Japanese Musician Enthralls Audience

Pianist Misa Suzuki

Under the patronage of the Embassy of Spain, the Instituto Cervantes in Beirut recently organized in AUB a piano recital by Japanese pianist Misa Suzuki.

Held on February 29 at Assembly Hall, Suzuki's recital featured five select masterpieces from the repertoires of Spanish composer Enrique Granados and French composer Federico Mompou. The four pieces by Granados reflected the contentment or joy of their composer in the bright and chirrupy notes Suzuki delivered. Mompou's piece, however, was of a more wistful nature. It spoke of charm as a skill to be cultivated for various purposes, be it for "palliating suffering, penetrating the human soul, healing this soul, inspiring love, evoking images from the past, or hailing joy itself."

The sixty-minute recital was punctuated with several rounds of applause by a packed audience appreciative of Suzuki's talent. This twenty-five-year-old musician was only four years of age when she took her first music lesson. In 1997, she won the top prize at the All-Japan Competition for Classical Music in Tokyo.