Akiko Suwanai

The commercial world has usually been unkind to top-class musicians. In the old days, there were only a handful of recording companies, so if you were not one of the chosen few, you languished in all-but obscurity with your violin, piano, or whatever. Fast-forward to the twenty-first century, and there are many, many more recording companies around, plus media such as YouTube but most are small and usually national in their base. Most unfortunate were those who sprang to fame in the 1970s, 80s and 90s with contracts with the big recording companies; the big companies suddenly vanished, hoovered up into big international conglomerates like Warner Music or Universal Music. Some artists with a well-known brand live on, so we can still find Brand Furtwängler, Brand Menuhin, Brand Rubinstein, etc. But many other artists just disappeared from view, their recordings no longer available, the copyright in them still to run for 30 years or so, which means that specialist re-issue companies cannot prolong the artists' lives.

One such seems to be Akiko Suwanai, a superb violinist whose recordings I have always enjoyed and treasured. I only heard her once in person (playing the Bartok violin concerto in Washington in 2001) but my eight or nine CDs of her are never far away for long. She is notable for a superb technique and a welcome absence of showmanship, as well as for a thoroughly musical attitude to what she is playing. Alas, Brand Akiko recorded for Philips – it probably seemed a great idea at the time – which was swallowed by Universal which is owned, I think, by a French water company. Hopefully the water company will re-discover her one day and her top-notch recordings will begin to be available again. A pity Akiko did not begin her recording life with companies such as Naxos or Hyperion, who appear to work on long time scales and to take long-term views of artists and repertoire.