Ryuichi Sakamoto
Playing The Piano

Ryuichi SAKAMOTO - Playing the Piano (2009)

I greatly miss Sakamoto (b. Tokyo 1952 - d. Tokyo 2023), a citizen of the world, a universal musician, a cultured and socially engaged individual, a handsome man. He often visited Italy, and it was a joy to attend his concerts. Recently, one could say he has returned to us, although now deceased, only in a "virtual" form (in the musical "Kagami," which I unfortunately missed).

Therefore, I don't want to miss the story of this album, which presents the maestro in the guise of a pure pianist, nothing else but him and the grand Steinway, caressed in his calm and Debussy-like style. The composer, soundtrack creator, occasional actor Ryuichi did not and could not have exactly the touch of a true concert pianist, which comes from daily and exclusive practice, but he had certainly undergone related orthodox studies, with diplomas to show for it, and the piano was undoubtedly the main forge from which he drew his wonderful musical ideas. The expressive capacity of this multifaceted artist in the challenging form of a piano concert is more than adequate.

Sakamoto and pop, bossanova, ambient, electronics, neo-classical... all his expressive diversification in this work gets leveled, amalgamated through the magic of his pianism, capable of transmitting in a unique form the infinite class, the nobility of the master committed to acoustically evoking extracts from his soundtracks along with pages from his youthful Yellow Magic Orchestra, both electronic pieces and pop episodes all converted here to neo-classical.

They are self-covers, after all, a kind of stripping down and then rebuilding of the titular music spread over many years and united under a common denominator, here, in the year 2009. From a different point of view, they can be considered exercises in formal regression to their original conception, definitely pianistic. These "simplified" themes for a single instrument, entirely deprived of vocal contribution, remain elevated thanks to the magnificent self-sufficiency and harmonic completeness of that musical source par excellence invented by man, that half-ton of knowledgeable woods, metals, plastics, fabrics, and paints called the piano, decidedly one of the supreme creations dedicated to delighting and enriching our existence.

Above all, to my sensitivity, stands the magnificent theme of "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence"... Never have I encountered a more prosaic title for such a high piece of music, upon reflection. And when a composition is sublime, imagine if it does not remain so even when arranged for (or brought back to) the piano alone: the delicate introduction on the high notes, the main theme with an Eastern fragrance, enriched by subsequent harmony in fourths, so "Japanese"; and then the ebb and flow of the basses, quietly mobile and unpredictable, the imaginative variation in another key in the bridge that provokes a great desire to hear the main theme again.

Exquisite music from a great man who deserved a longer life and better health.