Has anyone collected any of the CDs in the Japanese Classics series of Naxos?
I have a few of the discs and find the music very well done, generally. Mind you, most of it sounds quite "western" and, if you didn't know, you'd be hard pressed to identify it as Japanese. Nevertheless what strikes me is that some of the works - the excellent Third Symphony of Saburo Moroi (1903-1977) for example - were written in the late years of the Second World War. So, in spite of the havoc raining down on their land and even though there was no way to have the works rehearsed or, of course, performed - in spite of the martial noises of the Tojo era - lyrical and meaningful music was being composed anyway. Is this another proof that music is the "language of the soul?"
Whenever I listen to these 1940s Japanese orchestral pieces I think of the times in which they were conceived and marvel at the fact that they exist at all. For this reason alone, to exhibit how human optimism and hope transcend the immediate situation, Naxos should be praised for allowing us a glimpse of the beauty emanating from the maelstrom.
Unappealing as it may appear on the surface, if you think of European classical music as a technology of sound that maps human character and psychology into timeframes, it's no wonder that the Japanese have excelled at it. Technology and psychology are their strong suits.
Quote from: chill319 on Wednesday 09 June 2010, 22:07
Unappealing as it may appear on the surface, if you think of European classical music as a technology of sound that maps human character and psychology into timeframes, it's no wonder that the Japanese have excelled at it. Technology and psychology are their strong suits.
Thank god it's not just psychology and technology that make a piece of art...
I have both CD's (there could be more, meanwhile?) by Yamada from the Naxos Japanese Classics series. Admittedly, bought because the man studied with Max Bruch. The music is boring beyond understanding. Still, I prefer his F Major 'Triumph and Peace' Symphony to anything by Takemitsu... ;D
Amen to the thought about technology vis-a-vis art. I was about to post a similar comment.
Agreed about the Yamada. Also, a listen to the "Kamikaze" Piano Concerto of Hisato Ohzawa might make one want to emulate the pilots after whom the work is titled, but Ohzawa's background is a solid one and perhaps there's more to this music than I found. Not sure.
The Hayasaka Piano Concerto, in my opinion, is very good - as is the aforementioned Moroi Symphony No.3. It's not all boring!
The Symphony in F by Yamada is one of the better works in this series. The Symphony No. 3 by Moroi is also worth trying; according to the booklet he was influenced by Bruckner and Hindemith.
On a lighter note, the Rumba Rhapsody by Mayuzumi is pleasing. There is also a Japanese Rhapsody by Ohki and a Piano Concerto by Yashiro (influenced by Prokofiev).
Of these, Moroi and Yamada deserve recognition as symphonists.
I like/love a lot of these, including the Yamada. I also have the Yashiro and the Abe disc, the first one ("Japanese Orchestral Classics" I think), trhe Ifukube (a MUST listen....it does include some Godzilla music in fact, though there's a better CD with all three suites instead of just the first), and a couple others I forget.
I don't have Ohki though, didn't like that one, and I think I bought that Rumba Rhapsody from eMusic not likeing the rest of the disc...
Digression - on the Camerata label (so not in this series, though I hope Naxos might consider recording something by him), Shin-Ichiro Ikebe's (Japanese, born 1943) symphonies are said to be very good and interesting (apologies for grammar.) I've heard one of them (I think it was symphony no. 5, "Simplex") and agree as far as that!
Eric
Spambot Alert! This time they called her Susan! ;D
I have several of the Naxos Japanese series discs and there is a lot of very attractive music there. But my favorite contemporary Japanese composer is Yoshimatsu, who has been well recorded on Chandos. His symphonies and concertos contain a great deal of exquisitely beautiful music which I recommend highly. (His guitar concertos are particular favorites although I think his saxophone concerto is the most celebrated).
Also worth listening to are the Ohzawa PCs and symphonies, the Akutagawa and Ifukube symphonies and and Hayasaka PCs.
For more esoteric listening, many of these composers have also done film music notably for Japanese anime, a great deal of which is quite attractive. Hayasaka wrote some beautiful scores for several Kurosawa films.
I also like the Mayazumi Nirvana and Mandala symphonies, which have some similarities to Takemitsu's work. The Mandala is on the Naxos series, but the Nirvana is available on and Denon recording. There are some very modern influences in some of the writing and so they may not be to everyone's liking, but they are certainly not unapproachable.
Hayasaka's Piano Concerto is a fascinating work. In two movements: the first has deep echoes of Rachmaninoff and the second, a skittering allegro along the Litolff lines - with some Japanese sounds tossed in. Love it!
The greatest melodist of all time is Japanese, and writes a lot of music that could have been performed in the late 19th century and raised not a single eyebrow. 植松 伸夫 (Uematsu Nobuo) is his name, and I seriously do consider him the greatest writer of melodies I've ever known.
Here's a fun little sample, but one with quite a few errors:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYzq0am3B4I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBK_O3kbsh0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBVndOfMg2A
And a gorgeous little string quartet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTYk5-ZLYH8
These aren't in that CD series, and I apologise for being technically off-topic, but anyone who wants to listen to very much Romantic-sounding Japanese music (not quite so modern) might want to give this a try.
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Akutagawa Orchestral Works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIoSkN4ykJ8
Kabalevsky's very long-lost brother...
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