Toru Takemitsu: How Slow the Wind, etc (2001)
Christian Lindberg (trombone); Kioi Sinfonietta, Tokyo; Tadaaki Otaka, conductor
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 254 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 174 Mb | Scans included
Genre: Classical | Label: BIS | # BIS-CD-301078 | Time: 01:11:37
Christian Lindberg (trombone); Kioi Sinfonietta, Tokyo; Tadaaki Otaka, conductor
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 254 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 174 Mb | Scans included
Genre: Classical | Label: BIS | # BIS-CD-301078 | Time: 01:11:37
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.