Contemporary funeral music from Japan
Toshio Hosokawa (picture) composed a cello concerto in memory of the great Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu, who died in 1996. Takemitsu in turn composed funeral music for the city where Hosokawa was born in 1955. This Funeral Music belongs to the movie Black Rain, which director Shohei Imamura based on the novel Black rain by Musuji Ibuse, about the aftermath of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and its consequences for a young Japanese family.
Not deeply mournful, but very melancholic is the three-partCloud Scapes – Moon Night by Hosokawa, which concludes this episode of Contemporary Music. The part with accordion and sho, the Japanese miniature pipe organ played with the mouth, provides enchanting timbres.
- Toshio Hosokawa – Concerto for cello and orchestra ‘In memoriam Toru Takemitsu’
Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg conducted by Robert H.P. Platz
Rohan de Saran, cello - Toru Takemitsu – Funeral Music
I Fiamminghi conducted by Rudolf Werthen - Toshio Hosokawa – Cloud Scapes – Moon Night
Stefan Hussong, accordion
Mayumi Miyata, sho
