Toru Takemitsu - Garden Rain (2005 compilation of LPs released 1973 & 1975)

Nice charity shop find by a composer I'd been wanting to hear more of.  This CD gave the first international reissue to a pair of Japanese LPs from the mid-70s, which together offer a good cross-section of the different ways Takemitsu approached composing for a variety of instruments (as well as a bit of tape music) up to that time.

The "Minatur V" album from 1975 is placed first on the CD - possibly to avoid front-loading it with the most avant-garde music - and thus starts with the calm, accessible brass ensemble piece Garden Rain (1974).  This is contrasted next with earlier writing for string octet, Le Son Calligraphé (1958-60), showing Takemitsu's blend of Japanese and European composing styles already in place, as does Hika-Elegy (1966) for piano and violin.  A solo guitar suite, Folios, brings us back up to date for the mid-70s.  Love the way the guitar's been recorded here, as well as the fine rendition by Kiyoshi Shumara.

"Minatur II", originally released in 1973, is more of an adventure in sound, first pairing an oboe and sho for Distance (1972) then a flute that is sung into, spoken/growled into etc for Voice (1971).  From the same year, Stanza II blends the sound of a harp with concrete sounds and electronic tones on tape, making for an engrossing sonic highlight of the collection.  Lastly, Eucalypts I, a 1970 commission for the Zurich Colligeum Musicum, makes striking use of the resonant properties of the harp, oboe and strings, and Eucalypts II draws out the solo parts from the main work.

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pw: sgtg

Takemitsu at SGTG:

Asterism, Requiem, Green, The Dorian Horizon

November Steps

Rain Tree Sketch

Momo Kodama - La Vallée Des Cloches (Ravel, Takemitsu & Messiaen) (2013)

Sticking with ECM and classical today for some incredible 20th century piano music, played by Osaka-born pianist Momo Kodama.  Maurice Ravel's Miroirs suite is rendered in all its tricksy, impressionistic wonder with crystal clarity, with Kodama's rendering of Une barque sur l'ocean (one of my favourite piano pieces of all time, which made me buy this album) capturing the delicacy of every lapping wave.  The other substanital work on the album is Olivier Messiaen's birdsong catalogue La Fauvette Des Jardins, evoking a garden-warbler and several other birds on a midsummer's night, and as a bridge between the two French masters Kodoma plays Rain Tree Sketch by Toru Takemitsu, chosen for its interesting similarities to the other composers.

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pw: sgtg

Ravel at SGTG:

Alborada Del Gracioso arranged for marimba duo

Takemitsu at SGTG:

Asterism, Requiem, Green, The Dorian Horizon

November Steps

Messiaen at SGTG:

Quatre Études De Rythme
Des Canyons Aux Étoiles
Turangalîla Symphony / Quatour Pour La Fin Du Temps (EMI recordings cond. by Rattle)
Turangalîla Symphony / L'ascension (Naxos recording cond. by Wit)
Et Exspecto Ressurrectionem (Philips recording cond. by Haitink)
Et Exspecto Resurrectionem (Erato recording cond. by Boulez), etc

Éclairs Sur L’Au-Delà...

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

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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

Toru Takemitsu - Asterism, Requiem, Green, The Dorian Horizon (1969)

Four stunning pieces of early Takemitsu (1930-1996), courtesy of this classic RCA release with its appropriately-hued Jasper Johns cover.  There's only been a couple of digital reissues of this album, one of which was tucked into a 'Masterworks of the 20th Century' boxset that anyone who's been with this blog since the beginning might remember me banging on about (links still up for Boulez, Extended Voices, Columbia-Princeton, and more recently Crumb and Partch).  The Toronto Symphony are superbly recorded in this brief but wonder-filled recording from 1969.

The most then-recent work is up first, a piano concerto of sorts called Asterism (1968) with a stunning crescendo that gradually builds towards the end.  This is followed by the earliest piece, Requiem (1957), a slightly more conventional but gorgeous bit of string writing that was famously played to Stravinsky by mistake whilst visiting Japan, the favourable reception launching Takemistu's international profile.  Completing the album are Green (1967), a short orchestral piece inspired by Takemitsu's admiration for Debussy's music, and The Dorian Horizon (1966) for 17 strings in two groups contrasting harmony and dissonance, with eerie pizzicato and glissandi.

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