Violin recital to showcase Romantic Era music

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A violin recital by young Japanese violinist Mayu Kodera will be organized by the Jakarta Conservatory of Music together with the Japan Embassy in Jakarta and the Japan Foundation in conjunction with the ASEAN-Japan Exchange Year 2003.

Kodera's performance will be accompanied by pianist Miwako Fukushi, and together, they will present five musical pieces from the Romantic Era.

A student of the famous Toho Gakuen School of Musicin Kodera first studied the violin at three years of age under Yutaka Murakami, then with Ikuyo Nakamura and Hiroaki Ozeki at the Kunitachi School of Music. At Toho Gakuen, Kodera studied under NHK Symphony Orchestra's concert master, Tsugio Tokunaga.

Miwako Fukushi first studied the piano at aged four with the U.K.'s Ronald Cavaye and Hungary's Varelia Szervansky, then later at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Hungary with Nador Gyorgy for the piano and Harvath Aniko for the harpsichord.

For the performance on Sept. 4, the two will begin with Edward Elgar's Salut d'Amour (Op. 12), followed with a piece from Polish composer Henryk Wieniawski called Scherzo-Tarantelle (Op. 16), violin virtuoso Eugene Ysaye's Sonate pour Violon Seul in D-minor "Ballade" (Op. 27 No. 3), Sergei Rachmaninov's Elegie for Solo Piano in E-flat minor (Op. 3 No. 1), and ending with Wieniawski's Second Violin Concerto in D-minor (Op. 22 No. 2).

Originally titled Liebegruss (Love's Greeting), Salut d'Amour is a charming piece created in the summer of 1888 in light of Elgar's love for his wife Caroline Alice Roberts.

Some may easily dismiss Salut d'Amour as an insignificant salon music, yet its charm and quality made the piece an immediate favorite, surpassing Elgar's later companion piece, Liebesahnung (Love's Word) which was renamed Mot d'Amour (Op. 13).

Polish composer Henryk Wieniawski (1835-1880) was considered an artist of great individuality, intensity of expression, and original technique, which can be sampled in his fast moving Scherzo-Tarantelle (Op. 16). His Second Violin Concerto in D- minor (Op. 22 No. 2) is a small masterpiece that has become a standard in the violin repertoire.

Besides the performance, Ikuyo Nakamura -- professor at the Kunitachi School of Music in Tokyo -- will hold a special workshop for Indonesia's gifted violinists at the Jakarta Conservatory of Music on Sept. 6, 2003, at 9:30 a.m.

I-BOX:

Mayu Kodera and Miwako Fukushi will perform at the Auditorium of Erasmus Huis at Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said Kav. S-3, Kuningan, South Jakarta, on Sept. 4, 2003, at 7:30 p.m. For more information on the recital and Ikuyo Nakamura's master class please call Jakarta Conservatory of Music at 021-769 0470, or email: jcom@centrin.net.id