The Japanese-born pianist Kenji Miura, winner of the 2019 Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition in Paris, ponders on the issue of identity, combining music of the French school with two pieces by Toru Takemitsu, a Japanese composer strongly influenced by French composers and by the Second Viennese School. The main works on the album are Franck’s Prélude, Fugue et Variation, Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales and Debussy’s Six épigraphes antiques. Born in Kobe in 1993, Kenji Miura studied in the UK and in Berlin, where he is now based. “This album is a reflection of my own personal struggle with identity,” he writes. “We live in an increasingly multi-ethnic and multicultural society – my torn-between-worlds feeling is shared by many around the world. This is my small musical letter to all those struggling with the many aspects of identity – a concept that should help us embrace who we are and our complicated, beautiful lives.”
