Motoi Kawashima was born in Okayama. After his study in Tokyo he worked in Weimar with Rolf-Dieter Arens and Lazar Berman as well as in Berlin with Elena Lapitskaja. Kawashima can already point to numerous prizes at international piano competitions, for example at the competitions "Ferruccio Busoni" in Bozen, "Alicia de Larrocha" in Andorra and "Artur Schnabel" in Berlin. The victory at the 2005 international "Franz Schubert Piano Competition" in Dortmund gave the young career an important impulse. Since then Motoi Kawashima has given concerts in many important concert halls such as Gasteig in Munich, Großer Saal at the Berlin Philharmonic, Weimar Liszt-Haus, German National Theatre in Weimar, Beiruth Assembly Hall and Suntory Hall in Tokyo.
Motoi Kawashima has already recorded three CDs, two of them on Bechstein.
Photo: © Motoi Kawashima
Motoi Kawashima plays Bach-Busoni, Schubert, and others
![Motoi Kawashima plays Bach-Busoni, Schubert, and others]()
In Japan many CDs have been recorded on C. Bechstein concert grand pianos in recent years. Among them is this excellent 2008 recording of the Japanese pianist Motoi Kawashima. Kawashima, a student of Rolf-Dieter Arens, Lazar Berman and Elena Lapitskaja, has made a name through numerous competition prizes, especially as winner of the International Franz Schubert Piano Competition in Dortmund. On this piano CD he demonstrates convincingly that he is a superior interpreter with both power and sensitivity.
Motoi Kawashima Dances on the Keys
![Motoi Kawashima Dances on the Keys]()
Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird lends its name to the second CD that Motoi Kawashima has recorded in 2010 on the Japanese label Heart’s – and on a Bechstein grand. The disk is devoted to piano pieces that have their roots in ballet music. In addition to three movements of Stravinsky’s Firebird, transcribed by Guido Agosti, the CD includes the adagio from Spartacus by Aram Khachaturian in Matthew Cameron’s transcription, five movements of Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, three dances from Manuel de Falla’s Three-Cornered Hat and the waltz from Leo Delibe’s Coppélia, arranged by Ernst von Dohnányi. Kawashima has achieved a wonderfully colourful, rhythmically varied, emotionally expressive recording.
