The album Wonder is more than a collection - it is a musical journey, bringing together the most treasured songs from six Invisible Hands Music releases that have touched hearts worldwide. Invisible Hands Music is proud to have enjoyed a dynamic and enduring partnership with Libera, spanning six acclaimed studio albums distributed across more than 200 territories. Each song on Wonder embodies the passion, artistry, and collaboration that have driven remarkable achievements - from multiple No.1 chart positions to "Album of the Week" features in major markets including the UK, Japan, and the USA. This definitive collection not only celebrates Libera's most beloved recordings but also introduces a brand-new interpretation of Panis Angelicus, offering both long-time fans and new listeners something truly special.
The Pacific Quintet have gone beyond the standard classical repertoire and have selected pieces that represent their diversity. Its musicians were born and raised all over the globe — Japan, Honduras, South Korea, Germany, and Ukraine/Turkey — and here present music from their home countries, transcending all differences of culture, language, and tradition. Two pieces, one by the Honduran composer Jorge Santos and the other by the South Korean female composer Soeui Lee, were commissioned especially for this album, which also includes Fazil Say’s quintet Alevi dedeler raki masasinda and a medley of Japanese folk songs; Hanns Eisler’s Divertimento represents Germany, the Pacific Quintet’s home base. The album ends with an arrangement of music from West Side Story and pays homage to Leonard Bernstein, the founder of the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo where the players first met. As this project shows, they are truly United in music.
Takillacta: Music of the People. It dates back to the mid-eighties, when I was a newcomer to New York City. One day I was walking down through Soho and heard music that was familiar, but with a distinctive flavor in the sound. It turned out to be some of my future bandmates playing on the street. What I was hearing was a new way of expressing the folklore of our latitudes: Andean highlands and valleys; Patagonia; South American pampas; and the Tateyama Mountains of Japan. We, the members of Takillacta, come from different countries and musical backgrounds: Perú, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, and Japan. Beneath the sound of our music are the life stories and traditions brought by each of us from those distinct places. This project is a reflection of those backgrounds and the folklore carried in each of us, the memories of which have nurtured us through our years of living in New York, the city where you can't escape blending with so many people and cultures. This album is dedicated to the native people of the Americas, and to artists and poets of all backgrounds who embrace tradition while letting it grow into new forms.
This title is part of GRP's new Chessmates series, which culls from Chess, Argo, Cadet, Coral, Dot, Decca and associated label analog source materials from the '50s and '60s. Each release (remastered with 20-bit supermapping technology) was produced for reissue in Japan. Incorporating some of the best loved and best selling artists of all time, these Sound Buy CDs feature original cover art and liner notes.
Hiromi's latest album, Silver Lining Suite pairs her virtuosic and emotive piano with a string quartet assembled by violinist Tatsuo Nishie, concertmaster of the New Japan Philharmonic. Devised for a series of live-streamed concerts at the Blue Note Tokyo during the Covid pandemic, the results blur the lines between classical music and jazz, crafting a vibrant hybrid possessed of the fervent, rock-inspired energy and cinematic beauty that Hiromi has always instilled in her music.
Digitally remastered edition of Dee Dee's debut album. Recorded in Tokyo in 1974, the album was originally released exclusively in Japan via two different Japanese labels. Afro Blue features an exquisite collaboration of American and Japanese musicians, such as Cecil and Ron Bridgewater, Motohiko Hino and producer Takao Ishizuka. The result is a sublime deep soul-jazz masterpiece with timeless versions of 'People Make The World Go Round', 'Love From The Sun', and 'Afro Blue'. It is arguably one of the finest albums in it's genre. This record has long been a sought-after item for DJs and collectors alike, so we are delighted to finally make this wonderful music from an understated great available to all.
*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***
Wanda Landowska's reputation as a harpsichordist obscures her considerable achievements as a pianist, especially in regard to these extraordinary Mozart recordings, made at her Lakeville, Connecticut home in 1956. The sound is on the dry side, and Landowska's reposeful, intimately scaled readings rarely exceed mezzo-forte. Yet her seemingly infinite gradations of shading and touch, her immaculate control and timing, plus her well-considered and expressive embellishments (try the K. 333 sonata first movement's exposition for a few elaborate surprises) add up to a master class in style from which many of today's historic-minded interpreters can learn and benefit.
A singing impulse consistently governs Landowska's liquid trills, proportioned rubatos, and finely tuned balances between the hands that ensure no dead spots. She arpeggiates chords with the utmost specificity, abetted by a masterful and sophisticated finger legato technique. As a result, she employs the sustain pedal sparingly and tellingly. Although these performances were reissued on CD only by RCA Japan, they now gain a welcome lease on life courtesy of Arkivmusic.com's "on demand" reprint program. Notes are in Japanese only.
Stradivarius is pleased to present the new album by Aurora Avveduto, a young pianist who has enriched her training by participating, among other things, in various masterclasses and seminars with composers and performers of today's music. Entitled Stille, the CD invites you on a journey that intertwines music from different sources (Japan, China, the United States, Italy) brought together around the theme of the Far East and the images of permanence that derive from it, with pieces that investigate the theme of time and suggest moments of reflection in a delicate dimension of suspension. The CD, which opens with China Gates by John Adams, a composer of the second generation of minimal music, is configured as a concept album centered on a certain vision of music and the world that has roots in the Far East but which then also touches the cultures of other countries. After the songs by Toru Takemitsu Rain Tree Sketch and Rain Tree Sketch II, from 1982 and 1992 respectively, and after Eight Memories in Watercolor (1978-1979) by the Chinese composer Tan Dun, born in 1957, the album closes with two compositions by two Italian authors, Pioggia d'autunno by Federico Maria Sardelli, a multifaceted musician, painter and writer, and Stille by Giorgio Colombo Taccani, a song from 2022 that gives the title to the entire CD, for a singular listening path that creates bridges and links between the cultures of different countries.
With stunning accounts of Brahms and Mahler, this recording marks an exciting, new relationship between ICA Classics and the SWR in Stuttgart, and it is the first release of this material outside Japan. 'Klaus Tennstedt's concerts with the LPO at the Festival Hall were among the greatest performances I have ever heard' (Sunday Times review of ICAC 5033, Mahler: Symphony No.3)
Japanese Classics - Takemitsu: Piano Music / Fukuma
Naxos
CD
$19.99Sep 25, 2007
TAKEMITSU Romance. Lento in due movimenti. Uninterupted Rest. Piano Distance. For Away. Les yeus clos. Les yeux clos II. Rain Tree Sketch. Rain Tree Sketch II. Piano Pieces for Children. Litany • Kotaro Fukuma (pn) • NAXOS 8.570261 (63:57)
Kotaro Fukuma (b. 1982) received high praise from Susan Kagan in Fanfare 29:2 for a program of Robert Schumann’s works; she called his technique “dazzling” and opined that his version of the Fantasiestücke “leaves nothing to be desired.” The piano music of Toru Takemitsu would seem to require a total reconsideration of touch and temperament, but Fukuma rises to the challenge. He’s certainly capable of phrasing with delicacy, as the opening of Les yeux clos II reveals, with the addition of a biting modernity to the gestures of Piano Distance and a sharp, pointed attack in Uninterrupted Rest. Even so, he continually highlights the lyrical nature of the music, not by emphasizing its flowing qualities, as does Kumi Ogano (Philips—see Fanfare 16:3), or its contemplative breadth, per Roger Woodward (Etcetera), but through a thoughtful balance of dramatic detail and atmospheric resonance. And though his Litany may lack the warmth and sensitivity of that of Peter Serkin (RCA—see Fanfare 20:3), it reinforces Takemitsu’s connection with Debussy.
Another advantage to this disc is its completeness—which is not to say it is complete. Fukuma omits realizations of Takemitsu’s two graphic scores, Corona and Crossing, as does everyone else except for Woodward, who’s recorded them twice (Etcetera and Explore). But Fukuma does include several previously overlooked or rejected pieces—a pair of charming, songlike, albeit ordinary miniatures for children; Lento in due movimenti, the unedited original version of Litany; and, most interestingly, a Romance from 1949, the composer’s earliest surviving piano work, which combines Japanese modes, elements of Impressionism, and a brusque urgency unheard in his later music. Given the fact that both the Serkin and Woodward discs are not presently available, Fukuma deserves strong consideration for both the quality of his playing and the opportunity to hear these rare pieces.
In 1980 the Queen Elisabeth Competition was played out in the context of the Cold War: the Russian candidates were absent, too many Soviet laureates having taken advantage of their success to cross to the other side of the Iron Curtain. The Americans therefore arrived confidant they would be giving a demonstration, yet this was to neglect the contribution of Japan, which had three laureates among the top four. And, a remarkable fact, all came from the teaching environment of their own country. Belgium was in delight as it discovered the winner of the competition that year: Yuzuko Horigome. She had already made a big impression during the semi-final, notably with her performance of a sonata by Ysaye that showed remarkable clarity and determination. This formidable musician of 22 years confirmed in the final this excellent impression with a magnificent Brahms' First Sonata performed in thoughtful silence. Her Sibelius Concerto galvanized the orchestra and roused the public to a passion for one of the very finest performances of this concerto in the history of the competition. Since this first success of an Asian laureate at the competition, Yuzuko Horigome has pursued a superb career in Europe and in her native country as a soloist yet also as a renowned teacher. Every day she shows that knowledge and talent, with regard to Western music, have been universal for a very long time.
The music gathered here originates in two sources. On one hand, it encompasses a great portion of the production of music for guitar with other instruments that composer Hebert Vázquez created over the years. On the other, it is the result of his extensive collaboration with extraordinary Japanese guitarist Norio Sato and the members of Nomad Ensemble.
This collaboration has led Vázquez to travel to Japan on several occasions and given him the opportunity to glimpse into its culture, as well as some of its countless artistic expressions. “My way of perceiving the world has been enriched by Hokusai, Hiroshige, Basho, Issa, Buson, and with the sounds of the biwa, the sakuhachi and koto” writes the composer.
The pieces that make up this album testify to this experience.
Bach: Cantatas Vol 25 / Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
BIS
CD
$21.99Jul 01, 2004
Volume 25 of Masaaki Suzuki's Bach cantata series arrived on my desk out of sequence, providing further proof of that old adage, "Better late than never"? The disc comes in a slipcase marked Jubilee Edition, along with a separate booklet containing a celebratory essay (in four languages), a slew of encomiums (none, unfortunately, from me), and, best of all, an index of the cantatas in the first 25 volumes, arranged in BWV order. One hopes that it will be updated periodically. Three superb cantatas, dating from September and October 1724, make this one of the most attractive volumes in the series. All three are cast in the chorale-cantata format with splendid opening choruses that further illustrate Bach?s endless ingenuity. Cantata 78 opens with an intensely expressive chaconne over a lamento bass that is sounded 27 times. (For numerology buffs, 27=3x3x3 or 33 is a representation of the Trinity.) BWV 99 has a more joyful feel, with chorus and orchestra alternating in concertante style. No. 114 projects an aura of strength and confidence, its choral statements punctuated by an energetic ritornello. All three cantatas also feature memorable arias for tenor with an obbligato traverse flute. Many observers have pointed out that Bach had a virtuoso flutist at his disposal at the time, but Klaus Hofmann?s notes suggest that a superior tenor soloist may have been available then as well. BWV 78, Jesu der du meine Seele, one of the most popular of all the cantatas, contains a duet for soprano and alto that qualifies as a ?Bach moment???a movement you might profitably play for an uninitiated listener who wants to know what the fuss over JSB is all about. Did I sense a hint of impatience in Suzuki?s pacing for No. 78? If so, it would be a rare blip in an epic venture that to date has maintained a remarkably and consistently high standard. Most highly recommended, nonetheless.
*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***
Here's another spectacular release from RCA Japan's Ormandy/Philadelphia edition, courtesy of Arkivmusic.com's "on demand" program. These are wonderful, truly Romantic performances featuring amazing playing, string sound that's beyond gorgeous, and interpretations that have a lot more subtlety than Ormandy usually gets credit for. The Seventh is particularly impressive, one of the finest versions available, full of tension in the outer movements, capped by a blazing coda that puts many other, better-known recordings to shame. Listen to the woodwinds cut through the full orchestra in the fortissimo counterstatement of the first movement's main theme without significant orchestral retouching; or notice the exciting transition to the scherzo's main section--there are many such distinctive moments here.
The Eighth is just as fine, and even better recorded, with more presence from the timpani and a bit more air around the instruments. In the first movement it's amazing to hear string playing with such incisive rhythm, particularly at the climaxes, and it's instructive to note how much passion this generates at a basically moderate tempo. The Adagio's exchanges between winds and strings couldn't be better timed; the third-movement waltz is, as you might imagine, the last word in sophisticated phrasing; and the scherzo-variations in the finale is a riot, with bright horn trills and, in the coda, a really vulgar (and totally apt) trumpet smear to cap the festivities. Ormandy also takes the violins up an octave just before the end, between those slashing final chords, arguably a more effective option than the Czech tradition of doubling them with horns. Hearing these performances again is like getting reacquainted with a best friend that you never should have lost touch with over the years.
