Born in Japan in 1981, Hisako Kawamura was raised and trained in Germany (where she is based) and has been a frequent fixture on the international piano competition circuit. Kawamura boasts an excellent technique and an attractive, full-bodied sonority. These qualities are abetted by the clear and resplendent Kawai concert grand on which she plays, along with a realistic surround-sound audio perspective that sounds marginally less open via standard CD playback format. I like the impetuous spirit that dominates Kawamura’s forward-moving account of Schumann’s Faschingsschwank aus Wien, although the pianist tends to gloss over inner lines and blur textures, most notably in the outer movements and in the Intermezzo’s rolling figurations. Firmer delineation of the Scherzino’s dotted rhythms and quirky ascending scales near the end would have better characterized this delightful movement.
Unfortunately, much of Kawamura’s Schubert A major leaves a timid, dynamically restricted, and rather faceless impression. The first movement is totally devoid of the harmonic tension and dramatic flow that Perahia, Serkin, Schnabel, Kempff, and Pollini generate, while the Scherzo requires more incisive articulation and fewer rounded-off phrases than Kawamura is willing to concede. The latter criticisms also hold true for the Finale. Within its small-scaled parameters, the Andantino comes off best regarding Kawamura’s steady simplicity in the outer sections and in her insidious transition into the tumultuous middle section. All told, this is an uneventful release by a young pianist with potential.
