"Kamei Seiya Piano Recital Supported by MUFG Wealth Management" to be held!

The "Kamei Seiya Piano Recital" will be held on September 3rd, 8th, and 9th, 2025. We look forward to your attendance.

Seiya Kamei Piano Recital

September 3, 2025 (Wednesday) Aichi: Aichi Prefectural Arts Theatre Concert Hall
September 8, 2025 (Monday), Osaka: The Symphony Hall
September 9, 2025 (Tuesday) Kanagawa: Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall Main Hall

Scheduled Repertoire
Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit
Muraille: Belle des Farewells, Les Smiles - Memoirs of Olivier Messiaen
Liszt: Paganini's Grande Etude "La Campanella"
Ana Sokolowicz: Two Studies for Piano
Berg: Piano Sonata Op. 1
Toshio Hosokawa: "Haiku" - for Pierre Boulez
Bellini-Liszt: "Recollections of Norma"
and more

GREETING

Thank you very much indeed for coming today.
I am delighted to announce that I was awarded fifth prize at the Queen Elisabeth International Competition, held this May 2025.

The days leading up to the competition were far from easy.
The ideal music flowing through my mind, the emotions and subtle feelings welling up in each moment, the state of every muscle in my body, and all the knowledge and experience I had accumulated over the years – unless all these elements converged at their absolute peak, the finest music could not be born. At times, I nearly lost sight of my own style and encountered various obstacles. Yet, it was a competition where I pursued the music I believed in without regret, challenging myself with my entire being.

This triumphant concert has been organised out of a desire to share this programme, honed over several years, directly with all those in Japan who have supported me.

The Queen Elisabeth International Competition demands an immense repertoire throughout its stages: video screening, preliminary round, semi-final, and final. The preliminary round required four études alongside Beethoven and a free-choice piece. The semi-final demanded a concerto, a commissioned work, and two distinct solo programmes.

However, the actual pieces to be performed are not revealed until just before the performance. Only two of the four études from the first round and only one of the two solo programmes from the semi-finals can be selected. This means that no matter how much time and passion are poured into preparing a piece, some works inevitably remain unperformed on stage.

Therefore, today's recital features both programmes I prepared for the semi-finals. The first half presents the programme I was unable to perform in the competition, while the second half features the programme I actually performed.

Centred around long-studied works like “Gaspard de la Nuit” and “Reminiscences de Norma”, I have constructed my own artistic vision by combining them with contemporary pieces by composers such as Tristan Murail and Toshio Hosokawa.

Through these works, I hope we can share a moment, experiencing something of a mysterious communion.

Please surrender yourselves to the excellent acoustics of this hall and enjoy the worlds of these distinctive pieces.

Masaya Kamei

Queen Elisabeth Competition
Masaya Kamei
PIANO 2025: Fifth Prize
Year of birth: 2001

https://queenelisabethcompetition.be/en/laureates/masaya-kamei/5718/

Masaya Kamei Recital

https://ameblo.jp/bacharuka913/entry-12928657979.html

Seiya Kamei talks about the competition and the future

https://ebravo.jp/archives/192493

Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit / Seiya Kamei

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg7sBvYMt04&list=RDzg7sBvYMt04&start_radio=1

Gaspard de la Nuit (Ravel)

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%9C%E3%81%AE%E3%82%AC%E3%82%B9%E3%83%91%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB_(%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B4%E3%82%A7%E3%83%AB)

overview
In 1908 , Ravel was inspired by three poems from Bertrand's collection of poems: "Ondine," "Scarbo" (the one of the two poems of the same name included in Fragments), and "The Gallows" (also included in Fragments), and composed a suite of three piano solo pieces inspired by these poems.

1st song " Ondine "
It is in C sharp major , Lent (gentle), and 4/4 time. Some consider it part of Ravel's "Water" trilogy, along with " Jeux d'eau " and "Boat on the Sea" (" Mirror "). It is a difficult piece, with intricate and detailed arpeggios intertwining from beginning to end. It is in sonata form and is said to be faithfully based on the content of a poem ( Undine , a water spirit who falls in love with a human man , confesses her love and asks him to marry her and become the king of the lake. When he refuses, Ondine cries in frustration for a while, but then bursts into loud laughter and disappears in the heavy rain).

No. 2 "The Gallows" ( Le gibet )
The piece is in E-flat minor , Tres lent (very slowly), and in 4/4 time. The B-flat octave rings ominously throughout, like a funeral bell . The extremely slow, somber tempo remains constant, but the time signature changes rapidly (perhaps in keeping with the poem's theme, in which the sounds of the wind, the sobs of the dead, or goldbugs plucking the blood-dripping hair from their skulls are heard). The result is a gloomy, opaque atmosphere. It is said that Viñes, the first performer, found the piece boring, which displeased Ravel.

3rd piece " Scarbo "
It is in G sharp minor , Vif (fast), and 3/8 time. The rapid passages, dynamic changes, and eerie melody portray a free-flying imp. The rapid succession of notes and complex fingering with arpeggios make this piece extremely challenging. It is based on Liszt 's Mephisto Waltz No. 1.

Ravel said that the third piece required a performance technique that surpassed even Balakirev 's Islamey , which was considered the most difficult piece of the time .

From music to literature: Bertrand's “Gaspard de la Nuit”

https://udct.co.jp/little-press/music-to-literature-gaspard-de-la-nuit/

1)
Ondine

Listen, listen
It is I, Ondine
At the window where gentle moonlight streams
Upon the moonlit stained glass
Tapping softly like the night dew

I am the one
Enveloped in white silk-like spray
Ruling the tranquil lake that mirrors the beautiful starry sky
The water maiden

The restless waves are water sprites
Every stream is a path to my palace
My palace lies
Between fire, earth and wind
A secret hidden in the lake's depths

Listen, listen
My father commands the waters with a hazel rod
My sisters, white waves
Gently enfold the green islet
Where water lilies and gladioli bloom
Teasing the old willow
Who hangs his branches like a fisherman

Then Ondine offered her ring
To me, that I might become her husband
And reign as lake king in her water palace

But I confessed
My love for a mortal maiden
Whose life is finite
Ondine
Shed resentful tears, I thought
Then showered me with scorn
And returned
To the water
The spray she raised
Left white traces on the blue glass

2)
The Gallows (LE GIBET)

Is this the north wind howling in the night's gloom?
Or the sigh of the hanged sinner?

Or perhaps, hidden beneath moss and withered vines
Gently covering the gallows' base,
A cricket chirping?

The buzzing of flies seeking prey
Near the dead man's ear?

Or beetles clinging to the skull,
entangled in blood-stained hair?

Or a spider weaving a pure white scarf
around the strangled neck?

From distant ramparts, the tolling of bells resounded,
and the sinner's lifeless form
swayed gently
in the setting sun.

3)
SCARBO

Time and again I have seen him, Scarbo
On nights when the moon shines like a silver crest
Upon a pitch-black banner embroidered with golden bees

Time and again I have heard him
In the shadows of the walls, his mocking voice
The sound of claws scraping at the bed curtains

I have seen him
him glide down from the ceiling
like a witch's spindle,
spinning on one leg,
dancing round the room.

Where did he vanish to?
Suddenly, the sinister imp stood between the moon and me
like a Gothic bell tower.
Golden bells swayed from his pointed cap.

Yet soon its body turned ashen pale
Like an eerie candle
Its head, like a burnt-out candle
Melted and flowed away
Then grew cold and still

"Casta diva" Norma, V. Bellini - Maria Callas (with score!)1080p HD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tju3cnPQ-ew&list=RDtju3cnPQ-ew&start_radio=1

Opera Norma (1831, composed by Vincenzo Bellini)

https://opera-synopsis.sakura.ne.jp/norma.html

A Gallic priestess, Norma, secretly has children with the Roman governor Pollione, who later falls in love with another woman, Adalgisa. Betrayed, Norma first thinks of revenge, but cannot harm her children. She confesses her own guilt before her people, choosing death by fire. Moved, Pollione regrets his actions and joins her in sacrifice.