Toru Takemitsu: Quotation of Dream (20/21 series) - London Sinfonietta / Oliver Knussen
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Music CD Cover
Performer: Toru TakemitsuPerformer: Oliver Knussen
Performer: Paul Crossley
Performer: Peter Serkin
Performer: London Sinfonietta
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 1999-02-09
Music Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Soundtracks:
- Day Signal
- Quotation of Dream
- How Slow the Wind
- Twill by Twilight
- Archipelago S.
- Dream/Window
- Night Signal
Free Music Notes for Toru Takemitsu: Quotation of Dream (20/21 series) - London Sinfonietta / Oliver Knussen
Free Music Review: A fine collection of late works and an ideal introduction
Hit: 5 Stars
QUOTATION OF DREAM is the first of Deutsche Grammophon's several collections of pieces by late Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, who thankfully has been getting ever-more attention since his untimely death in 1996. Takemitsu was a mainly self-taught composer, and because of this there seems to be little that connects him to his serialism- or minimalism-inspired colleagues. Nevertheless, Takemitsu's own path is fascinating, exploring Japanese and Western compositional principles in isolation and in combination and striving to transcend them both. These pieces, several of them related by shared thematic materials. are lovingly performed by the London Sinfonietta conducted by Oliver Knussen, who was a friend and admirer of Takemitsu.
The disc is framed by two antiphonal fanfares written in 1987, "Day Signal" and "Night Signal", together called "Signals from Heaven". They are closely related, both using dissonance to suggest the changing of the skies, but with one inverted from the other to suggest an opposite tone.
A quip of Takemitsu was "I am self-taught, but I consider Debussy my teacher." The first major work here, "Quotation of Dream - Say sea, take me!" (1991), is a tribute to Debussy using quotations from his "La Mer" as if the composer was trying to recreate the piece he had just woken up from dreaming. The title also refers to its use of some material from "Dream/Window", an earlier composition present on this disc. "Quotation of Dream" is a lovely tribute to the composer's greatest inspiration, but the majority of the work comes only from Takemitsu. His use of a zig-zag of harmony, of orchestral colour that comes forth and recedes like waves is nothing you have ever heard before in orchestral music.
"How Slow the Wind" (1991), inspired by a poem by Emily Dickinson, is rather more brooding. It's most interesting moments occur toward the end, when cascading woodwind sounds and the faintly mechanical notes of two Swiss cowbells transform the work into something different. This is one of Takemitsu's most impressive works,
"Twill by Twillight (in memory of Morton Feldman)" (1988) is an experiment with a musical "tapestry", where a theme "weaves" through the piece. The piece is pretty music, but does little to make itself memorable and for me remains the low point of this collection.
The title of "Archipelago S." for twenty-one players (1993) refers to the landscapes of Seattle, Stockholm, and the islands of the Sato Inland Sea . The piece has an innovative stage layout, with the players grouped into five "islands": a five-person brass group, two mixed seven-piece groups, a clarinet sitting to the right, and a clarinet sitting to the left. The effect is indeed somewhat nautical and this recording exploits the space well.
"Dream/Window" (1985) is probably the most important composition on this disc. Every note of this piece is of the greatest delicacy, and the work as a whole is so crystalline and fragile that one feels one will break it just by listening to it. Though Takemitsu's later works are impressive, they have never seemed to me to acheive the perfection of "Dream/Window". What is surprising is that this work is true twelve-tone music, yet with Takemitsu's skill it does not sound dull or scientific.
If you ever think that modern-classical music is written only by dispassionate ivory-tower robots like Pierre Boulez, the works of Takemitsu will show you that contemporary techniques can, under the right hands, touch the emotions as much as the intellect. While it takes some time to get used to (nearly six months for me), this is probably the single best introduction to the music of Toru Takemitsu. And one should certainly listen to this before getting the other DG "20/21" discs, which are rather more specialised (with, for example, one having traditional Japanese pieces and the other flute and guitar works).
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