Brighton Year-Round 2026
Fumi Otsuki and Gisela Meyer Violin and Piano Recital St Nicholas Church, Brighton
Fumi Otsuki and Gisela Meyer
Genre: Live Music, Music
Venue: St Nicholas Church, Dyke Road, Brighton
Festival: Brighton Year-Round
Low Down
Violinist Fumi Otsuki returns to St Nicholas after some years with pianist Gisela Meyer to perform spring-like mainly late romantic works. After study in Tokyo Otsuki moved to the UK studying at the Royal Academy of Music and then Trinity College both in London. Meyer moved to London after studying at Frankfurt and Weimar, studying at the Guildhall.
Fumi Otsuki has certainly developed considerably since his debut here, and is taking in exciting and much less well-known repertoire
Review
Violinist Fumi Otsuki returns to St Nicholas after some years with pianist Gisela Meyer to perform spring-like mainly late romantic works. After study in Tokyo Otsuki moved to the UK studying at the Royal Academy of Music and then Trinity College both in London. Meyer moved to London after studying at Frankfurt and Weimar, studying at the Guildhall. Possibly because of the change of pianist, perhaps (from the one scheduled two months back), the William Alwyn work was dropped. A pity, but we have a contemporary of his instead.
They start with the second and third movements of Swedish composer Wilhelm Stenhammar’s Violin Sonata Op 19, written 1899-1900. I wish they had played it entire. Stenhammar (1871-1927), overshadowed by once-forgotten Franz Berwald (1796-1868) and the hits by his contemporary Hugo Alfven (1872-1960) is a truly substantial composer: Sweden’s finest after Berwald. His two completed symphonies (especially the second in G minor Op 34, worth seeking out) his two piano concertos, orchestral music and above all six string quarters show why Nielsen and Sibelius counted him as one of their trinity. Overwork particularly as a heroic conductor meant he wrote little after The Song in 1921 and he died at 56.
His relatively early Violin Sonata is deliberately intimate, avoiding virtuosity for its own sake: attractive in its plaintive slow movement which is still bright eyed. The emphasis is on a silvery thread of melody. It’s certainly turn-of-the-century in its modulations. More impressive is the finale with its insistent ostinato rhythms and fine slightly folksy finale – not something so often encountered in Stenhammar. Meyer is impressive here and in its movement the piano, Stenhamnar’s own instrument, dominates; but lets the violin have the best of the singing. Which Otsuki revels in in a final flourish.
Massenet’s ‘Meditation’ from his 1894 opera Thais must have inspired Chausson’s even finer Poeme. Sentimental in theme (the awakening conscience always aimed at young women enjoying sex or abandon) is matched by a corresponding melody. Too good for schmaltz it’s certainly sentimental but lovely here. Otsuki is at his best in soaring singing times such as this.
Otsuki is a composer himself and his Sonatina No.2 based on the Londonderry Air is fascinating. Meyer deploys another ostinato rhythm that plays with a touch of minimalism for just three bars before veering off into quotation of the Air itself. It’s a thoroughly sharp-witted and open-eyed neo-classical composition. At first anyway. Whilst Otsuki plays the melody he gives the most interesting melodies to Meyer’s piano part: generous and far-sighted since it allows a lot more invention we can hear straight out. The breaks in rhythm and sudden veers remind me of the wit of several contemporary composers Otsuki might have noted. Outbursts in the piano with its quirky menacing ostinato are absorbing.
And then what sounds almost like Schoenberg from his Opp 19 and 23 middle period pre-12-tone phase is outlined in the piano. It’s curious. Not a strict set of variations but another movement almost. We’ve moved from mid-century neo-classicism with a few modern curlicues to c. 1920 atonality just prior to 12-tone. Or even as thoroughgoing 12-tone revived in the 1950s. It’s blissfully disconcerting and here the piano is almost alone. A subsequent movement keep this up. I’m not sure if it’s a unified vision but I’m hooked by this sideslip. It ends abruptly and wittily, like a Haydn joke. I’d like to hear a lot more of Otsuki the composer.
Bartok’s Rumanian Folk Dance No 1 Sz. 56 from 1915 is most often played with the rest of the set. This is the most famous; straight out of Otsuki’s own piece it arises naturally and one night almost say gratefully, as tuneful in Bartok’s folk vein. With tricky pizzicato yet downright melodic sturdiness this is a satisfying forthright reading with Meyer enjoying the earthy piano part.
Lennox Berkeley (1903-89) close friend of Britten and father of composer Michael Berkeley, has had a few songs revived here recently and it’s very good to have his Elegy Op 30-2 from 1950, written for Frederick Grinke. As with much Berkeley it insinuates what’s been described as an emotionally resonant melody, which lies exposed and perilously high in the violin. Bittersweet as Berkeley is, his studies with Nadia Boulanger lent him a classical containment and natural affinity with French 20th century music. Meyer here is discreet, shading chimes and chords . It ends more fully romantic, like a declaration.
Rachmaninov’s Vocalise Op 34-14 from 1915 (like the very different Bartok) is another showstopper like the Massenet. And similarly rapt. With the gentle shining piano chords supporting a classic (but not classical) Rachmaninov melody, this song of yearning and perhaps hopeless desire is the composer’s best known encore, in various guises. Otsuki is persuasive and plays with restraint and tonal sensitivity. Meyer is sovereign as a pianist here and throughout.
An encore was begged. Again the Berkeley. This searching piece calls for a slow conversation between soloists that goes skew and wayward, particularly in the deliciously tangy piano part. It emerges more when you hear it again. Meyer delights in offbeats subverting the regular best. Otsuki decorates and finds the core melody that floats overhead.
Otsuki has certainly developed considerably since his debut here, and is taking in exciting and much less well-known repertoire. And flexing his compositional muscles: which I hope to hear far more of.
