Toru Takemitsu
Spirit Garden / Orchestral Works

Listening to the music of Toru Takemitsu is like embarking on a long journey to distant lands and, once returned, seeing one's places of origin with different eyes. This Japanese composer makes us change perspective, and just hearing even a few passages of this double CD, "Spirit Garden - Orchestral Works", is enough to realize it. Takemitsu (1930-1996) performs a dual operation: he appropriates the language of modern Western music, and the most sophisticated instrument that this language and its tradition have produced, namely the orchestra. He offers a rigorous and personal interpretation of both, and for this reason, he becomes a significant composer.

All this is well represented in the two CDs released by the low-cost label Brilliant Classics, the same that published the complete works of Bach, Mozart, and others at a shockingly low price. A product of excellent craftsmanship and recording quality (despite costing as little as two packs of cigarettes...), it collects seven orchestral pieces by Toru Takemitsu, from the "Requiem" for strings in 1957 (his first international acclaim) to "Spirit Garden" for orchestra in 1994.

Almost two hours of music, just under, distinguished by the subtlety in orchestral treatment. Takemitsu's is a language of admirable refinement, which exalts the timbral possibilities of the orchestra in a thousand shades. It is not possible here to describe all the pieces in this collection, but at least two should be mentioned: "November Steps" from 1967 and "Gémeaux" from 1972/1986, united by the fact that they bring two pairs of solo instruments to the forefront: biwa and shakuhachi in the first case (essentially a lute and a bamboo flute), oboe and trombone in the second. Thus, typical instruments of the Japanese tradition are set in opposition to the Western orchestra (in "November Steps"); or the latter is split (in "Gémeaux") and the two twin orchestras seek dialogue with the solo instruments in opposition to each other.

Fascinating Takemitsu. In this music, perhaps due to his Eastern background, there are no harshnesses sometimes typical of the European avant-garde; but it is still a conscious and very modern language, which can offer satisfaction to those who want to venture into the most evocative territories of sound.