The Duke of Pianeet (Yui Morishita)

[orangesodaking]

Anybody else here familiar with this pianist? It seems that he's most known on the internet as a specialist of Alkan, as well as a composer and arranger of Japanese anime music. His technique is so good that it's almost sickening to watch, but it's never the focus of his playing - he is very good with phrasing, voicing, variety of tone and color, and understand of structure. Here are some of his performances, if you're interested.

A classical-pop crossover, a virtuoso transcription of a Japanese pop song. Check out 6:31 to the end especially.

A 20-minute fantasy based on the soundtrack of an anime mini-series, many parts sound like Liszt.

A cool video of him playing the first movement of Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto, and virtually recording all the orchestral instruments himself.

Alkan's "Le Vent." I'd say he practiced his chromatic scales properly!

A shorter work that sounds a little like Kapustin to me (after the introduction)

He wrote a massive these on Alkan, as well as made Japanese editions of his music. Anybody familiar with him? What are your thoughts?

[j_menz]

That La Vent was stunning!

The arrangements are excellent (not really my genre, but nonetheless they transcend that).

I'm amazed to say I hadn't heard of him. Thanks for correcting that.

[orangesodaking]

According to some of my friends from Japan, he's quite well-known and prolific there as a performer and researcher (he specializes in the music of Alkan, and has made Japanese editions of many of his pieces).

According to one of my friends, he started anonymously uploading supervirtuoso arrangements of Japanese anime music onto a Japanese video sharing site, and they became incredibly popular instantly. He eventually went by the name "The Duke of Pianeet" and kept playing along, telling people he was just an amateur, but eventually people figured out that he is Yui Morishita.

[stoat_king]

Wow. Especially like the first one.
I'm guessing he must drink quite a lot of coffee.

Slightly disappointed that the backing for the Rachmaninoff Concerto can be a bit loud - Its hard to hear the piano in some places.

Thanks for posting. Most interesting.