Yesterday afternoon we had the distinct pleasure of hearing pianist Misuzu Tanaka in a brilliant recital at the Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist in Aptos. This event was presented jointly by St. John’s and the Aptos Keyboard Series, a series founded by composer-pianist Josef Sekon. Sekon has the knack of finding interesting young artists and persuading them to come and perform for intimate audiences on the series’ new Kawai 7’6” grand piano, an instrument that made its debut only a few months earlier.

Juilliard trained Tanaka had chosen a program that contained two seldom heard works by Leoš Janáček, and we are the richer for having heard them on this occasion. She performed two movements from Janáček’s Sonata No. 1 (1905), which turned out to be attractive and accessible, plus they sounded quite idiomatic for the piano. Tanaka caressed the opening motifs that established the tonal center of e-flat minor and held our attention throughout the work’s lovely melodic development tinged with moments of chromaticism. Not being familiar with traditional folk melodies from Bohemia, I was unable to relate to the specific melodic and folklore elements that inspired this work, but suffice it to say that Tanaka’s lovely sound and skill in shaping melodic elements captured our attention and held us spellbound throughout.