Takako Nishizaki Plays Suzuki Evergreens, Vol. 5

It was the coming together of her father, Shinji Nishizaki, and Shinichi Suzuki that sowed the seeds for the method of teaching several youngsters at the same time, and from that grew the method by which violin students learn around the world. Nishizaki would later go to New York to study at the Juilliard School of Music, and has in more recent years become a superstar in Hong Kong, her famous open-air concerts drawing audiences of many thousands. Now named among the 100 Japanese that the world most admires, she is on disc one of the all-time top-selling artists. Now she returns to her earliest days in seven discs of music she encountered as a Suzuki student. So Volume 1 (8.572378) opens with the simple little tune, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Nishizaki playing as if a beginner, her tonal quality becoming more refined as we progress through the disc. By the end of that first volume we have reached one of the best known melodies, Boccherini's Minuet, having already passed through some of Bach's Minuets and a Brahms waltz. Volume 2 (8.572379) finds the student with the much more rhythmically complex Humoresque by Dvořák, and the need to cross strings quickly. It would seem a massive leap to the student's first concerto in Volume 3 (8.572380), but these are teaching works by the 19th century German composer, Friedrich Seitz, and though challenging they are equally rewarding. Then we take a massive leap forward with two movements from a Vivaldi concerto heard in a violin and piano version, then with the National Youth Orchestra of New Zealand. Sampling a duet format, we have the first movement of the Bach Double Violin Concerto with Nishizaki playing the second violin for the student to add the other part. Volume 4 (8.572381) offers a reversal of roles with Nishizaki playing the first part so the student can add the second. Another Vivaldi concerto in both piano and orchestral accompaniments; arrangements of two Gavottes from Bach's Sixth Cello Suite and works by Weber, Dittersdorf and Veracini complete the release. Volume 5 (8.572382) is largely given to Handel's third and fourth violin sonatas, both calling for considerable left hand agility, the first sonata-quite a short work-appearing on Volume 6 (8.572383). There we arrive at one of the great masterpieces of the era, Bach's First Violin Concerto, played, as in the home by violin and piano followed by the original with orchestra. Throughout Nishizaki has played in a conventional modern mode, but if you want to sample the music as it would have sounded when composed, then you turn to the fifth volume where the Baroque violin and harpsichord duo of Francois Fernandez and Glen Wilson perform Corelli's La Folia. Throughout Nishizaki has been partnered by the New Zealand pianist, Terence Dennis, the duo giving performances that offer a 'clean' guide the student before adding their own interpretations. There is a seventh volume to follow. [Takako Nishizaki Plays Suzuki Evergreens, Vol. 7 is available on 8.572494 - Ed.]