{"product_id":"4562264260140","title":"Sekimoto Shohei - Gray Pearl - Japan SACD Hybrid","description":"\u003cp\u003eCredits:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSekimoto Shohei\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDescription:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSeven years after taking fourth prize at the 2005 International Chopin Piano Competition, Shohei Sekimoto offers the world his \"Grey Pearl\"\nSeven years after his fourth prize at the 2005 International Chopin Piano Competition, Shohei Sekimoto presents a long-considered recital of Brahms's late piano works. Clara Schumann, Brahms's most perceptive advocate, described the Op. 119 No. 1 Intermezzo as a \"grey pearl\" - a phrase that could be applied to everything Brahms wrote in his final years. A grey pearl lacks the brilliance of youth and is clouded over, yet its essence runs extraordinarily deep: a gem whose lustre grows richer the further one looks into it. Sekimoto's Brahms is full of tenderness, drawing out music of prayer-like profundity and letting us hear the composer's final confession of life. Recorded in studio sessions in May 2012 at the Clara-Saal, a hall named after Clara Schumann.\n- Extract from the liner notes\nAs Shohei Sekimoto walks, with unfailing humility, through the closing landscape of Brahms's world, what future can he see before him? There may be little to gain from setting the late years of a composer in his sixties beside the artistic growth of a pianist in his late twenties, and yet what we find here is a modest communion in which resignation and maturity sing richly to one another, an unfeigned reverence sounding out towards a great composer and towards a solitary man.\nThe playing gathered here is woven from an understanding and sympathy that Sekimoto has clearly nurtured slowly and painstakingly, expressed in emotional detail of an almost aching finesse. Leaving the glory of the competition and the heady days that followed far behind him, this pianist confronts the inner world of Brahms's late years entirely alone. That meticulous care unlocks the deep heart of a master who sings his melodies chiefly in the inner voices, yet keeps it breathing with an intimacy that remains veiled.\nSekimoto's piano, soft in tone and drifting as if through a solitary dream, draws close to Brahms's inwardness. Turning his back on showy self-expression, the pianist listens for the composer's voice within an intimacy that borders on world-weariness. For listeners of our own time, following where Shohei Sekimoto goes from these Brahmsian endings promises to be a considerable pleasure. (Takaaki Aozawa)\nMuse Entertainment\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ART INFINI","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53595514765601,"sku":"4562264260140","price":3143.0,"currency_code":"JPY","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0568\/8482\/2076\/files\/4562264260140.jpg?v=1790481440","url":"https:\/\/cdsvinyljapan.com\/products\/4562264260140","provider":"CDs Vinyl Japan Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}