Gustav Mahler "Das Lied von der Erde" (The Song of the Earth) piano version
Eiko
Hiramatsu(sop)
Ichiro Nodaira(pf)
World Premire Recording of Piano & Solo Soprano Version
Special Selection of ASAHI SHINBUN (newspaper)
Profound Voice of Eiko HIRAMATSU by Toshio HOSOKAWA (from liner notes)
.....Such a profound world of music Mahler had finally reached is sung by Eiko Hiramatsh in an excellent manner. Her clear voice gives an impression of gentle gleam coming from deep inside of darkness of night. Very fine "light-particles" of her voices are so naturally and beautifully controlled that her performance shows us an utterly new era of this song, being completely different from the past performances ever. Poano accompaniment by Ichiro Nodaira is also clear and expressive enough to support her voice from inside. Personally I am very much fond of Mahler's rich orchestration for this song, and the neat and clean performance by Nodaira reminds me of the of the original orchestration with a very fresh impression.
Beautiful and comfortable voice, just on pitch, is not satisfying enough for me. in my sense, the voice of Eiko Hiramatsh is valuable because of its profoundness that she had found, through the act of singing, from deep inside of her body. The voice comes from a cosmic world, the very world which turns around "eternal time" I experienced on the coast of California. We, human beings, are cosmic existence as well as social one. What we pursue in music is, therefore, "a voice from macrocosm" which could be concealed deep inside "microcosm", human body. Through the act of composing, Mahler would have noticed the existence of such a "profound voice".
Das Lied von der Erde sung by Eiko Hiramatsu gives profound pleasure to us, as we are now living in a confusing world. Repeating "forever" in the last part of music, her voice sounds as if it goes endlessly beyond the horizon in the evening twilight.
Recorded:May,2002, Kioi Hall
Producer/Engineer: Kaz Ishikawa
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