Toru Takemitsu - November Steps / Olivier Messiaen - Et Exspecto Resurrectionem (1970)

Staying with the loose theme of Japan for this post and Friday's, here's a great work by Toru Takemitsu.  November Steps was composed in 1967 as a commission by the New York Philharmonic, with Takemitsu working in self-imposed seclusion with only a couple of Debussy scores as a reference point.

The result was this striking 19-minute piece in which the solo instruments are shakuhachi flute and the lute-like biwa, which take part in lengthy dialogues that fully showcase their unique resonances.  In the brief orchestral passages, these sounds are echoed in the strings.  November Steps was premiered under Seiji Ozawa in November 1967; this recording by the Concertgebouw/Haitink took place two years later, and was given an inspired pairing on LP with a great version of Messiaen's hallucinatory apocalypse, Et Exspecto Resurrectionem (see links below for a different version).  A tiny bit more Takemitsu - and lots more besides - coming on Friday.

Original Japanese LP, 1970

link
pw: sgtg

More Takemitsu at SGTG: Asterism/Requiem/Green/The Dorian Horizon
and Messiaen:
Quatre Études De Rythme
Des Canyons Aux Étoiles
Turangalîla Symphony / L'ascension
Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum (Erato recording cond. by Boulez), etc