The music of composer
Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996) is perhaps the perfect antidote for today's overstimulated and overstressed society: endlessly circular wisps of melody, gentle string harmonics, and an intelligently slow and steady pace. Most of his fellow Japanese contemporaries, including
Akira Ifukube and Yuzo Toyama, wrote in a style much more influenced by their country's folk music.
Takemitsu, though, was perhaps the first Asian composer who was successfully able to completely bridge the gap between East and West.
This Naxos release features the
Bournemouth Symphony performing five of
Takemitsu's best works with commitment, grace, and sensitivity under music director
Marin Alsop's direction. All of the compositions featured are from varying time periods that effectively mark
Takemitsu's styles. The six-minute, haunting Solitude Sonore (1958) was composed just a year after the composer met
Stravinsky, who declared his Requiem a true work of "genius" and helped launch the young composer's career.
Alsop gives great command to many of the minute details, especially the slowly twisting and bending notes in the strings. Dreamtime (1981) is similar in style to Solitude, but somewhat more peaceful and less coherent, evocative of the uncontrolled, fragmentary nature of dreams.
Colored in a way that is more folk-like than some of the other featured works, Spirit Garden (1994) is actually derived from a twelve-note row. The shakuhachi-like woodwind embellishments are supported by raspy string harmonics and combined with luxuriant sonorities, creating an atmosphere that depicts
Takemitsu's obsession with gardens. This particular outdoor menagerie lacks much in the way of peace or tranquility, though: strong sense of inner turmoil permeates
Takemitsu's work and is vividly realized by
Alsop.
Completed at roughly the same time as Spirit Garden, the Three Film Scores is
Takemitsu's re-orchestration of a trio of his more popular film score fragments. These have a definite Hollywood influence, and the outer two movements, "Jose Torres" and "Waltz," sound as if famed Argentinean tango-master
Astor Piazzolla was looking over his shoulder.
The title piece is one of
Takemitsu's most popular works. Dating from 1977, A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden was brought about as a commission from
Edo de Waart and the
San Francisco Symphony. A play on numerology, the work is based on five different scales that have five possible transpositions.
Alsop and the
Bournemouth Symphony dive into
Takemitsu's landscape with breathtaking beauty, compassion, and shimmering detail. A terrific compilation of some of
Takemitsu's most compelling works: highly recommended.