Naxos’ introductory collection of Japanese orchestral works assures the Western listener on its back cover that this music is indeed approachable and was admired or influenced by a wide range of European composers, including Stravinsky, Ravel, Ibert, Roussel, and Sibelius. Most of the representative composers featured here spent considerable time in Europe honing their skills–and it shows, even if some of the works sound a bit constrained in expression because of both the limitations imposed by the traditional Japanese pentatonic scale and the frequent appearance of basic A-B-A forms.
Four of the six works on this disc make ample use of Japanese folk melody. For instance, Toyama’s Rhapsody is made up entirely of various folk songs, each intoned separately from flute, trumpet, strings, and full brass complement. Similarly, Konoye’s Etenraku employs a melancholic adaptation of gagaku (traditional music of the Japanese Imperial court) as its musical source, and Ifukube (of Godzilla movie fame) imports Japanese festival music in the Fetes section of his Japanese rhapsody.
Perhaps the most beguiling work on this disc is the least Japanese in tonality. Yoshimatsu’s Threnody to Toki (which refers to a near-extinct crested ibis) is at once atmospheric, evocative, and highly impressionistic–a musical depiction of the bird via subtle harmonics in the strings, soaring, gliding, and singing. Even the sound of ruffled feathers is heard in the sul ponticello parts in the beginning.
Tony Faulkner (who seems to be everywhere these days) engineered this disc and is at his best in bringing out the energetic percussion and massed brass ensemble passages (which are thrilling, particularly at the end of Toyama’s Rhapsody and the romping, wildly fun Allegro of Akutagawa’s Music for Symphony Orchestra). At times, though, the orchestra seems a bit distant–but it is a barely detectable distraction for this often-engaging and commendable disc.
