CD review: Fuzjko Hemming

Fuzjko Hemming: "Selections by Scarlatti, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and Debussy" (Domo)

This is as much a warning as it is a review: Fuzjko Hemming, who has sold millions of CDs in Japan, is making concerted inroads into the U.S. market -- with recordings (available at Amazon.com) and performances, most recently at Lincoln Center in New York. Once a promising student of Shura Cherkassky, Hemming overcame a significant hearing loss to launch her late-in-life career. Now in her 70s, she is plagued by faulty piano technique, has acquired curious stage eccentricities (disheveled hair, odd clothes) and often sounds like an artist in decline. This disc appears to be a compilation of her better performances. In works that are well within her technical reach, there's a depth of relationship with the music: Her Chopin has an enveloping warmth, and Scarlatti's Sonata in E Major (Kk. 380) is radically and convincingly re-imagined. So there's something special here -- although in labored, intermittent form.