The press comments on the Schubert-CD:

This is a delight. Hideyo Harada gives us a performance of both the Wanderer Fantasy and the Sonata D 960 that can measure up with the best. For me Schubert is not quite suited for power players. It would seem that most of his solo piano compositions are better served by tenderness, 'sehnsucht', 'leidenschaft' and a reflective approach. Harada has all that. She is, of course, not new to this kind of repertoire. Some 8 years ago she launched an ambitious Schubert cycle in Tokyo, not only covering the complete music for piano solo, but also the various pieces Schubert wrote for chamber players. From the well documented liner notes one learns that she won a number of prizes in international piano competitions. However, the real the proof of the pudding is in the eating, i.e. in the concert hall, or, in this particular case, the recording studio. Harara does not disappoint. Aided with a beautiful piano sound, so well captured by the Audite engineers (in PCM), and her flawless technical skills, she brings us an interesting coupling of two key works. The Wanderer Fantasy, perhaps the most monumental piece of Schubert's piano 'oeuvre', comes off very well. Energetically, yet thoughtfully played. But for me the best part of this disk is her intelligent, romantic and sometimes dreaming performance of Schubert's final Piano Sonata. One of the difficulties with Schubert is that his sonatas can become all too easily fragmented in less competent hands, whereby the soloist loses the flow and hence the coherence of the overall structure. Harada's careful approach and her often light and clear 'toucher' keeps the structure intact from the first till the very last note, whilst, at the same time, revealing the deeply emotional feelings which Schubert has hidden in the score, notwithstanding the key of B flat Major and the quasi optimistic singing melodies in the third movement. I was completely spell-bound and I cannot but wholeheartedly recommend this disk.

www.SA-CD.net, October 19, 2011

Soll man von einer Überraschung reden oder doch eher von der Bestätigung eines außergewöhnlichen Talentes? Jedenfalls hat mich dieses Schubert-Programm der japanischen Pianistin Hideyo Harada weit stärker berührt als ganze Anzahl Einspielungen mit bekannteren Namen. Dabei hat sie bereits seit längerem durch eine ganze Reihe von gewonnenen Wettbewerben und Auszeichnungen auf sich aufmerksam gemacht. Und so lässt auch diese Schubert-Einspielung aufhorchen. Nicht nur durch ihre hervorragende Aufnahmequalität im Surround-Verfahren, das dem Klavier die ganze Natürlichkeit seines Klanges belässt, sondern vor allem durch die Schönheit und Natürlichkeit der Darbietung, die tief in die Innenwelt der beiden hier vorliegenden Kompositionen eindringt.

Die Fantasie C-Dur D. 760, die so genannte 'Wandererfantasie', die oft dazu dient, pianistische Virtuosität hervorzukehren, hat zwar auch hier alles an virtuoser Spielkunst, der es bedarf, aber neben einer erfreulich energischen Beherztheit geht das Spiel der Pianistin sehr wohl in eine gedankliche Tiefe, wie man sie nur selten erlebt. Harada nimmt sich Zeit, in die Musik hineinzuhören und Schuberts reiche Gemütswelt bloß zu legen . Selten hat man das wunderschöne 'Adagio' so ergreifend gespielt gehört. Noch tiefer dringt die Pianistin in der letzten Klaviersonate B-Dur ins Schubertsche Geheimnis ein. Auch diese ist eher bedächtig gespielt (46'10: ein Zeitmaß wie bei Svjatoslav Richter), doch erscheint sie nicht 'langsam', sondern nachdenklich, in sich gekehrt, sogar etwas verträumt, besonders in dem sehr differenziert gespielten, die Themen und Motive klar voneinander absetzenden Einleitungssatz 'Molto moderato'. Noch besinnlicher, ja verinnerlichter ist das herrliche 'Andante sostenuto', das die Dimensionen des Tragischen bei Schubert mit ergreifender Verinnerlichung und Intensität zum Klingen bringt. So hat Hideyo Harada uns eine Einspielung geschenkt, die mit den ganz berühmten gleichgesetzt werden kann.

Pizzicato, December 2011
This Schubert CD was awarded the "Supersonic Award" by the Luxembourg Magazine Pizzicato.

… Harada begnügt sich hier – wie auch in der berühmten B-Dur-Sonate – nicht damit, tausend Mal Gesagtes schlicht noch einmal aufzugreifen. Sie will das Neue, Frische, Unverbrauchte – und scheut das Wagnis nicht. Ein Muss im CD-Regal.

Piano News, November / December 2011

Hideyo Harada zählt zu jenen immer seltener anzutreffenden Künstlern, die sich bei ihren Einspielungen offensichtlich sehr viel Zeit nehmen, um Interpretationen von enormem musikalischen Feinschliff und größter geistiger Durchdringung vorzulegen. Nach den subtilen Miniaturen von Tschaikowskys "Jahreszeiten" überraschte die Künstlerin mit einer emphatischen Wiedergabe der C-Dur-Fantasie Schumanns und widmet sich nun zwei Werken Schuberts.

Gegen die Konkurrenz weiß sich die Künstlerin schon deshalb zu behaupten, da sie ganz eigene Akzente setzt. Zunächst ist es die schiere Schönheit ihres Spiels, das sowohl die „Wandererfantasie“ als auch die Sonate in eine andere Sphäre zu transzendieren scheint. Die Rundung des Tons, die atmende Phrasierung, der klare architektonische Aufbau, das feine Gespür für Steigerungen, die konstante Wachheit: All dies fügt sich zu überzeugenden Darstellungen, die auch durch die Aufnahmetechnik und den brillanten Flügel begünstigt werden.

Die Fantasie eröffnet Harada mit echtem dramatischen Aplomb, hütet sich aber davor, die mächtigen Klanggesten zur Kraftdemonstration zu missbrauchen. Im Adagio gelingen ihr wahre Wunder an Darstellungsintensität, um die Sehnsuchtsenergien spürbar werden zu lassen. Und auch in der Sonate sind es die vielen seelisch erfüllten Momente ihres Spiels, die dem Werk über seine Schmerzlichkeit hinaus ein wärmendes Licht mitfühlender Menschlichkeit verleihen.

Fono Forum, November 2011
This Schubert CD was awarded the "Star of the Month" by the German Magazine Fono Forum.

The press comments on the Schumann-CD:

Hideyo Harada trained in her native Japan, as well as in Europe and, latterly, at the Moscow Conservatory with the venerable Victor Merzhanov (still teaching, aged 91). This third release for Audite reveals her as an engaging artist. Throughout, her carefully detailed fingerwork and pedalling bring clarity within the rich textures, and although she responds well to the introspective moments of the Fantasie – especially in an unusually serene final movement, which becomes something of a delicious reverie – she is more than equal to the work's blustery, testosterone-driven passion. The fact that her expressive force seems entirely driven from within makes for a highly meaningful account. Her Kreisleriana displays the same combination of athleticism and poetry. An increasingly transparent and deftly spun middle section in no.3, 'Sehr aufgeregt', emerges into a fiery climax, amply underlining the wide mood-swings of Johannes Kreisler – the unstable, borderline-genius music-master of E.T.A. Hoffmann's creation, on whom Schumann based this set of fantasias.

International Piano, July/August 2010

Audite's super audio CD release Schumann: Fantasia; Kreisleriana; Arabeske made its bow as the classical music world observed the 200th anniversary of Robert Schumann's birth amidst a veritable flood of Schumann solo piano recordings in the market. This, of course, adds to the already established surfeit of acknowledged classics by long ago keyboard masters such as Artur Rubinstein and Vladimir Horowitz and newer, less idiosyncratic — and highly recommendable — offerings by Murray Perahia, Alfred Brendel, Mikhail Pletnev, Evgeny Kissin, and so on. Japanese pianist Hideyo Harada concentrates her concert career mainly in Germany and her native Japan; however, her previous Audite recording of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov has gained high marks among critics in the English-speaking world, so perhaps her entry in the Schumann sweepstakes stands a chance.

Whether Harada hits the jackpot or not in such a crowded field, this recording of Schumann's Fantaisie in C, Op. 17, and Kreisleriana, Op. 16, is not one to miss. The sound is quite good; there's some noticeable compression to the recording, but not so much that it's distracting, and the piano's sound tends toward the dark hues, though it does not fail to provide a sense of warmth. One of the aspects that made Rubinstein's old RCA Victor recordings of these works so enduring was the closeness of the recording itself; it was so right up on Rubinstein that you could almost hear the sound of a depressed key hitting the felt below, and the feeling of immediacy and intimacy that resulted was palpable. Here, Harada manages to convey much the same impression, but with the piano sound being placed not quite so close; bass sonorities ring out, and higher passagework sparkles with a certain kind of special, gracious lilt. This is especially apparent in the Kreisleriana, which is given a great, carefully modulated and memorable performance here; reflective passages are given a patient, hushed reading, whereas stormier ones are dazzlingly virtuosic, though Harada never loses control. Harada also manages to worm in the Arabeske, Op. 18, in addition to the usual pairing of the Fantaisie in C and Kreisleriana, usually enough to fill a disc on their own. Overall, Audite's Schumann: Fantasia; Kreisleriana; Arabeske is an excellent choice for these standard works whether one is coming to them for the first time or has sipped at this particular fount for many a season.

www.allmusic.com, June 2010

Japanese pianist Hideyo Harada is a pupil of Hans Kann and Viktor Merzhanov, and she enters this fine disc as part of the ongoing Schumann bi-centennial celebration of his birth. Recorded 16-18 June 2008 at the Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin-Dahlem, Ms. Harada plays a resonant Steinway D, which enjoys a solid middle and lovely upper registers. Harada approaches the great 1836 C Major Fantasie as a pastiche in moods and colors, albeit derived from certain references to Beethoven's Op. 98 song-cycle, "An die ferne Geliebte," which Schumann employs anagrammatically to refer to his own beloved Clara Schumann. The music's first movement, fluctuating between huge arpeggiated sequences and hymnal chord progressions, breaks off into a literary mode he calls a "legend," that becomes fragmented, even uttering Perpetuum mobile elements and figures from his own Papillons. Several motifs seem derived from Beethoven's famous "Moonlight" Sonata, which return in the last movement. Harada has her hands full, certainly, to balance the eclectic and mercurial pastiche this music can become, and she seems intent to project as much of an arch-form as possible, always sensitive to her tone and color palette. Schumann himself held the second movement dearest to this own heart, a kind of triumphal march in the spirit of Beethoven that offsets the feverish melancholy of the first movement. The syncopations and agogics can fluster some pianists, but Harada relishes the both the tempests and the poetic oases the movement proffers, saving the bravura for the last pages, which quite demand it. What Harada projects in the last movement, a grand adagio, is a luminous serenity, an emotional resolution not necessarily heroic but radiant in its aesthetic pose. The 1838 suite Kreisleriana marks a willful departure into the virtuoso repertory, an attempt to convert E.T.A. Hoffmann's mythical, Faust-like Johannes Kreisler into a pattern of alter-egos in music similar to Schumann's own dichotomy of Florestan and Eusebius. The eight-movement suite gravitates between D Minor and G Minor, with frequent excursions into B-flat Major. The exception comes in the seventh episode, marked Sehr rasch and cast in C Minor and E-flat Major, the outer sections much in the spirit of Beethoven. Passionate, dreamy, impulsive, occasionally splenetic, the pieces move through storms and stresses to find cantabile moments of devout serenity. Songlike simplicity alternates with "learned" procedures, especially fugal writing in the manner of Schumann's revered J.S. Bach, again in piece No. 7. The G Minor finale, "Fast and Playful," contains tripping seeds for Schumann's Spring Symphony finale. Again, Harada exploits her capacity to make tone, as in the third movement, Sehr aufgeregt (quite agitated), a G Minor nocturne in the elastic spirit of Chopin but marked by Schumann's own melancholy idiom. (Movement six offers another Nocturne in B-flat Major, but its style of upward scales seems archaic and emotionally intricate, yet close to the Chopin Op. 37.) The galloping figure that occupies the outer sections projects a teasing yet frenzied passion, a series of broken chords that threaten to sweep us away. Innigkeit--Schumann's call for inwardness--manifests itself in sections three and four, the harmonies gravitating to places well beyond classical constraints. The arabesques of number five, Scherzando in G Minor, project a mercurial, manic side of Schumann's personality, exploding into cascades of sound Debussy would find attractive. Harada's sensitivity to Schumann's ritardandi and agogic accents--he employs twelve hemiolas or metric shifts in No. 5--makes her performance a keeper, especially given the lucidity of her piano tone, courtesy of engineer Ludger Boeckenhoff, and the SACD's clarity. The famous 1838 Arabeske in C drips with nostalgia, set as an ostinato and melody in continuous dialogue in five sections and an epilogue. Harada plays the piece as a song without words, mercurial, evasive, occasionally melancholy and reflective, as the Minore sections converse and interact, confident in their poetic and physical reconciliation, as Schumann must have dreamt his longing for his beloved Clara Wieck.

www.audad.com, July 14, 2010

The press comments on the Tchaikovsky-Rachmaninov-CD:

Two great Russian piano masterpieces in a subtle and soulful recording Hideyo Harada offers a reading that thrills

What a compelling coupling this is, and how good to hear Tchaikovsky's still-underrated cycle given a reading which conveys its grit and grandeur as well as its beauty. The cycle was commissioned by the editor of a St Petersburg journal, Le Nouvelliste, and the pieces were published as a kind of musical part-work. When the set was published complete, each piece was headed by lines of verse by a Russian poet, Tolstoy and Pushkin among them, though such is the vividness of Tchaikovsky's writing that the music needs no explanation.

Tchaikovsky's flitting lark (March) and his irresistible walzes for April and December are a particular delight in Hideyo Harada's hands. She's not afraid of full-blooded climaxes either, as witness the choppier waters of June's initially lilting barcarolle. And her "Autumn Song" (October) is desolate enough to soften the hardest of hearts. Pletnev's masterly version remains a benchmark, and though Harada matches him in soulfulness, there are times when his more vigorous approach wins the day, not least in a wild harvest (August) and a hunt (September) where you can almost smell the blood.

Harada is also up against a very fine Pletnev recording in Rachmaninov's Corelli Variations, that solo masterpiece just one opus number apart from his unaccountably more popular Paganini Variations. Pletnev may have the historical advantage of performing on Rachmaninov's own piano, but there's little in it, musically speaking. The subtlety with which Harada approaches the theme itself sets the scene for a reading that thrills as much for its nuance as for its brilliance – especially the extrovert Vars 11, 16 and 18. The wonderfully warm recording sets the seal on a highly recommendable disc.

Gramophone, April 2009
Gramophone awards this recording with a "Gramophone recommends".

Seductive

Pianist Hideyo Harada received considerable notice during the Grieg Jubilee year. For me, her recording of lyric works by Grieg was among the most delightful pianistic discoveries of 2007. As a logical extension, Harada has now recorded Tchaikovsky's piano cycle The Seasons (Audite, 2008). Not unlike Grieg's Nordic impressions, these 12 portraits of the months of the year are still dismissed as occasional works, stigmatized as agreeable music best played at home. The complete cycle is virtually never heard in concert performances. Only a few of these pieces surface sporadically in the repertoires of Russian pianists, as a rule serving as encores.

When one listens to the meanwhile numerous available recordings of the complete Seasons, one soon realizes why this is so: even great Tchaikovsky interpreters such as Postnikova and Pletnev can hardly conceal the fact that not all of the "Months" merit the same degree of attentiveness. Just compare the hollow jangling of Pletnev's fluent version of "Carnival" (February) with the magical atmosphere he conjures in the piece that immediately follows, the "Song of the Lark" (March) (Virgin, 1994). One is aware right away of Pletnev's personal preference.

Hideyo Harada's recording of the Seasons is free of such value judgments. The mellow, almost maternal love of this interpreter is showered on each "Month" in equal degree. Already in "By the Fireside" (January), Harada entrances the listener with her indescribably fine shadings of dynamics and tone color. In her hands, nostalgia, contemplativeness, and restlessness are fused into a captivating whole. Harada's pellucid tone, illuminated from within, is sustained and at the same time weightless. The choice of tempi, rubato, the delicate, flexible articulation: all of these elements seem to emerge of their own accord from the musical text. Moreover, Harada draws audible inspiration from the verses of Russian poetry which precede each piece. An instance of this is "On the Troika" (November): the sorrow and plaintiveness that wind their way continually through this affectionate, yearning music in E flat major endow it with additional depth.

Also featured on Harada's new CD are Rachmaninov's Corelli Variations op. 42. While naturalness and euphony predominate in the Tchaikovsky, Harada here summons darker, more somber, even demonic moods – while astonishing as a furious, high-octane virtuoso. The celebrated "La Folia" theme has never sounded so seductive. Sadness and pain are joined here by shimmering eroticism.

Harada's finely-shaped, formally consummate interpretation of the Corelli Variations dispels any doubt that Rachmaninov has here produced a masterwork. Harada banishes anything reminiscent of salon music. She demonstrates how Rachmaninov was able to restrain and channel his inexhaustible sense of fantasy with the help of the venerable variation form. Triumph and despair, brutality and tenderness, naïve laughter and grotesque masquerade: Harada seeks out unity within multiplicity and discovers a persuasive balance of interpretative calculation and intuitively shaped sound.

www.klassik.com,  07,01,2009
Artistic Quality: Highest Rating (5 Stars)

Tchaikovsky's set of 12 character pieces entitled The Seasons came as a commission from the editor of the musical journal Le Nouvelliste, Nikolai Bernard. It was Bernard who gave Tchaikovsky the specific title of each of the pieces — each based on activities taking place in a specific month of the year — the overall title of the set, as well as later adding an excerpt of poetry to accompany each movement. One might expect such a rigid framework to encumber Tchaikovsky's creative freedom, but in fact, he thrived. Each of the short little gems is a musical world all its own. Guiding listeners through the 12 months is pianist Hideyo Harada, whose interpretive skills are as varied and multifaceted as Tchaikovsky's compositions. Most impressive is her incredible control over voicing, effortlessly bringing the melody to the forefront while maintaining a robust, well-rounded backdrop. Her attention to detail, nuance, and rubato certainly do not go unnoticed. Harada brings this same level of precision and intricacy to her performance of Rachmaninov's Variations on a Theme of Corelli. Despite the ever-increasing technical demands Rachmaninov puts on pianists through the course of the 20 variations, Harada never lets difficulty overshadow musical beauty.

www.allmusic.com, February 2009

Tchaïkovsky / Rachmaninov - Les Saisons. Variations sur un thème de Corelli

…Avec ce nouvel enregistrement, Hideyo Harada offre une vision retenue, mélancolique, voire sombre des Saisons. Dans un jeu vigoureux où la poésie a également sa place, la jeune pianiste confirme un style qui fait merveille dans la partition de Rachmaninov. Son énergie passionnée s'épanouit alors au coeur d'une virtuosité savamment contrôlée, qu'un toucher subtil vient couronner. Pour cette dernière œuvre plus que pour le cycle de Tchaïkovsky, ce Super Audio CD est une belle surprise.

www.parutions.com, 11,02,09

In its March issue Le Monde de la Musique awards this recording with the highest rating (4 Stars).

On voit ici ce qu'est une parfaite lecture d'une partition, associée à un non moins parfait enregistrement, clinquant dans les aigus et puissant dans les graves, avec juste ce qu'il faut d'écho. L'interprète, ou plutôt la « restitutrice », joue exactement les nuances, les rythmes, ne laisse rien au hasard. Peut-être pourrait-on penser que les tempos, suite à une probable sacralisation de ces musiques, sont légèrement trop lents, un rien trop solennels. Parfois cela sert la grandeur de certaines mélodies, comme la célèbre ballade russe du mois de juin des Saisons de Tchaïkovski, qui gagne ainsi en « noblesse » slave.

Le Monde de la Musique, March 2009

The press comments on the CD:

The notes for this disc by pianist Hideyo Harada of Grieg's Lyric Pieces describes her performance as "a poetry reading in music...a dramatic arrangement, with subtle shifts and abrupt contrast, with hues, forms, and characters." Fortunately for her, she backs that claim up with a thoroughly convincing and satisfying recital. Harada certainly has the virtuoso technique to accomplish it. Her poise, balance, and articulation are essentially flawless, and her sheer speed is often quite breathtaking. Though her attack can be overwhelming, her touch can also be soft and her tone is always subtle. Also, Harada's arrangement of these 22 pieces excerpted from 10 separate volumes has the subliminal yet palpable narrative to sustain it. Her program's ebb, flow, and swell describe the rise, fall, and triumph of an incredibly intense emotional experience that, whatever it may be, can only be represented in music. Any one piece at random is affecting, several in a row are moving, and the whole disc from start to finish is absolutely cathartic. Audite's super audio sound is as intimate as a whisper.

www.allmusic.com, November 19, 2007

GRIEG Lyric Pieces on AUDITE

Hideyo Harada, a Japanese native who finished her training in Stuttgart, Vienna, and Moscow, plays with a tonal polish and technical élan that emphasizes the prettiness of the music (which is there aplenty), but her readings are not superficial; and she can dig in and reveal grit as the material demands. This is all good, because her playing is very much under the microscope, sonically speaking. To put it simply, this is one of the most beautiful sounding piano recordings I have ever heard.

Fanfare Magazine, July/August 2008

Japanese born Harada plays 22 of these ever-fresh works, including many favorites. Her performances are attractive, the SACD sound is very good…

American Record Guide, March/April 2008

A Great Contribution

Edvard Grieg composed a total of 66 lyric pieces for the piano, character pieces in the tradition of Robert Schumann that occasionally remind the listener of Chopin, Brahms and Liszt. Their characteristic Scandinavian flair sets them apart and makes them into much more than playful pieces for pleasure. Memories from Grieg's life, feelings, and emotions play as much a part in the Lyric Pieces as legend, fairy tales and impressions from nature.

These pieces were extremely popular in Grieg's day, and some reactions were accordingly tinged with envy. Several colleagues were quick to call him "a master of musical miniatures," and Debussy went so far as to call the pieces, "pink bonbons, full of snow."

Fortunately, in the last fifteen years, much has taken place to restore Grieg's reputation. Both Gerhard Oppitz (RCA, 1993) and Steen-Nøkleberg (Naxos, 1995) have recorded the Lyric Pieces in their entirety, and future recordings will be measured against the technique and the stature of these two artists. Since Emil Gilels recorded his legendary album of piano music in 1974 (DG), there had been no passionate performance of Grieg's oeuvre. This situation has since been remedied by two Grieg recitals, Mikhail Pletnev (DG, 2000) und Leif Ove Andsnes (EMI, 2002).

Now for a great and pleasant surprise: On the 100th anniversary of Grieg's death, the Japanese pianist Hideyo Harada has produced a new recording of the Lyric Pieces (Audite, 2007), which will set fresh standards despite the excellent recordings that are already available. Harada intuits the pieces in their inner depth, and balances melancholy and elegance masterfully. For this reason, her interpretations are without the slightest artifice, while at the same time carefully rendering even the most subtle  detail. The tonal quality of Grieg's pieces, luminous and atmospherically dense, are extremely well suited to Harada's nuanced interpretation. From delicate to rustic, from pure and innocent to portentous and pathetic – the ever-new colors that Harada crafts bewitch. Many of the lyric pieces collected on this CD have never been recorded better, for instance the delicate ethereal hymn "To Spring" (Op. 43, No. 6) or the elegiac and paced "Melody" (Op. 47, No. 3). Harada's light and airy leggiero turns pieces like "Little Bird" (Op. 43, No. 4), "Butterfly" (Op. 43, No. 1), and "Brooklet" (Op. 62, No. 4) into silvery magic. Here, nature is more alive and more vibrant than in the recordings by Gilels, Pletnev or Andsnes.

Harada not only performs famous works, but also unearths some half-forgotten treasures by Grieg. The freshly accented and beguiling temperament in "Valse-Impromptu" (Op. 47, No. 1) and "Sylphe" (Op. 62, No. 1) astonish the listener. In "Evening in the Mountains" (Op. 68, No. 4), Harada's musical vision spans a whole panorama in a virtually unparalleled performance. Lyric Pieces is a great contribution to the Grieg year, a wonderful CD that leaves nothing to be desired. There is only one problem: One can become addicted to Harada's Grieg.

Recommended by the editor
Awarded the highest rating (five stars)

www.klassik.com, October 28, 2007  

This Grieg CD was awarded the "Supersonic Award" by the music magazine Pizzicato.

Grieg and his magic
When the music lover encounters this bright bouquet of pieces, poetically interpreted by Hideyo Harada, then he realizes at once that this pianist has a deep affinity to the magical, romantic, and colorful world of the Norwegian composer.
The first few bars of each individual piece immediately establishes its character; these numerous short pieces are then woven together into a grandiose musical vista. There is nostalgia here, the glitter of water and of crystal, and a tenderness mixed with humor. Not only does Hideyo Harada have full command of Edvard Grieg's idiom, she is also a pianist of outstanding artistry and musical imagination.
This CD contains one third of the "Lyric Pieces." We are eagerly awaiting the remainder …

www.pizzicato.lu, October 2007

Grieg's Lyric Pieces lend themselves to a wide variety of approaches, from the nervous energy and disquiet of the composer's own playing (faintly preserved on ancient acoustic discs) to the introspective delicacy of Gieseking and Gilels. Pianist Hideyo Harada goes her own way as she follows carefully mapped-out interpretive itineraries. In the A minor Melody Op. 47 No. 3, she opts for broad pacing in the outer sections, where she coaxes out inner voices in long arcs. Perhaps Erotik (Op. 43 No. 5) lingers too much when it ought to move along, yet the focus and intensity with which the central climax builds cannot be denied.

The famous Butterfly Op. 43 No. 1 usually flutters with the wind. Here, however, it's choreographed with painstaking refinement, as are the B minor Op. 62 No. 4 Brooklet's trickling patterns. Similar observations apply to the dynamic gradations in Vanished Days (Op. 57 No. 1) as well as to the Op. 54 No. 5 Scherzo's amazingly dead-of-center scales and runs. It's also a relief to hear Wedding Day at Troldhaugen so elegantly shaped and articulated (many pianists simply pound it to death); ditto the March of the Trolls.

To be sure, Harada doesn't project Grieg's melodies with the natural ebb and flow or disarming simplicity marking Antonio Pompa-Baldi's interpretations on Centaur. You might say that Harada relates to Pompa-Baldi in Grieg's Lyric Pieces as Michelangeli does to Rubinstein in Chopin's Mazurkas: not that there's anything wrong with that! In other words, Harada displays a high level of artistry throughout the 22 selections that make up this thoughtfully programmed, beautifully recorded, and unusually distinctive Grieg recital.

www.classicstoday.com,
February 11, 2008

Highest Rating
Artistic Quality: 10 Points
Sound Quality: 10 Points

The pianist Hideyo Harada has an extremely nuanced approach to the "Lyric Pieces." She highlights interesting phrases with subtle variations in tone, and her rendition is both meditative and modern - modern in the sense that she liberates Grieg's music from
the realm of the tame bourgeoisie. Her performance opens up a world of infinitely differentiated and finely wrought music.

Welt am Sonntag, Nov. 25, 2007

There have been many recordings in honor of the one-hundredth anniversary of Grieg's death, but this one is truly outstanding. The booklet that comes with the CD describes this performance of the "Lyric Pieces" as a "novella for the ear." This is indeed the case: This highly varied and nuanced selection of one third of the entire "Lyric Pieces" is not performed in chronological order, but instead organized into a dramatic whole that exhibits the full scope of Grieg's musical expression. The Japanese pianist Hideyo Harada expertly underlines not only the character of each individual piece, but also the tensions within the pieces themselves, as for instance in "Melody" (op. 47) or in "Homesickness" (op. 57). Harada shuns both exaggeration and artifice; her natural tone is perfectly matched to Grieg's Nordic timbre. When Harada departs from high romanticism and instead uncovers elements of French Impressionism, as in the onomatopoetic miniatures "Little Bird" (op. 43) or "Butterfly" (op. 43), then this is a conscious artistic decision: Harada wishes to present as many of Grieg's innumerable facets as possible, and on this CD, even the march "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen" (op. 65), which has performed, if anything, too often, sounds fresh and authentic. The CD will be compared with great historic Grieg recordings (Leif Ove Andsnes), but Hideyo Harada is an excellent pianist, who does not need to fear comparison with anyone. After this recording, we are all awaiting her next performance with great anticipation.

Piano News, January, 2008   

A Journey Home
Piano and Orchestra Music by Edvard Grieg

Some remarkable new recordings in 2007 for an anniversary without hype

Of course, a musician does not have to be Norwegian in order to properly interpret Grieg in all of his variety and scope. This is proven by the Japanese pianist Hideyo Harada, who performs several of Grieg's 66 lyric pieces, a selection which of course includes popular highlights like "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen". This pianist has great power, resilience, and sensitivity to style at her command. Romanticism naturally receives its due, and Harada is capable of capricious sentimentality. However, in pieces where one might expect it, she scrupulously avoids such tendencies, for instance in "Little Bird" or in "Butterfly." Here, Harada opts instead for the glass-like transparency of French Impressionism, thus underscoring Grieg's modernity and internationality.

Kölner Stadtanzeiger, 12.09.07

Edvard Grieg died one hundred years ago on Sept. 4, and thus I have a few words to say about Grieg's piano music in the anniversary year. There is a new CD of Lyric Pieces by Edvard Grieg, recorded for the label "Audite" by the prize-winning Japanese pianist Hideyo Harada. The artist has an excellent feeling for this music, which she approaches very personally. Hideyo Harada captures the lyric atmosphere of Grieg's music precisely; she does not rush, she does not over-interpret, and the individual tone of each piece is given its proper proportion and weight. Most important, and most to my satisfaction, Hideyo Harada respects the private atmosphere that these pieces exude. She performs the music as an intimate dialog and not on the grand stage, and she has mastered the Romantic idiom. Let us listen to some of this CD until the end of the program. I would like to say good-bye to you and wish you a good Sunday, and now here is music by Edvard Grieg with the Japanese pianist Hideyo Harada.

Saarländischer Rundfunk, CD news, 21.10.07

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CD Tip: The Japanese pianist Hideyo Harada shows great sensibility for tonal universe of Edvard Grieg in her recording of the Lyric Pieces, which has just been produced by the label Audite.

Rondo Magazin, 01.11.07