Christian Lindberg, Kioi Sinfonietta Tokyo, Tadaaki Otaka - Toru Takemitsu: How Slow the Wind, etc (2001)

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Christian Lindberg, Kioi Sinfonietta Tokyo, Tadaaki Otaka - Toru Takemitsu: How Slow the Wind, etc (2001)

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It is rare to find a disc as creatively programmed as this BIS release. Enhanced by lovely performances, played with great devotion to the memory of the recently-deceased Japanese master, the repertoire was chosen by conductor Tadaaki Otaka and producer Robert Suff, who organized it not only in the most effective succesion, but in a manner that illustrates the works’ individual meaning and illuminates Takemitsu’s career.

All but one of the compositions are from Takemitsu’s late period. The other, the Requiem for Strings, is one of the earliest works to win him fame. Fantasma/Cantos II, for trombone and orchestra, is among the last Takemitsu compositions. Both it and the Requiem provide considerably more forward harmonic motion than the other four works, which are in Takemitsu’s typical “Japanese garden” meditative style, a kind of revival of French impressionism using harmonies that are more like Messiaen’s than Debussy’s.

Christian Lindberg is well known to fans of the BIS label as one of the greatest masters of the trombone, seemingly undaunted by any challenge. He also is a musician of wide interests who has recorded all sorts of music for that instrument. Although his part in Fantasma/Cantos II no doubt is quite difficult, it is not written to make a virtuoso effect, and Lindberg shows that the loudest instrument in the orchestra is capable of unexpectedly subtle, gentle singing. And when Takemitsu permits loud sounds, Lindberg stays within the composer’s undemonstrative aesthetic.

The nearest conducting competitor Otaka has in this music is Oliver Knussen, who has recorded four of these pieces for Virgin Classics and Deutsche Grammophon. Otaka gets the nod by banishing (except in Requiem, where it belongs) the hard-edged modernist feeling that slightly impairs Knussen’s accounts.

The Kioi Sinfonietta of Tokyo is a select group of top-flight Japanese orchestral players plus some of their most talented younger counterparts. In this age where “training orchestras” frequently are first-rate ensembles, the Kioi sounds like an experienced group of long-term pros. Woodwind soloists beautifully play the short melody fragments that are so common in the descriptive pieces, and the whole ensemble seems to float effortlessly into Takemitsu’s trademark meditative mood. The most lovely piece is How slow the wind, which has a gorgeous six-note melody. Tree Line, a more austere and static piece depicting a row of acacia trees near Takemitsu’s studio, is impressively dark and mysterious.

In his own field Takemitsu was as important an artist as Kurosawa was in Japanese cinema. This disc is an excellent demonstration of the reason why, and is highly recommended to those who already understand this, but especially to those who have not yet realized it.

Review by Joseph Stevenson, ClassicsToday.com

It has been said (and written) many times that Toru Takemitsu is something of a latter day impressionist. Almost all the works on this disc, most of which are from his real maturity, bear out this statement; they are abundantly rich in colour and exotic atmosphere, with the orchestral palette used with the utmost refinement and subtlety. It could be said that Takemitsu goes even further, exploring distant horizons with a sensuousness rarely heard in any other composer.

The one work which does not quite fit that category is the one which in many ways put him on the map, the frequently performed Requiem for Strings. The composer was only 26 when he penned this early masterpiece but was already living with serious illness, and the ever-present shadow of death haunts its seemingly severe polyphonic lines. Stravinsky was a great admirer of this piece, which possibly accounts for its subsequent popularity, and it’s easy to hear why; it has a rigorous formal structure but a directness of utterance and real communicative spirit that must have made the great man aware of a genuinely original talent.

The rest of this excellent disc focuses on works from the last decade or so of the composer’s life, and are more readily recognisable as ‘Takemitsu’. The titles betray this, as they tend to be ‘landscapes in sound’, beautifully penned evocations of the gardens and natural beauty with which the composer had surrounded himself. Most have been recorded more than once, but one can feel a genuine hint of ‘authenticity’ here, with the all-Japanese forces superbly conveying scores that are awash with exotically harmonized textures. All of them are entirely memorable, but my favourite is probably How Slow the Wind from 1991. Takemitsu wrote at the time ‘I had the impression of a milk-white light shining pale in the midst of darkness; the appearance of nature’s great gentle change, or the delicate look of the poet at the infinite’. This short phrase could sum up the composer’s ethos, and it is a work of extraordinary beauty and timbral warmth – turn out the lights and be transported!

No praise can be too high for the quality of performances and recording. Details really matter in this music, and one has here a perfectly judged aural experience, with balance and stage ‘picture’ spot on. Booklet notes are detailed and knowledgeable. An exemplary issue.

Review by Tony Haywood, MusicWeb-International.com

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Christian Lindberg, Kioi Sinfonietta Tokyo, Tadaaki Otaka - Toru Takemitsu: How Slow the Wind, etc (2001)

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×

Christian Lindberg, Kioi Sinfonietta Tokyo, Tadaaki Otaka - Toru Takemitsu: How Slow the Wind, etc (2001)

Close

×

Christian Lindberg, Kioi Sinfonietta Tokyo, Tadaaki Otaka - Toru Takemitsu: How Slow the Wind, etc (2001)

Close

×

Christian Lindberg, Kioi Sinfonietta Tokyo, Tadaaki Otaka - Toru Takemitsu: How Slow the Wind, etc (2001)

Close