Hisato Ohzawa (1907-1953) studied in Boston and Paris, and his music certainly shows the influence of the Parisian capital. You might call it “Les Six with no sense of humor”, in that Ohzawa writes confidently for the orchestra, enjoys colorful sonorities, and adopts a certain neo-classical fastidiousness that’s very French. The Piano Concerto has plenty of flashy moments for the soloist, and Ekaterina Saranceva handles them all with aplomb. The symphony is a major work that features a very interestingly structured second movement: two arias, for English horn and for two clarinets, alternate with two toccatas for solo violin and then all four previous solo instruments. If only both here and in the concerto the thematic material itself had been more memorable. As it stands, these are interesting works very much of their period (1934/35), quite well performed and recorded. If you’ve been following Naxos’ enterprising Japanese composers series, you’ll want to add this release to your collection.
