Have a look at the fabulous review this CD has received!

'The best in the collection... a must'
by Jiro Hamada, Record Geijutsu, April 2008

'Outstanding Debussy playing, the new era'
by Tsutomu Nasuda, Record Geijutsu, April 2008

'...Noriko Ogawa proves that she is able to provide a valid, nevertheless individual relation to music of the past...'
'An admirable performance, as a noticeable example of Japanese piano playing in the sense of empathy and the pointed presence of individuality.'
'Noriko Ogawa succeeded in the 12 Etudes with dexterity, with evaluation and analysis...gliding without superficiality, whirling and in the next instance persistent, as each different piece demanded.'

Klassik Heute (German)

'Curious charm vitalises the audience'
Yoshiko Ikuta, Ongaku Gendai, April 2008

'Statement of volition and confidence'
Akemi Hara, Ongaku-no-Tomo, April 2008

'Dignified, graceful, and 20 years in control'
Masatoshi Nozaki, Chopin Magazine, April 2008

 “….There were surprises, too, in the evening's solo work, Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3, which featured the Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa, who is making her first appearances with the orchestra this week. Whereas most pianists underline the brittle, satiric character of this concerto, Ogawa took a warmer, more lyrical approach, as if to place the music squarely in the grand Russian romantic line of descent.

Though there was ample momentum and fire in the work's flashier moments, especially in the finale, the lingering impression of Ogawa's performance came in its sonorous breadth and unforced elegance, the kind of playing that made one curious about what this gifted pianist's Rachmaninoff would sound like…..(continue)”

Michael Anthony

With The Swan of Tuonela by Sibelius as an opener, and with two of the venue's biggest attracitons, - Grieg's Piano Concerto and beethoven's Fifth Symphony, Friday night's programme packed the hall.
Sibelius provided a superb contrast to the bright splashes of Nordic light in Grieg's Piano Concerto.
Soloist Noriko Ogawa's performance had a ternderness revealed in moments of exquisitely phrased legato playing, surprisingly in the first movement. Yet, with amazing muscular power of the second movement, and with the crispness of her playing in the finale, she held her own against the orchestran powerfully forward by conductor Nicholas McGegan.

Alan Cooper

She has a rare gift of making the most meticulously prepared performances appear totally spontaneous, as if she is just discovering the music.

In the works of Ravel and Debussy she is today much in a class of her own, the myriad of tonal colours used in Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin in revealing every subtle nuance.

Even in Debussy's shimmering passages, you still hear every note, her ability to caress the most magical pianissimos teasing your sensibilities to sample the world of pure beauty could be sampled in the three short pieces.

Ogawa had opened the programme in the charming innocence of Mozart's Third Piano Sonata composed as a teenager, and closed with the bitterness and venom of Prokofiev's Seventh Sonata.

There are young pianists around today who can almost demolish a keyboard, but no one is more able than Ogawa to communicate the horror of war pictured therein.

By playing the central movement quietly and with repose, the brittle impact of the finale became an emotionally disturbing experience.

David Denton

SINFONIETTA and OGAWA in Harmony
"....The soloist for Piano Concerto no.1 in Bflat minor was Japanese artist Noriko Ogawa. Her small frame belied the powerful rendition she gave of this technically-challenging work. After a dramatic opening, the rhapsodycal, cadenza-like flights of fancy contrasted well, while the more contemplative second movement opened with a beautifully-phrased flute solo. The final movement was an exciting concoction of fire and dynamism, breadth and grandeur and the speed of Ogawa's double octaves was electrifying."

Jane Dykes

Stand-in proves an inspiration

Trying to replace any soloist at 24 hours' notice is every concert master's nightmare. When the soloist in question has to have Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 1, not the most performed of his works, in their repertoire the task becomes monumental.

In such circumstances it could well be a case of any old port in a storm. If that was the case then all those connected with this concert were exceptionally lucky to find Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa playing in the right port, Dublin, on Tuesday evening and prepared to fly to Bristol on Wednesday to join the BBC National Orchestra of Wales at the Colston Hall.

Playing with tremendous power and insight there can be few piano soloists around who know this concerto so well, and you would have to institute a long and wide search to find one who could match her interpretation of it better.

If the orchestra needed an injection of confidence, and I doubt it after their robust opening with Kabalevsky's Overture Colas Breugnen, then they would have received it from the generous response to their guest soloist.

They had their chance to take centre stage with Prokofiev's showy Symphony No. 5.

Time after time conductor Grant Llewellyn asked them for big, complex sounds and they responded readily. On one or two occasions you felt that they became almost a little too enthusiastic and a few ragged notes appeared as they became almost a little too enthusiastic and a few ragged notes appeared as they chased those big, testing climaxes.

Like a street fighter bringing his gang under control, Grant Llewellyn quickly brought the orchestra to heel, ensuring that the evening ended as it had begun, on a bright and bubbly note.

Star rating: 4 star.

Gerry Parker

Hilary Finch

Robert Beale

Stripped of their orchestral dress, the three movements lost a little of the atmosphere Debussy distilled. But Kathryn Stott and Noriko Ogawa brought out details that get submerged in orthodox performances.

Well-known as soloists in their own right, the two ladies make top-notch partners. Although Stott joked that they were swapping pianos so as not to quarrel ober them, ego played no part in an enthralling recital.

The verve and sentiment of the Sonata in D major (KV448) by Mozart were projected with miraculous poise. One wondered what could possibly match it. Best to tackle something completely different, as the duo did with the Poulenc Sonata of 1952.

Another arrangement, this time of the apocalyptic La Valse by Ravel, brought cheers and for their mastery of rhythm and colour, the pianists had earned them.

Peter Palmer

There were excellent contrasts in Yati-Bayashi for two pianos by Okumura and the magnificent Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn by Brahms. There were the same dramatic contrasts to be found in the Variations on a Theme of Paganini by Lutoslawki and Poulenc's Sonata for Two Pianos. All were splendid examples of coordination of technique and musical sensibility.

However the climax of the evening came in the second suite for two pianos by Rachmaninov. This performance was masterly and while stunned by the technical brilliance, we also admired the penetrating mind behind the playing, plus the superb coordination of the two pianos combined with the wide range of dynamics spread between the two players in the constant ebb and flow of the music. The pianos in use were beautifully matched and the recital as a whole was a great joy.

RATHCOL

Grand Performance from Top-Class Pianists
Two grand pianos alone in a vast dark space, two pianists with completely different styles, two page turners, one blonde and one bald.

A dramatic setting and a dramatic performance by Kathryn Stott and Noriko Ogawa, two established soloists who came together for that rarest of events, a collection of compositions for two pianos by Brahms, Lutoslawski, Poulenc and Rachmaninov.

With the exception of a few still pools of sound, all the works were from the dramatic end of the spectrum of these four composers, driven along by the furiously precise technique of Noriko Ogawa. She looks like five-foot nothing of petite warmth, but attacks the piano as if she has a black belt in the white keys.

Stott, softer and more temperate, counterpointed her beautifully, and after winding the tempo up for an hour and a half, they emerged to clam us with the balm of an elegy by Poulenc.

Geoff Hill

Stott and Ogawa: many hands make light work of complex compositions
There is nothing so humbling as sitting down to describe a masterful performance by two world class pianists in the knowledge that you are a complete ignoramus. I brought my sister along to the concert by Kathryn Stott and Noriko Ogawa to bolster the clueless element of the audience.

Stott and Ogawa's collaboration at the full ntl studio in the Waterfront Hall in Tuesday offered a rare chance to hear two superb artistes playing what seemed to me incredibly complex pieces. They began with what Ogawa described as a 'macho' piece entitled Yatai-Bayashi for Two Pianos written by Hajime Okumura to mark the completion of a Japanese concert hall in 1966. Clearly written for a big occasion, this piece left the audience in no doubt as to the technical prowess of these gifted women but it wasn't until they began Brahms' Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn Op. 56b that my emotions engaged. The contrast could not have been greater, with the Brahms beginning in mellow vein after the riotous quicksilver of the Okura. The Okura was all 'take' whereas the Brahms was all 'give'.

Stott and Ogawa swapped pianos between each piece, which offered the audience a better opportunity to watch them play. Stott is particularly fascinating to watch as her whole body expresses the music and her very strong personality emerges. In a change to the running order, the Brahms was followed by Francis Poulenc's Sonata for Two Pianos. While the programme gave no indication of the source of motivation for this sonata, I was convinced it was telling the story of a soul being wrenched from home and family and beginning a new life in the New York of the 1950s. Obviously, I could be completely wrong.

After the interval, the two returned with the instantly recognisable and enthusiastically welcomed Variations on a theme of Paganini for two pianos by Witold Lutowslawski. The climax of the concert was Rachmaninov's Suite No. 2, which was simply fantastic. Hats off to Rachmaninov for composing something so clever. The Suite has many layers and different things going on simultaneously, and yet it all holds together perfectly. It would have been a very fine way to end the concert but Stott and Ogawa obviously realised the audience was so wound up they would have driven out of the Waterfront car park at 60mph and caused a pile-up. Stott announced they had decided to add Poulenc's Elegy, to let them, and us, calm down a bit. Apparently Poulenc suggested this piece should be played as if you were improvising it, a cigar in your mouth and a glass of Cognac on the piano. So they did and sure enough, we did all simmer down. It was a great concert, a privilege to hear two such talented musicians at the peak of their powers.

Fiona McCarney

'What an honest approach towards her piano and music Ogawa has got.'

Mostly Classic (monthly music magazine), June 2008

by Kei Yoshimura, Ongaku-no-Tomo Magazine, May 2008