Yoshika Masuda & HyeJin Kim: Hidden Flame
Avie Records

Whereas Korean-American pianist HyeJin Kim has already appeared on a number of albums, including a 2013 recording of Rachmaninoff piano concerti and her 2021 solo release Miroirs, Japanese-American cellist Yoshika Masuda is only now making his recording debut with Hidden Flame. That's somewhat surprising when his extensive background is taken into account. The Kobe-born cellist's performed around the globe, won many an award, and appeared alongside renowned artists such as Cho-Liang Lin, Alissa Margulis, Qian Zhou, and the Kronos Quartet. Masuda's also the co-founder of the SAKURA cello quintet and Darshan Trio and is currently Assistant Professor of Cello and Director of String Studies at Chapman University Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music in California.

The performances by Masuda on Hidden Flame show that all of those experiences have brought his playing to the exceptional level it now inhabits. Throughout the seventy-three-minute recording, he plays with an expressiveness and precision that exemplifies a seamless integration of emotional sensitivity and technical command. He's the beneficiary of terrific accompaniment from the Seoul-born Kim, who's established herself as a soloist and chamber musician of the first rank. Like Masuda, she's performed at some of the most prestigious venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall and the Konzerthaus in Berlin.

The centuries-spanning programme comprises works by Amy Beach, Clara Schumann, Rita Strohl, Nadia Boulanger, Maria Theresia Paradis, and Reena Esmail. Hidden Flame is not only about the music these female composers created but also implicitly about the challenges they faced, the early ones especially, in getting their music heard and seeing it validated. The playing field might not be evenly balanced yet, but it's no longer unusual for material by women composers to be performed; that wasn't always the case, however. To that end, the album title both references wonderful material struggling to be granted a public forum and the burning desire by its creators for it to be heard.

Though Hidden Flame begins with Romance, Op.23, written in 1893 by Amy Beach (1867-1944), the album's earliest work is by Clara Schumann (1819-96), whose 3 Romances, Op. 22 was created four decades earlier. Beach's both establishes the alluring romantic tone the album often gravitates to and provides a magnificent showcase for Masuda's dramatic cello and Kim's sympathetic support. The cello's capacity for vocal-like expression is often noted, and his playing sings here with an intense, open-hearted yearning that's riveting. Schumann's three-part exercise in melodic enticement perpetuates the mood of Beach's with a lyrical opening reflection and livelier second movement before passion escalates for the supplicating third.

Like many of her works, Reena Esmail's (b. 1983) one word makes a world—a world-premiere recording—is rooted in her Indian heritage; in this case, the material is based on the spring-associated Raag Basant raga, a connection that Masuda makes vividly apparent when his playing's marked by mournful ululations. Known primarily as the teacher to Glass and others, Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) has in recent years seen her gifts as a composer recognized, with Masuda and Kim doing their part in presenting 3 Pieces for cello & piano. The exquisite “Modéré” and “Sans vitesse et à l'aise” are both lyrical and haunting, “Vite et nerveusement rythmé” engaging too but for its rousing spirit. The album concludes with Sicilienne, an entrancing, single-movement piece that's attributed to blind composer and pianist Maria Theresia Paradis (1759-1824) but is believed by some to have been not only arranged but written by the twentieth-century violinist Samuel Dushkin. Its trilling lilt is, regardless, bewitching.

Towering over the others on the set is the aptly titled Great Dramatic Sonata ‘Titus et Bérénice' (1892) by the Brittany-born composer Rita Strohl (1865-1941). Nearly forty minutes in length and programmatically based on Jean Racine's 1670 work Bérénice, Strohl's piece frames two comparatively concise movements with titanic allegros lasting fourteen and eleven minutes, respectively. In simplest terms, the story concerns the intense love felt by Roman Emperor Titus for Bérénice, the Queen of Judaea who was sent away during the early days of his empire. The dynamic opening travelogue, apparently designed to represent the emperor's anguished state as he wrestles with his emotions and the decisions he must make, oscillates between moments of tenderness and turbulence as it wends its adventurous way. With the focus shifting to Bérénice, the animated second is less consumed by angst and carefree, at times radiant by comparison, the sombre third agitated in conveying her awareness that she'll be sacrificed because Titus's people won't accept a foreign queen. Filled with yearning, the passionate concluding allegro presents a final encounter between the lovers before she's banished.

Masuda's hope is that Hidden Flame will ultimately leave issues of race and gender behind and encourage listeners to recognize the compositions for the deep and well-crafted expressions they are. Certainly that's one takeaway but an equally resonant one has to do with the superb renditions of the pieces by the cellist and pianist. These intimate performances invite and warrant repeated visits.

June 2024