Masabumi Kikuchi, Hanamichi–The Final Studio Recording | The Vinyl Anachronist

The final studio recording from Japanese pianist Masabumi Kikuchi, Hanamichi, is the second in a series of piano recordings I’ve received over the last couple of weeks that combine adventurous playing with stunning sound quality. (The first, Gregg Karukas’ deeply romantic Serenata, appeared earlier this week.) I’ve mentioned this recording in a couple of recent hardware reviews, especially the comparison between the new and old Bryston 4Bs, because it’s such a delicate and spacious recording. This is an intimate performance, an artist fused with his instrument and acting as one, and it served as a perfect tool for evaluating those subtle differences. Masabumi Kikuchi recorded this at Klavierhaus in New York City in December 2013, and he passed away in July of 2015 at the age of 75. He once told the New York Times, “I don’t have any technique,” although he did have plenty of stylistic idiosyncrasies that remind me of Glenn Gould–the hunched posture, the impulsive vocalizations (which are most subtle than Gould or Keith Jarrett), the way he let his hands drop under the front of the keyboard so his fingers could wander in a crab crawl. Despite these unorthodox techniques, and they are techniques, he still […]