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Pianists Mari Kodama, Momo Kodama and Karin Kei Nagano, Suisse Romande Orchestra, conducted by Kent Nagano – CD Review, the 29th of May 2024

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Concerto no. 7 KV 242 in F major for three pianos and orchestra; Francis Poulenc - Concerto in D minor for two pianos and orchestra.

"An impressive family portrait"- that's the title of the album released on the 17th of May by Kent Nagano, one of the world's most important musicians, artistic director of the Hamburg Opera and Philharmonic, honorary conductor of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Concerto Köln ensemble and the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. Alongside Kent Nagano, in these recordings made for Pentatone, we can also hear the pianists of the Nagano-Kodama family, meaning the conductor's wife Mari Kodama, her sister Momo and the musician's daughter Karin Kei.

Their album, recorded with the famous Suisse Romande Orchestra of Geneva, includes concertos for two or three pianos and orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Francis Poulenc, a unique project that reveals the musicality, nobility, artistry and homogeneity of this extraordinary family of musicians.

Performing classical music in the family also resonates with the ideas of Mozart, who played with his father, sister, wife and sister-in-law.

Francis Poulenc loved Mozart's music. Despite the stylistic differences and the long period of time that separated the two composers, they shared a unique combination of seriousness and playfulness. Francis Poulenc succeeded in incorporating a neoclassical Mozart-inspired twist into his Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, composed in the summer of 1932, and this is the link between the works on the album.

Larisa Clempuș