Following his ‘consistently impressive’ (Gramophone) traversal of Mozart’s complete Piano Sonatas for Sony Classical - winner of an Opus Klassik Award - Japanese pianist Mao Fujita presents a similarly ambitious project: matching sets of 24 Preludes by three composers, Frédéric Chopin, Alexander Scriabin and Akio Yashiro.  

In so doing, Fujita unites the Europe in which he now lives with the Japan where he was born and raised.  

Chopin’s landmark set of 24 Préludes, completed in 1839, was the first work to treat the piano prelude as a self-contained work capable of standing alone. After the model laid down in Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier, the set traverses every key from C major to D minor, alternating major tonalities with their relative minors.  

On his new album 72 Preludes, Fujita treats Chopin’s expressive yet elusive cycle as the basis for a dialogue that traverses borders and epochs. In 1884, Russian visionary Alexander Scriabin began work on his own set of 24 Preludes, directly inspired by Chopin’s. Scriabin’s pieces build on the grace and fluency of Chopin’s - also using his key scheme - while showing glimpses of the composer’s emerging radical harmonic and rhythmic character. They suggest that Scriabin, known for music on a huge scale, was an exquisite miniaturist.  

Mao Fujita - recognized increasingly for his intelligent programming as well as for his affectionate, rooted and deeply poetic playing - was keen to combine these European masterpieces with work from his homeland. In the 24 Preludes by Japanese composer Akio Yashiro, he found a perfect companion.  

Akio Yashiro was born in Tokyo and studied with Olivier Messiaen in Paris, where the two became close friends. His 24 Preludes, mapping the same cycle of keys as those by Chopin and Scriabin, date from 1945 - before the 15-year-old composer had travelled to Europe.  

The works incorporate a huge variety of moods and styles as their young composer explores varied harmonic and rhythmic devices with panache. Fujita likens the contents of his new recording to a refreshing but hearty sushi meal: ‘If the Chopin and the Scriabin are the fish and the rice, the base, the Yashiro is the wasabi - just as vital, and with that special kick to create something delicious.’  

In 1976, Yashiro died aged just 46. Fujita has since developed a friendship with the composer’s widow, who has shared stories surrounding the composer’s weekly Saturday concerts of new music and the compositional methodology of his 24 Preludes, which the composer once described as ‘the pieces in which I express myself most fully and one of the greatest pieces I ever wrote.’ Fujita consulted the original manuscripts before recording the work.  

As he consolidates his reputation as one of the world’s most distinctive pianists, Fujita sees it as his responsibility to shine a light on the culture of his homeland. ‘When I came to Europe, there were no Japanese pianists except Mitsuko [Uchida],’ the 25-year-old pianist says.  

It was only a matter of time before Fujita brought his distinctively weightless, cantabile playing style and crystalline clarity of expression to the music of Chopin. When Fujita included Chopin encores in his acclaimed Mozart Sonata series at Wigmore Hall in London, The Guardian concluded that ‘an all-Chopin programme from Fujita is now a priority.’  

Fujita says he was drawn to Chopin’s particular character of expression and believes he was ‘able to make something of this special sound; this melodic poetry and beautiful harmony.’ 

The allure of Scriabin’s 24 Preludes was no less strong. ‘These are phenomenal pieces, with things you cannot find in Chopin,’ Fujita says. ‘I fell in love with them, especially the way Scriabin uses not just tonality but also time - the atmosphere he creates in those pauses and rests.’ 

With three four-day sessions allocated to the recording, Fujita believes Sony Classical gave him the space, conditions and staff to get his recording exactly as he wanted it. ‘The studio is fantastic - the same studio we used for the Mozart - and Martin Kistner, the engineer and producer of this album is fantastic, I respect him a lot,’ says the pianist. ‘We are a good team and it was a wonderful process.’ 

‘The very model of a modern major pianist.’ Gramophone 

‘Mao Fujita’s Mozart strikes a perfect balance between clarity and elegance, the exquisite and the down to earth.’ The Guardian