Jun Toguchi - Chopin: 24 Preludes, Op. 28 - Japan CD

Credits:

Jun Toguchi

Description:

This is a complete recording of Chopin’s “24 Preludes” presented by Jun Toguchi. It is an album that showcases the intimate and compelling musical interpretation unique to Toguchi, who has performed extensively in Japan, the U.S., and Europe for many years while based in Boston and who studied for a long time under Nina Lelchuk, a former professor at the Moscow Conservatory. She says that the direct impetus for this complete recording came after the passing of her beloved Russian mentor, when she began turning the pages of the score one piece at a time and playing them at home. The 24 pieces begin in C major and modulate along the circle of fifths, with each major key followed by its relative (or parallel) minor key. The fact that he composed preludes in every key for the keyboard is considered a homage to Bach’s *The Well-Tempered Clavier*. From No. 15, “Raindrops,” onward—ranging from short pieces lasting less than a minute to dramatic large-scale works—this collection is a distillation of joy, anxiety, and nostalgia. Toguchi’s interpretation—in which he claims to have discerned French in the left-hand bass of No. 14 and Italian in the melody of Étude Op. 10, No. 3—is imbued with his many years of performance experience and personal history. Please also enjoy the rich, evocative tone of the piano, recorded in June 2026 at the Blue-TRecords studio in Yotsuya 3-chome using a New York Steinway Model A3. Born in Tokyo in 1963. He began composing and playing the piano at age 5, studying harmony and composition with Akira Miyoshi and piano with Michio Kobayashi and Kiyoko Tanaka. At age 14, he published “Sonatina for Guitar.” With a Rotary Scholarship, he studied at Yale University, the New England Conservatory of Music (where he earned a Postgraduate Diploma in Piano and a Master’s degree in Music Theory), and the Berklee College of Music; he also studied for many years under Nina Lelchuk, a former professor at the Moscow Conservatory. He lived in Boston for nearly 20 years and performed extensively in Japan, the United States, and Europe. He performed frequently with orchestras in Massachusetts, collaborating on piano concertos by Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, and Grieg, as well as his own jazz piano concerto; he also gave numerous recitals and made recordings in Boston and New York. The Tokyo University of the Arts premiere of his opera *The White Fox* (based on a libretto written by Tenshin Okakura in the 1910s at the request of Isabella Gardner) was met with great acclaim. He is also known as a composer for works such as the orchestral piece “The Night Is Gentle,” a song cycle based on poems by Sakutaro Hagiwara, and the “Marionette Sonata.” He has released CDs featuring Chopin’s “24 Études,” Ravel’s “Piano Works,” and his original collection “Starlet Dream.” He returned to Japan in 2015. Naxos Japan