Misaki Kobayashi, soprano

Matthias Veit, piano

"Songs from Japan and Europe" - a relationship in music
心の姉妹 - 日本とヨーロッパからの贈り物
ソプラノ　小林美咲 - ピアノ　マティアス・ファイト

This album combines Japanese and European art songs – two seemingly distant cultural spheres revealing often impressive affinities, whereby in the direct comparison the respective characteristic profiles of the Western and Far Eastern style traditions are certainly preserved, perhaps even more apparent.
Although the Japanese art song initially takes up the classical-romantic models of Central Europe, it quickly becomes clear what special and original musical creations Japanese composers have subsequently produced. Despite all the language barriers, they have long since become part of the history of art song, and it is long overdue to bring them closer to a larger international audience. At the same time, their immediately appealing characteristics and tonal beauty shed new light on the songs we are better acquainted with, from Mozart to Schubert and the Romantics to Wolf, Debussy and Sibelius. Always appearing in “pairs”, a German, French or other European song and a Japanese song tell their story under a shared atmospheric tent, which links them together in sometimes discreetly mysterious, sometimes obvious, even sometimes surprising ways.
All in all, a musical round dance is created through the highs and lows of human emotions and experiences – and regardless of the permanent back and forth between East and West, an invisible bond leads us to the brilliant rising of the Far Eastern sun in the last song of “A magnificent morning” by Yoshinao Nakada.

[Further english and japanese info text about the album concept & composers: see booklet inside!]

CD programme / Tracklist: