Until the launch of Deutsche Grammophon's Echo 20 21 series, many to most of the excellent recordings of contemporary music the esteemed German label made from the 1950s through the 1970s had gone AWOL from the active catalog. That Deutsche Grammophon had anything to offer in terms of Takemitsu may come as a surprise to some, so long has it been since this material has been available. Yet A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden is the fourth Takemitsu release on Echo 20 21 since the inception of the imprint in 1998, more discs than for any composer in the series. A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden features
Seiji Ozawa's 1977 and 1978 recordings of Quatrain and the popular title work with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra, both then premieres.
Takemitsu's adherents will want this automatically, and yet there are other reasons to love Deutsche Grammophon's A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden. These excellent orchestral performances come not only as a revelation to the benefit of Takemitsu, but also for
Ozawa, as well. At about the time he stepped down as director of the
Boston Symphony, critics were blaming
Ozawa for practically everything up to and including bad weather in Boston. Yet he had outstanding abilities in such music, and although other recordings of A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden have come along since, none has been nearly as good as this one, and features the outstanding chamber group
Tashi.
The filler is a surprise -- rare recordings of Takemitsu's early chamber music made for Polydor's Japanese affiliate in 1969. These pieces; Stanza I, Sacrifice, Ring, and Valeria, possess a "keeping up with the Joneses" quality in terms of demonstrating solidarity with the hyper-serialist trends then current in Darmstadt. Though even as Valeria strongly recalls the early music of
Boulez, there are parts that are more reminiscent of Takemitsu's film music of that time. Additionally, it is a delight to hear the young
Keiko Abe, playing vibes this time, and
Yuji Takahashi playing an acetone organ of the kind popularized in Italian films of the early '60s.