Mari Kodama and “Living the Classical Life” interview (February 2024)

“A zone of ease by being yourself”: pianist Mari Kodama was interviewed by “Living the Classical Life”. In the interview she describes her life on stage and her studies with her legendary mentors Alfred Brendel and Tatyana Nikolayeva, as well as finding balance in life and on stage.

Living the Classical Lifeis an award-winning series of one-of-a-kind conversations with musicians from around the world, hosted by pianist Zsolt Bognár. 

Mari Kodama’s new CD “Mozart & Poulenc: Double and Triple Concertos” (February 2024)

Mari Kodama’s successful start to the 23/24 season began at the Hamburg City Hall Open Air concert with the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra under the direction of Kent Nagano performing Beethoven’s Concerto No.2. This year begins with Mari Kodama performing two piano concertos (Colin Mcphee’s Tabuh – Tabuhan for two pianos and orchestra and Poulenc’s Concerto for two pianos) with her sister Momo Kodama and the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in Tokyo.

Her collaboration with the CD label Pentatone will see her recording piano pieces by Bruckner in April and the release of her newest CD “Mozart & Poulenc: Double and Triple Concertos” together with Momo Kodama, Karin Kei Nagano and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under the direction of Kent Nagano. One focus of Mari Kodama’s discography is the complete recording of piano works including the sonatas and concerti of Ludwig van Beethoven.
Her complete discography can be seen here.

Here you can listen to Mari Kodama at the Chopin Festival Hamburg in 2021 with Ravel’s Sonatine on Erard:

Kent Nagano and Mari Kodama with the Haydn Orchestra in Bolzano (December 2023)

On December 5 and 6, Kent Nagano conducts the Haydn Orchestra with Mari Kodama at the piano in the Bolzano Concert Hall. The program includes works by Haydn and Ligeti, two very different composers who both use humor, irony and the fun of surprise in their music. 2023 would have been Ligeti’s 100th anniversary.

György Ligeti: Poème symphonique / Musical Ceremonial for 100 Metronomes
György Ligeti: Musica Ricercata n. 11 “Omaggio a Girolamo Frescobaldi”
Haydn: Sonata in C major Hob. XVI/48
György Ligeti: Concerto for piano and orchestra
Haydn: Symphony No. 102 in B flat major, Hob. I: 102

Mari Kodama with Beethoven’s 2nd Piano Concerto in Hamburg (September 2023)

This Saturday, on 2 September, pianist Mari Kodama will present Beethoven’s 2nd Piano Concerto with the Philharmonic State Orchestra under the baton of Kent Nagano at the annual Rathausmarkt Open Air.

Mari Kodama is one of the benchmark Beethoven interpreters of our time and has recorded all of the composer’s piano sonatas, among others. The 2nd Piano Concerto has also been released on CD, together with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Kent Nagano on Berlin Classics. More information about Mari Kodama and her recordings can be found here.

Piano en famille (March 2023)

Together with Mari Kodama, Momo Kodama and Karin Nagano, Kent Nagano presented a special program in Geneva, including Mozart’s Piano Concerto for Three Pianos and Poulenc’s Piano Concerto for Two Pianos, with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. In April, Mari Kodama travels to the US for concerts with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lan Shui: the program includes Mendelssohn’s 1st Piano Concerto.

Mari and Momo Kodama and Bremerhaven (January 2023)

With Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in D minor, Mari and Momo Kodama will give a guest performance at the Bremerhaven Stadttheater on 16, 17 and 18 January. A program entitled ” Wintersonnen” will be presented with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Bremerhaven under the direction of Marc Niemann. Further information can be found here.

After joint recordings of Mari and Momo Kodama with, among others, Tchaikovsky’s ballet suites have already been released by Pentatone (more information here), another recording together is planned.

Mari Kodama presents new CD “New Paths” on PENTATONE (November 2022)

Mari Kodama presents “New Paths” on PENTATONE – the new CD featuring Brahms’ first piano sonata, his Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann and his Theme with Variations, and Clara Schumann’s arrangement of Robert Schumann’s song Widmung, focuses on 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 recording will be available worldwide on 18 November.

 

“Hardly any relationship is as well-documented as that of Robert and Clara Schumann to Johannes Brahms: a lifelong three-way friendship in which Robert Schumann remained ever present even after his early death. The fascination that emanates from this connection of lives has touched me so much over the years that it has always been a concern of mine to musically tell the story of its beginning at some point. A 20-year-old from Hamburg came to Düsseldorf to visit the Schumanns, who were more than enthusiastic about his talent. “Your son Johannes has become very precious to us, his musical genius has created joyful hours for us. To facilitate his first walk into the world, I have publicly expressed what I think of him,” Robert wrote to Brahms’s father. The enthusiasm was mutual. For the young Brahms, the Schumanns became a point of reference, the collaboration with Clara a constant inspiration, the mutual trust, which was not limited to artistic creation, ultimately vital — not only for Brahms, but also for Clara during the very difficult phase of her husband’s illness and afterwards. I have always been moved by the depth of this bond, its absolute reliability, which became so significant for artists in the mid-19th century, in a world where traditional norms began to dissolve and society became increasingly individualised.”  – Mari Kodama

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Mari Kodama (January 2022)

In the concert hall La Scala in Paris, Mari Kodama will perform a program of works by John Adams, Barber, Reich and Samuel Adams with Momo Kodama (piano) in February and works for 2 pianos by Bach, Kurtág and Messiaen with Markus Hinterhäuser (piano) in Schloss Elmau in April.

Together with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Kent Nagano, Mari Kodama played the world premiere of the piano concerto Terra Nostra by French composer Rodolphe Bruneau-Boulmier at the Berlin Philharmonie last October.

After the premiere in May 2021, Mari Kodama will again perform in John Neumeier’s Beethoven Project II at Hamburg Ballet in February 2022.

marikodama.com

Kent Nagano and Mari Kodama with the DSO in Berlin (October 2021)

Kent Nagano, pianist Mari Kodama and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin will premiere Rodolphe Bruneau-Boulmier’s piano concerto Terra Nostra at the Philharmonie Berlin on 17 October 2021.The program also includes works by Hector Berlioz as well as Richard Strauss.

17 October 2021, 8 p.m., Philharmonie Berlin
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Kent Nagano
Berlioz: Overture to the opera “Béatrice et Bénédict
Bruneau-Boulmier: Piano concerto “Terra Nostra”  world premiere
Strauss: Suite from “Der Bürger als Edelmann”
Mari Kodama – piano

The concert will be broadcasted on Deutschlandfunk Kultur. Please find more information here.

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