This disc makes an ideal introduction to Toru Takemitsu’s very beautiful and personal sound world. It’s particularly nice to have the three-movement suite of film music in between the larger concert works because it gives the entire program an additional dollop of stylistic contrast. As with Messiaen, Takemitsu’s music, when taken in large doses, can begin to sound monotonous. You basically know what it’s going to do after the first couple of minutes, and the only question is how long it’s going to do it. The most stop-and-start work in this respect is Spirit Garden, but as with most of this composer’s output, the dreamy, lush textures (lots of harp and soft percussion) combined with dissonant but curiously alluring harmony make each moment so aurally arresting that it’s pointless to complain. If you like it, just sit back and wallow.
The performances by the Bournemouth Symphony under Marin Alsop are very fine: well detailed, sensitive to dynamics, and most importantly of all, just about perfectly paced. So much of the success of this music depends on keeping it flowing, and that’s exactly what happens here. Dreamtime is hypnotic but not comatose, while A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden is particularly well done. Alsop is about a minute slower here than Ozawa (DG) or Otaka (BIS), and substantially more so than Iwaki (ABC Classics), but there’s no suggestion of sluggishness, and textural detail registers with admirable clarity and point. This latter work also has more internal contrast than the other pieces on the disc, and Alsop has caught the trick of giving the loud outbursts impact without undue harshness. Naxos’ engineering is excellent too. In sum, this is a welcome disc, a compelling tribute to one of the 20th century’s major musical voices.
