Jun Kanno inspires on piano

Allison Brophy Champion / Culpeper Star Exponent
Published: March 21, 2008

WOODBERRY FOREST - Parisian pianist Jun Kanno played with his usual intensity and proficiency Sunday afternoon at a concert in the arts center at this historic boarding school. He played here once before - in 2006 - and returned for an encore performance to kick off the fourth season of the Culpeper Music Society.

More than 80 people attended the show and it was certainly a cultured event prefaced with wine and treats. Kanno, who was born in Japan and performs around the world, began Sunday's program with a piece by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791).

Without saying a word and the crowd silenced, he delved into the Austrian composer's "Piano Sonata in F Major," a sonata in three movements. With Kanno at the piano, the delightful composition hinted of spring and the transition into each section sounded seamless and light.

Next on the program was a distinctive selection by Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), a French composer and "one of the leading figures of music of the 20th Century," Kanno said.
He had a reason for selecting this one.

"We are celebrating all over the world the 100th anniversary of his birth," Kanno told the Woodberry Forest audience.

Messiaen found inspiration in the Christian faith and nature, he said, before explaining the four selections he would play from Messiaen's 20-piece "Vingt Regard sur l'Enfant Jesus," translated as, "Twenty Ways of Looking at the Infant Jesus."
Kanno performed movement I "Gaze of the Father," movement II "Gaze of the star," movement IV "Gaze of the Virgin" and movement X "Gaze of the joyful Spirit."

"There are many ways of looking at the baby Jesus," he said.
Considering that, Messiane's composition, as performed by Kanno, was intentional and experimental. Unquestionably, it was modern and French-sounding. The first movement was slow, almost glum, like rain falling or the moments before falling asleep.

Movement II proved more lively before movement IV, "the Virgin," which began meekly and then turned defensive — as if Mary were guarding her son.

Kanno ended the Messiaen piece in bold fashion with a "joyful Spirit" that moved faster.

In an interview Tuesday, he talked about his connection to the French composer. In fact, Kanno knew Messiaen; they met in his native Japan in 1978, he said.

It was through this meeting that Kanno entered the Paris Conservatory of Music that same year with a scholarship from the French government.

And it was under Messiaen's wife, Yvonne Loriod, also a talented French pianist, that Kanno studied at the prestigious music school.

"For that reason, I am invited from different institutions in Paris and Japan to present some pieces of this composer," he said. "Messiaen is still what we would consider contemporary music."

Allison Brophy Champion can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 101 or at .