Seiji Ozawa / Toru Takemitsu
Ozawa = Takemitsu ‘69
RCA Red Seal (Japan) 1969
SX-2022 (LP) obi, booklet
sleeve : EX-(faint stains)
media : EX/EX(some areas with slight surface noise)
Released in 1969, this album features the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, led by music director Seiji Ozawa, performing four compositions by Japan's world-renowned master, Toru Takemitsu, written in the 1960s. Recorded at Massey Hall in Toronto, Yuji Takahashi participates on piano. A1 is a work for solo piano and orchestra, marking its premiere. A2 is a full orchestra piece commissioned by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in 1957. B1 was composed as "November Steps No. 2," a piece for traditional Japanese instruments like biwa and shakuhachi with orchestra, which Takemitsu was deeply exploring at the time. B2 is a string quartet commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation in 1966. Takemitsu's words in the booklet within the gatefold sleeve are striking: "It is foolish to adapt Japanese instruments Westernly with acoustic fetishism, it doesn't move things," and "The recognition that sound ultimately returns to a state of nothingness, like natural sound, lives on as a terrifying question beyond criticism."
A1: Asterism
B1: Green (November Steps No. 2)
Ozawa = Takemitsu ‘69
RCA Red Seal (Japan) 1969
SX-2022 (LP) obi, booklet
sleeve : EX-(faint stains)
media : EX/EX(some areas with slight surface noise)
Released in 1969, this album features the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, led by music director Seiji Ozawa, performing four compositions by Japan's world-renowned master, Toru Takemitsu, written in the 1960s. Recorded at Massey Hall in Toronto, Yuji Takahashi participates on piano. A1 is a work for solo piano and orchestra, marking its premiere. A2 is a full orchestra piece commissioned by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in 1957. B1 was composed as "November Steps No. 2," a piece for traditional Japanese instruments like biwa and shakuhachi with orchestra, which Takemitsu was deeply exploring at the time. B2 is a string quartet commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation in 1966. Takemitsu's words in the booklet within the gatefold sleeve are striking: "It is foolish to adapt Japanese instruments Westernly with acoustic fetishism, it doesn't move things," and "The recognition that sound ultimately returns to a state of nothingness, like natural sound, lives on as a terrifying question beyond criticism."
A1: Asterism B1: Green (November Steps No. 2)