专辑文案：轮回

https://www.analekta.com/en/albums/reincarnation-schubert-messiaen-karin-kei-nagano/

这张专辑是在我18岁的时候，在我人生的一个重要转折点上构思的。那时，我还是耶鲁学院的大二学生，在有些十字路口的时候，我上了第一节建筑学的课，并深深地爱上了它。在经历了多年的表演和掌握键盘艺术之后，从头开始新的东西，感觉很不稳定。但这个过程虽然可怕，但感觉很正确。

我在建筑学方面的第一位导师是肯特-布卢姆教授，他一般被认为是美国在世的最伟大的雕塑家和设计师之一。在听说了我在音乐方面的职业后，他慷慨地把我收在他的羽翼下，开始了关于建筑和音乐中的装饰的长期对话。关于节奏、旋律和和谐如何转化为建筑结构的讨论，自然而然地将我生命中的一个篇章与下一个篇章联系在一起，感觉几乎是循环往复。从中产生了大量的灵感和重要的新观点--这些结果都反映在这张唱片中。

这张专辑中的两首作品，都是更大的循环选集的一部分，传达了结束和开始的循环概念：轮回。

舒伯特的降B大调奏鸣曲代表了他在生命消逝的时刻与死亡进行的苦乐交涉，而梅西安的《Première communion de la Vierge》则是在庆祝新生命和诞生的巨大喜悦。这两部作品由降B大调和弦连接在一起，它既是舒伯特奏鸣曲的结尾，也是梅西安作品的开端，这次用钢琴的动态和明显的内涵来标记。 舒伯特在过去的叙事和新生活的梦想之间不断摇摆不定--通过他快速的、摇摆不定的音调变化来唤起--可以说是传达了脱离人类世界的挣扎，却没有解决的感觉。 然而，在第一乐章之前创作的终曲，似乎是以自信地接受和拥抱死亡而结束的，这种活力与梅西安作品中欢乐的爆发相类似。 虽然从根本上说是一首静止的冥想曲，但《维埃里的第一交响曲》却通过高潮迭起的情节，探索了耶稣诞生和 "道成肉身 "的神圣奥秘，这些情节的特点是有节奏、有生气地重复着同样的三个和弦，梅西安说这三个和弦代表了 "上帝的主题"。 这一主题贯穿了整个作品，偶尔与鸟鸣和闪烁的灯光交织在一起，构成了对诞生和创造现象的精神观的基础。 虽然这两部作品在风格和时间上都有很大的不同，但我觉得它们共同创造了一个独特的循环和重建的叙事，这个过程深深地唤起了人类历史上的状况，包括我个人的道路。 这张专辑将舒伯特和梅西安结合在一起，意在将那些深刻而基本的人类情感展现出来，我希望听众能够认同这些情感，我们作为一个社会，能够从中找到慰藉。 如果没有伟大的大师阿尔弗雷德-布伦德尔大师、梅尔文-陈、丽塔-瓦格纳和彼得-弗兰克尔的指导，这张专辑是不可能完成的，他们卓越的艺术才华和智慧不断地激励和推动着这张作品。 我还要特别感谢我的家人儿玉玛丽、儿玉桃和长野健，感谢他们为我打开音乐艺术的大门，感谢他们坚定不移的支持、爱护和指导。 真诚的，卡琳

This album was conceived when I was 18 years old, at an important turning point in my life. Back then, as a sophomore at Yale College and at somewhat of a crossroads, I took my first class in architecture and fell deeply in love with it. After years of performing and mastering the art of the keyboard, beginning something new from scratch felt unsettling. But it was a process that, though frightening, felt right.

My first mentor in architecture was Professor Kent Bloomer, generally considered one of the greatest living American sculptors and designers. After hearing about my career in music, he generously took me under his wing to begin a long-standing conversation about ornamentation in architecture and in music. Discussions of how rhythm, melody, and harmony translate to built structures naturally brought together one chapter of my life with the next in a way that felt almost cyclical. Out of this emerged a wellspring of inspiration and important new perspectives – the results of which are reflected in this recording.

The two pieces on this album, both part of larger circular anthologies, convey the cyclical notion of end and of beginning: reincarnation.

While Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat represents a bittersweet and painful negotiation with death in a moment where his life is fading, Messiaen’s Première communion de la Vierge celebrates

the overwhelming joy of new life and birth. The two works are connected by the B-flat major chord, which both triumphantly marks the end of Schubert’s sonata and opens Messiaen’s piece, this time notated with a piano dynamic and marked intérieur.

Schubert’s constant wavering between the narrative of the past and dreams of a new life – evoked through his rapid and oscillating tonal changes – arguably conveys the struggle of detaching from the human world without a sense of resolution. Yet the finale, composed before the first movement, seems to end with a confident acceptance and embrace of death, a vigour that parallels the outbursts of joy in Messiaen’s work.

Although fundamentally a still, meditative contemplation, Première communion de la Vierge explores the divine mystery of the birth of Jesus and of “the Word made flesh” through climactic episodes characterized by rhythmic and animated repetitions of the same three chords, which Messiaen said represent the “theme of God.” This theme underpins the entire piece, occasionally interwoven with birdsong and flickering lights, and forms the basis of a spiritual outlook on the phenomenon of birth and creation.

Though the works are starkly different in style and time period, I felt that, together, they create a singular narrative of cycle and reconstruction, a process deeply evocative of the human condition throughout history, including my own personal path.

In bringing together Schubert and Messiaen, this album intends to bring to light those profound and fundamental human sentiments that I hope the listener can identify with, sentiments that we, as a society, can find solace in.

This album would not have been possible without the mentorship of great masters, Maestro Alfred Brendel, Melvin Chen, Rita Wagner, and Peter Frankl, whose exceptional artistry and wisdom have continuously inspired and fueled this work.

I would also like to give a special thanks to my family, Mari Kodama, Momo Kodama and Kent Nagano, for opening the doors to the musical arts and for their unwavering support, love and guidance.

Sincerely, Karin