《礼物》是钢琴家兼作曲家平林牧子的第十张录音室专辑。平林牧子生于东京，已在哥本哈根生活超过30年。继之前的三人组合专辑《美特拉》之后（该专辑灵感源自希腊西北部的同名修道院），平林牧子携手她的四重奏乐队“编织者”，共同创作了这张极具个人特色的音乐回忆录《礼物》。 平林牧子的童年时期在东京和香港度过，自幼便接受古典钢琴的训练。后来，在美国伯克利音乐学院学习期间，她发掘了自己对爵士乐的热爱。2023年，平林牧子作为一名享誉国际的知名音乐家，受邀为哈勒-萨勒的亨德尔音乐节创作音乐，这一经历让她回想起了过去的音乐时光。在她的童年时期，她的母亲每年都会作为合唱歌手参与演唱亨德尔的作品《弥赛亚》。 在这张专辑中，平林牧子引用了亨德尔的多部作品，这不仅象征着音乐跨越时代的传承，还展现了音乐变革的力量。有时，巴洛克风格的音乐本身就足以激发即兴创作的灵感。在《满潮》这首曲目中，严格的赋格段反复转向开放式结构；而《失重》则以钢琴即兴独奏拉开序幕，并汲取了亨德尔《塞尔斯》广板部分的某些主题，最终在高音区呈现出轻盈的萨克斯与钢琴合奏，犹如在夏日树荫下，乒乓球的轻盈跳跃。《黑暗与光明》从夜晚的宁静中浮现，悄悄溜进明亮的清晨；而《红》则传达了《弥赛亚》主题的强烈情感。《上游》则重新演绎了《水上音乐》的主题，旨在涤荡心灵的创伤。 亨德尔创作旋律的独特之处在于能够表达人性与情感世界，这使得他的音乐历经世代依然鲜活且意义非凡。而“编织者”四重奏——2021年丹麦音乐奖“年度爵士专辑”得主——作为一支技艺精湛且紧密合作的团体，将这一音乐旅程进一步推向高潮。在专辑的结尾曲《回响》中，“编织者”四重奏的细腻情感体现得尤为明显。这首曲目以其闪烁的模糊性，引用了亨德尔《D大调小提琴奏鸣曲》中的梦幻般行板乐章，表明《礼物》不仅是一次音乐之旅，更是一场深入心灵的精神探索，它穿梭于起源与发展、反思与投射之间的广阔空间。 Gifts marks the tenth studio album by the Tokyo-born pianist and composer Makiko, who has been based in Copenhagen for over 30 years. Following her previous trio album, Meteora, which drew inspiration from the monastic retreat of the same name in northwestern Greece, Gifts - recorded with her quartet Weavers - serves as a deeply personal musical memoir. Raised in Tokyo and Hong Kong, Makiko received classical training on the piano from an early age, before discovering her love for jazz at the Berklee College of Music in the USA. In 2023, now an internationally acclaimed musician, Makiko received a composition commission for the Handel Festival in Halle/Saale, which sparked a musical flashback. During Makiko’s childhood, her mother was involved in the annual performances of “Messiah” as a choir singer. On this album, the reference to various pieces by Handel symbolizes not only the gift of music, passed on through generations and time, but also its transformative power. Sometimes, a Baroque suspension is enough as an improvisational impulse. In “High Tide,” strict fugato approaches repeatedly veer into the open form. “Weightless” starts as a piano solo improvisation, from which the quartet extracts some motifs from Largo of “Xerxes,” culminating in a weightless ping-pong of high notes between sax and piano in the tree shade of an endless summer. “Darkness And Light” emerges from the sounds of the night and sneaks into a bright morning, while “Red” channels the intensity of Messiah’s themes. “Up River” revisits motifs from “Water Music” to cleanse lingering scars. Handel’s unique ability to write melodies that speak of humanity and emotional landscapes has kept his music relevant and alive through generations. The Weavers - winners of Jazz Album of the Year at Danish Music Awards 2021- take the journey further as an intricate, close-knit unit. The sensitivity of the quartet is perhaps most evident at the album’s conclusion: “Echoes.” This piece, with its shimmering ambiguity, references the dreamlike Larghetto from Handel’s D-major violin sonata, illustrating that Gifts is not merely a musical journey but also a spiritual exploration, navigating the spaces between origin and development, reflection and projection.