerable. Although, by then, Chopin had composed aroundtwenty works, they were written, as it were, in isolation, for hehad barely encountered the music of Mozart or Beethoven at thattime, although (unusually for the period) he had studied severalof Bach’s keyboard works, which were then by no means asfamiliar as they became in the19th-century. In Chopin’s famous
set of 24 Preludes, the influence of Bach may be more readily
discerned, but his first contact with the teeming musical world of
the Vienna of the lately-deceased Beethoven and Schubert and
the Paris of Rossini’s William Tell (premiered there in 1829) andthat opera’s immediate influence upon Berlioz’s Symphonie
fantastique (1830), were revelations for Chopin. He could hardly
remain aloof from such influences, yet – confining himself to his
own instrument, the pianoforte, on which he was one of thegreatest exponents then living – he remained true to himself interms of style and musical character.
The essence of Chopin's genius lies in his combination of
tradition and newness. He was sympathetic to the early Romantic
faction in music, then at the height of its flowering. Whilst beinga Romantic in temperament and in other aspects of his art,
Chopin never relied upon extra-musical explanations for his work.
If his ideas more readily lent themselves to shorter forms it would
be wrong to consider him only as a miniaturist. His mature
Sonatas, Ballades, Scherzos and the Fantasie in F minor show
his mastery of larger forms. Taking from the past and from thepresent those elements he needed, Chopin showed his work to bea continuation of aspects of the classical tradition, at the sametime as undoubtedly embracing the expressive nature of the new
Romanticism, through which he developed existing forms afresh,
especially in his Impromptus, Polonaises, Études (Studies) and
Nocturnes.

on the second or third beat. In this piece, Chopin understates theemotion, not wearing his heart as it were on his sleeve; here is amore intimate statement, perhaps, but marked Moderato animato– so the inner life of this delightful piece (which was not firstpublished until after Chopin’s death) reveals this truly great andoriginal composer at his most immediately distinguishable.
© 2011 Robert Matthew-Walker

Lento con Gran Espressione,
Op. posthumous(Nocturne in C sharp minor)
The first works to be given the title of ‘nocturne’ were written by
the Irish composer John Field (1782-1837), but in taking overthe name, Chopin transformed the form and made it very muchhis own, bringing to it his particular melodic distinction andharmonic imagination. The Nocturne in C sharp minor (not to be
confused with the piece in the same key from Op. 27) remained
unpublished in his lifetime and appeared in 1857 as a Lento con
gran espressione, though it has subsequently become one of thenocturnes in all but its official name. It was composed in 1830,
at about the same time as the Op. 9 and Op. 15 sets ofnocturnes, and fulfils all the expectations of the genre – pensive,
atmospheric and dreamlike.
© 2011 Matthew Rye

Scherzo No.3 in C sharp minor,
Op.39 (1839)
It is to Beethoven that we owe the evolution of the Scherzo as asingle movement in a large-scale work, yet in the (eventual) four
works to which Chopin gave the title, it is to the Polish masterthat we should ascribe the development of the Scherzo into asingle, self-contained composition. Chopin’s first Scherzo, in B
minor, was drafted in 1831-32, and tonight’s Third Scherzo

Polonaise in C sharp minor, Op.26-1 (1834)
The Polonaise is an old aristocratic dance from Poland, one of
the forms that attracted Chopin from an early age – as we havenoted, Bach himself had incorporated the dance in his keyboard
suites. The C sharp minor in tonight’s programme is the first of apair that make up Chopin’s Opus26, and is an intensely dramaticcomposition. Marked Allegro appassionato, it begins indeclamatory fashion, a peremptory gesture, fully extended before
a contrasting middle section, in the enharmonic equivalent of D
flat major, Meno mosso, reveals the material in a different light,
a calming influence that carries the music through to the end.
© 2011 Robert Matthew-Walker

came in 1839, two years after No 2. In these works, we findsome of Chopin’s boldest music – not just in dramatic intensity,
or of technical virtuosity, but in harmonic daring. This Scherzo is
far away from the relatively brief Mazurka preceding it intonight’s programme, and must have seemed when it appeared as
an astonishingly modern composition, with the juxtaposition ofchordal writing and florid descending phrases – contrasted yet sofully worked out through the inherent organic unity of this, in its
way, quite revolutionary work. The astounding demands Chopinmakes on the pianist and the total fusion of expressive content
place the four Scherzos among the very greatest of his works.
© 2011 Robert Matthew-Walker

Profile: Motoki Hirai – Pianist & Composer“a most brilliant and sensitive musical talent”
THE GUARDIAN
Widely acclaimed as one of the most imaginative andsensitive pianists of his generation, Motoki Hirai has
appeared in the music capitals of the Far East, America
and Europe, performing regularly in London’s prestigious
venues including the Wigmore Hall, St. John’s, Smith
Square and the South Bank Centre. In March 2011,
Motoki gave a hugely successful sold-out recital in
Carnegie Hall in New York. During recent seasons, Motoki
has performed in Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark,England, France, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Romania,
Spain, USA and his native Japan. Highlights of the
2011/2012 season and beyond include concerto
performances with orchestras such as Czech Virtuosi, solo
recitals in venues including Wigmore Hall, Cagodan Hall
(London); Queen’s Hall (Edinburgh) and Carnegie Hall(NY), as well as concert tours across Europe and Japan.
Whilst being a leading interpreter of the standard
repertoire for piano solo, Motoki is equally at home withchamber music and lieder, shading an inspiring andpersonal light on music from all periods. Since 1991,
Motoki has collaborated with artists including Michael
Cox, Kalman Berkes, Barry Craft, John Pearce and his
father, the celebrated cellist Takeichiro Hirai, whom Pablo
Casals designated as his successor.
As a composer, Motoki has been commissioned to write
new works for international artists in various fields whichwere performed and premièred in venues such as Wigmore
Hall, South Bank Centre, Chelsea Flower Show, Chelsea
Festival 2008, Dulwich Festival 2010 (London), St.

George’s (Bristol), Smetana Hall (Prague), Maison de laculture du Japon à Paris (Paris), Auditori Pau Casals(Barcelona), Carnegie Hall (NY), Tokyo Opera City and
NHK Hall (Tokyo). His music has also been used in films
such as ‘Voice’ (2004) and ‘The Emperor’s Tram Girls’(2005).
In 1994, he was the guest artist at the Piano Convention
in Nagano, Japan, where he gave a recital with aprogramme exclusively of his own works. As part of 2005
EU-Japan Year of People-to-People Exchanges, Motoki
gave a highly successful recital on Europe Day at St.
John’s, Smith Square in London, where he included theworld première of his own composition ‘Scenes from a
Native Land’, which was repeated in Tokyo the following
year, supported by European Union. In celebration of
Chopin’s bicentennial in 2010, Motoki Hirai published his
piano composition ‘Hommage à Chopin’ (both solo andduet versions), through the publisher ‘Chopin Corp.’(Tokyo).
Born in Tokyo into a highly gifted musical family, Motoki
studied piano and composition with his grandfather, theeminent composer Kozaburo Y. Hirai, and violin with his
grandmother. Since his first professional appearance at
the age of 13 playing his own piano works to great criticalacclaim, he has been highly active in both performanceand composition. After reading philosophy and aesthetics
at Keio University in Tokyo, Motoki came to London in
1996 to study at the Royal Academy of Music, and later at
the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and City
University. His teachers have included Frank Wibaut,
Dominique Merlet, James Gibb, Patsy Toh and Joseph
Seiger.

Over the years, Motoki Hirai has performed for thepromotion of world peace and for people in needworldwide in association with organizations such as the
Red Cross, Motor Neurone Disease Association, UNICEF
and UNESCO. In 2010 Motoki was invited to Lithuania togive a charity concert, commemorating Sempo (Chiune)
Sugihara who saved the lives of 6000 Polish Jews during
World War II.
As an artistic emissary of the Japanese government,
Motoki has visited France, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, UK,
Romania, Sri Lanka and Malaysia amongst others since
1994. He has been honoured with a number of awards,
including the Sir Jack and Lady Lyons Performance Award.
He has also been involved in fascinating educational
programmes to promote Japanese art and culture acrossthe world, such as the “Picture Books – Storytelling,
Images and Music” project (2007- ) as artistic director aswell as composer.
Motoki has broadcast internationally on radio andtelevision (Classic FM, BBC, ITV and NHK) and has madea number of recordings on CD. His most recent release isof works for solo piano ‘Motoki Hirai Piano Works’(2006/2010), supported by Steinway & Sons, which hasreceived much critical acclaim.

www.motoki-hirai.com

REVIEWS“Consistent musicality”“Being a composer himself has endowed theperformer [Motoki Hirai] a special insight into
the works of others, enabling him to capture
the essential character of each composition.”
THE SUNDAY TIMES“his musicianship is incomparable”“He plays piano with such an extraordinary
sensitivity of touch, such delicate variations oftone, such extremes of dynamic”
THE GUARDIAN

Motoki Hirai Piano Recital
In Aid of the Japan Society Tohoku Earthquake Relief Fund
Wigmore Hall, London (closest tube: Bond Street)
Saturday, 29th October 3:00pm
Works to include: Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt and Motoki Hirai

In Association with The Japan Society*All proceeds from this concert will go to the Japan Society Tohoku Earthquake Relief Fund, for the rebuilding of lives and livelihoods
through local projects in the most affected areas.
Supported by:
Embassy of Japan in the UK
Sponsored by:
ANA, Claudio Records, Exlayer, Kajima Properties, Kokuyo, Japan Centre, JR Central, Matsuri Restaurant,
Nikkei Europe, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, Steinway & Sons
Special thanks to: Japan Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Nippon Club, The Japanese School in London

C A D O G A N

H A L L

5 Sloane Terrace, London SWIX 9DQBooking information
Online Booking:Box Office: 020 7730 4500
www.cadoganhall.com(booking fees apply)

Cadogan Hall Etiquette and Information
Smoking: All areas of Cadogan Hall are non-smoking areas.
Food & Beverages: You are kindly requested not to bring food and otherrefreshments into Cadogan Hall.
Cameras and Electronic Devices: Video equipment, cameras and tape recorders
are not permitted. Please ensure all pagers and mobile phones are switched off
before entering the auditorium.
Interval and timings: Intervals vary with each performance. Some performances
may not have an interval. Latecomers will not be admitted until a suitable breakin the performance.
Consideration: We aim to deliver the highest standards of service. Therefore, wewould ask you to treat our staff with courtesy and in a manner in which you would
expect to be treated.

Food and Beverages
Culford Room
The house wines, champagne and soft drinks are available from the bars in the
Culford Room at all concerts.
Oakley Bar
Concert goers may enjoy a wide selection of champagnes, spirits, red and whitewines, beers and soft drinks from the Oakley Room Bar. There are also some lightrefreshments available.

Gallery Bar
Customers seated in the Gallery can buy interval drinks from the Gallery Bar atsome concerts.
AccessCadogan Hall has a range of services to assist disabled customers including aprovision for wheelchair users in the stalls. Companions of disabled customers areentitled to a free seat when assisting disabled customers at Cadogan Hall.
Please note that companion seats not sold 48hrs prior to any given performance
will be released for general sale.
Wheel Chair Users:
If you use a wheelchair and wish to transfer to a seat, we regret we may not beable to provide a member of staff to help you physically. However, we will arrange
for your wheelchair to be taken away and stored. A lift is located to the right once
inside the box office reception allowing access to a lowered box office counter.
Foyer areas are on the same level as the box office and the foyer bar (CavershamRoom) is accessed via a wide access lift. A member of staff will help you withyour requirements. Stalls are accessed via a wide lift as are adapted toilet
facilities. Please note that there is no wheelchair access to the Gallery seats.

NGR
Grant roGers
MUsICaL artIsts’ ManaGeMent
8 Wren Crescent, Bushey Heath, Herts WD23 1antel: 020 8950 2220 Fax: 020 8950 3570
e-mail: info@ngrartists.com www.ngrartists.com