History of Keyboard Instruments

Below is the recording of the presentation given by Junko Kobayashi on the history of keyboard instruments:

RSVP for Zoom meeting details to u.w.c.cont.ed@gmail.com

Pianist Junko Kobayashi will describe the evolution of the modern piano from the harpsichord, through the forte piano, into the piano we play today.

And she will illustrate these developments by playing music written for the harpsichord by Bach, and for the fortepiano by Mozart and Beethoven.

The harpsichord was the dominant mobile European keyboard instrument for 350 years [think Bach!], but was radically modified by the Italian Christofori in the early eighteenth century, becoming the pianoforte [think Mozart and Beethoven!]

Junko's professional background: Junko Kobayashi was born in Japan and studied piano with Machiko Asahina and her husband Takashi Asahina, the distinguished conductor. After graduating in music at the Folkwang Universität der Künste, Germany, she studied in London with Maria Curcio, who had been a pupil of Schnabel, and with the pianist Louis Kentner, who often played with his brother-in-law, Yehudi Menuhin. She has given recitals on four continents and all over Great Britain, and has appeared with many orchestras as a soloist, including the London Philharmonic at the Royal Festival Hall, London.

She lives in London and has played numerous recitals in major recital halls. Between 2007 and 2019, she held an annual recital series in the David Josefowitz Recital Hall in the Royal Academy of Music. Her recitals were rapturously received at the Athenaeum Club in 2017, and, in 2019, at the Chopin Society of London in the Westminster Cathedral Hall, and as a part of Oxford University Alumni Event in the Holywell Music Room. Her recordings include two sets of sonatas by Beethoven, including the Appassionata and the Waldstein sonatas; and in 2017 she released a CD devoted to works by Chopin, including waltzes, nocturnes, mazurkas the Barcarolle and his great third sonata.

In 1997, Junko co-founded the Takemitsu Society of London to promote the music of the foremost Japanese composer, Toru Takemitsu and acted as chair of the Society for fifteen years.

There is a strong Japanese presence in London, and, in their book, “Anglo-Japanese Cultural Pioneers 1945-2015”, Perrin and Hoare devote a chapter to Junko. Junko is an official Steinway Artist, and an official fortepiano player at Fenton House in the National Trust. At home she plays on a modern Steinway grand piano, as well as a fortepiano built in 1821.