Jazzed Up Classical home
Piano Espressivo II album cover

Album guide

Piano Espressivo II

Asuka Matsumoto

Released
2009
Label
King Records
Forces
Piano
Personnel
Asuka Matsumoto piano and keyboard harmonica, with Akira Jimbo drums and MATARO percussion

The second Piano Espressivo makes more space for Matsumoto’s own pieces, while returning to classical music through arrangements of Beethoven, Mozart, Handel, Schubert and Chopin. Drums and percussion add other players to a record that can still become very personal at the keyboard.

For Kapustin’s two-piano paraphrase on “Manteca”, Matsumoto recorded both piano parts herself. Near the end, she plays Liszt’s St Francis of Paola Walking on the Waves and Schumann’s Träumerei straight. Those performances belong beside the jazz-inflected arrangements: this is an album about the different ways she plays classical music, not a promise that every piece will be transformed.

Hear both

The classical side contains only the source pieces used on the album, in album order. The jazz side presents the complete album whenever a dependable copy can be embedded.

The originalsCzerny, Beethoven, Mozart, Handel, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann · classical source works

The listening queues above follow the same order. The classical player omits tracks that are not based on a classical original.

Jazzed upAsuka Matsumoto · 2009
No album playlist is available to embed here.

You can still browse the complete track listing below.

No Spotify edition is available. You can still browse the complete track listing below.

Source works

The album’s complete track listing, with each classical source identified and original compositions marked plainly.

  1. 30番エチュード第1番-ao-Czerny: 30 Études de mécanisme, Op. 849: No. 1
  2. ワルトシュタイン-Blanco-Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major, Op. 53 ‘Waldstein’: I. Allegro con brio
  3. アイネ・クライネ・ナハトムジーク-Hi-King-Mozart: Serenade No. 13 in G major, K. 525: I. Allegro
  4. 水上の音楽-Greeting-Handel: Water Music, Suite No. 2 in D major, HWV 349: Alla Hornpipe
  5. “マンテカ”2台のピアノのためのパラフレーズNon-classical source
  6. FOUL?Original composition by Asuka Matsumoto
  7. パノラマウントOriginal composition by Asuka Matsumoto
  8. さくら燈籠Original composition by Asuka Matsumoto
  9. さくら回廊Original composition by Asuka Matsumoto
  10. 魔王-Hero and Smile-Schubert: Erlkönig, D. 328
  11. エオリアン・ハープ-Mistral-Chopin: Étude in A-flat major, Op. 25 No. 1 ‘Aeolian Harp’
  12. 伝説より2番 波の上を歩くパオラの聖フランチェスコLiszt: Légende No. 2 ‘St François de Paule marchant sur les flots’, S. 175/2
  13. トロイメライSchumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15 No. 7, Träumerei